Panna Cotta with Salted Caramel Sauce

Andrew and I are back from a whirlwind anniversary trip to Paris, and it was truly wonderful. We visited everything on our list and more. We're still going through the pictures, which will make their way to Facebook very soon. For our anniversary, June 16, Andrew took me to a beautiful little restaurant called A la Petite Chaise. Billed as the oldest restaurant in Paris (1680!), it specializes in simple but gourmet French cuisine. When I went to Paris with Grandmama in 2005, she took me here; my beloved cousin Julia went here on her trip with Grandmama as well, and revisited when she came back to Paris for her 25th birthday. My memories of Grandmama were very strong that day, especially since, a year before, Andrew and I chose to have our wedding on what would have been my grandparents' 56th anniversary--and in the same church.

Dinner at A la Petite Chaise was incredible, but the true stunner--for me--came with the dessert. Andrew ordered his first crême brûlée, and I ordered something called the café gourmand. It was a cup of strong French coffee (already a winner) with all these little desserts--bits and tastes of other things on the menu. I had a pistachio macaron, some chocolate, and this incredible panna cotta with salted caramel sauce. The waiter told me that I couldn't leave until I finished it. I told him that it was so good, there would be no problem. Andrew loved his crême brûlée, but he helped me with my panna cotta quite a bit!

When I came home, I instantly started looking for recipes. I think it came out really well. Maybe I've been watching a lot of Masterchef and Hell's Kitchen lately (I have) but I think Gordon Ramsay would approve. The only hard part is stirring the sugar as it becomes caramel, which can count as today's workout. I recommend watching some Gordon Ramsay cooking shows for motivation.

Panna Cotta, from David Lebovitz
Makes 8 servings.
This recipe recommends serving your panna cotta with berries, which is probably delicious as well. I might try it with some of my leftover panna cotta servings--except for the large quantity of leftover caramel sauce I'm dealing with. Why can't I ever bring myself to halve a recipe?

Pour 6 tablespoons cold water into a large bowl. Open 2 packets of unflavored gelatin and sprinkle the contents over the water. Let stand for 5-10 minutes.

In a saucepan, heat 4 cups heavy cream and 1/2 cup sugar. This can't be anything but good for you! Although the original recipe didn't specify, I used medium-high heat. You want it to be warm enough to dissolve the gelatin in a minute.

When the sugar is dissolved, take the cream and sugar off the burner and stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Then pour the warm cream mixture over the gelatin in the bowl and stir, stir, stir until the gelatin is all dissolved.

Pour the panna cotta into a serving cup, or into a lightly oiled custard cup if you want to unmold it onto the plate. I used some beautiful crystal wine glasses and didn't have to worry about unmolding anything. Place the panna cotta in the fridge for 2-4 hours.

Salted Caramel Sauce, from Two Peas & Their Pod
Makes about 3 cups
Bring all your ingredients together, turn up the volume on your Gordon Ramsay show of choice and get ready. I used a non-nonstick pan, the kind with an aluminum interior, because I was worried about burning my caramel and wanted to be able to see more clearly. You'll need:

2 cups sugar, in a saucepan
12 tablespoons butter, at room temperature and cut into pieces
1 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
A tablespoon (or less) of salt. They recommended fleur de sel, but Publix does not seem to  carry it.

Put the sugar on medium-high heat and keep an eye on it. Once it starts to melt, start whisking. It will start to clump up into beautiful pale caramel sugar cubes, but keep whisking and it will keep melting. I have literally no concept of how long it took. At some point, you will get a beautiful clear, smooth caramel that is a dark amber color. The original recipe said you want to hit 350 degrees. I only got as high as 300 degrees and that was plenty for me. Like I said, I didn't want to burn this thing. Then I started adding the butter a few pieces at a time. This is fun because it bubbles up like the lava of Mount Doom in some Candyland-LOTR mashup. Whisk the butter in so it melts. Once all the butter is melted and mixed, take it off the heat.

Then slowly drizzle in the heavy cream for more caramely-Mount Doom bubbling. Keep whisking and add the salt at the end. Let it cool a few minutes before pouring it into your jar/wherever you are keeping it.

To serve with panna cotta, heat the caramel sauce for 30 seconds in the microwave and drizzle over the panna cotta just before serving.

Enjoy!

Our Disney adventures

I have been trying to blog more--or at least to blog more than once every six months. I've got to admit, though, this is hard. When I started this blog (in its glory days, if you will), I was unemployed and full of the kind of joy that comes from realizing that if you watch the Olympics on your laptop, you can keep watching gymnastics no matter where you are cooking or folding laundry. Suffice it to say, I needed something to do. This is the same malaise that prompted Lilly Pulitzer (RIP) to start a juice stand and then a wildly successful fashion company. I am not that good at sewing.

So I started blogging, and soon afterward my life became so much busier. I started working; Andrew and I started leaving town on the weekends (a habit that we just can't seem to shake); and in January I started taking part-time classes for my MBA.

Life is busy now. I used to start the day by pulling all my cookbooks off the shelf and deciding what I wanted to make for dinner. Now, I'm lucky if I eat something that isn't pasta cooked at 9:00 at night after I get home from class. (Seriously though, guys, spaghetti tossed in olive oil, chopped garlic and red pepper flakes is super simple and delicious. Add Parmesan cheese to show you mean business.) However, I miss blogging, so I'm going to try to take this into a more personal direction. What's more personal than eating? you ask. Well, nothing is, but maybe my trademark gift for wit will carry us through the days I don't take pictures of my food. Inspired by this new mysterious blog by someone I sure wish were my BFF in real life, I'm going to try to post adventures and life updates in addition to your favorite recipes.

Today's adventure is happy, because I've actually been feeling pretty down most of the day and I think positivity will help. Andrew and I went to Disney this weekend to celebrate our anniversary. Yes, it's two weeks away, but we're still celebrating and it was the last weekend we could use up our Florida resident passes. We got "Happy Anniversary" buttons at the entrance to Epcot on Friday and people were wishing us a happy anniversary left and right, both cast members and other guests. When we got to the America pavilion, an older man in a suit pulled us into a side room, saying "Someone from Disney wants to speak to you." Andrew thought he was going to get in trouble for that apple pie he grabbed at lunch before abandoning it at the drink station. Turns out it was Mickey and Minnie, who he put on speakerphone to sing Happy Anniversary to us! He also gave us a personalized certificate wishing us a happy anniversary from Disney. But things really picked up when we got to Italy, where these street performers pulled us into the spotlight and re-enacted our wedding! I will say, although our flower girls were very sweet in their Minnie Mouse ears, our actual flower girl, Margaret, was cuter. Andrew and I never get picked for audience participation and we were very excited. Finally, for dinner we got fish and chips from England--and were joined at our table by a couple celebrating their 47th anniversary! They are from California but are originally Dutch. They were truly lovely people and we were all so excited to have run into each other.

We met Alice after dinner!

Tuna Salad
Today's recipe, if you can call it that, is a tuna salad I invented at 7:35 this morning. I love having celery in my tuna salad, but the celery in the fridge had gone all limp and gross. If I'd listened to Pinterest and stored it standing upright in a glass of water instead of, you know, in the vegetable crisper with other vegetables, I wouldn't have this problem. But I went ahead and opened my can of tuna, and I brainstormed what else to throw in. (Andrew prefers just tuna with mayonnaise but quite frankly I can't handle mayonnaise in that kind of leading role.) So I did mix in the mayo to what I consider normal proportions, but then I added a little bit (maybe 1/4 teaspoon) of honey mustard dressing and about 1 teaspoon relish.

Inspired. I don't even normally like mustard and relish, but it added the flavor dimension and texture my tuna needed. I brought it in to work in its own little container (to avoid sogging) and toasted the bread before I made my sandwich. Side dishes were a key lime pie Yoplait and an apple. See, I told you my everyday meals aren't all that exciting...

Tortellini Minestrone

Okay, this is possibly my favorite soup of all time.

My beloved mom gave me the America's Test Kitchen cookbook Soups, Stews and Chilis for my birthday. There are still so many recipes I need to try out, but this one is so good that I just keep making it. It's perfect for lunches and lasts me about a week. It's so flavorful and, of course, you can always mix up the ingredients depending on what you have on hand. Andrew normally doesn't find soup to be filling enough for a meal, but he loves this one.

On ingredients: The cookbook says you should use fresh (not frozen or dried) tortellini and fresh (not canned) pesto. I broke both rules because I couldn't find either. I used dried tortellini and just cooked it separately and added it after the zucchini since it didn't really need to cook.

Tortellini Minestrone, serves 4 to 6

Chop 2 slices of bacon into small pieces. Cook it in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until rendered and crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. (I've also skipped this step and cooked the carrots and onion in bacon grease, which is faster.)

Peel and cut 2 carrots and 1 medium onion. Stir them into the bacon and cook until softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Meanwhile, mince 3 garlic cloves. Stir in the garlic and 1 teaspoon dried oregano and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. (If you have fresh oregano, use 1 tablespoon minced oregano.)

Stir in 3 1/2 cups chicken broth, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in 2 1/2 cups V8 vegetable juice and a 15-ounce can of small white beans (drained and rinsed) and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the beans have heated through, about 10 minutes.

Cut 1 zucchini into manageable pieces. Stir in 9 oz cooked tortellini and zucchini and continue to simmer until they are tender, 5 to 7 minutes.

Dollop individual portions with pesto and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese before serving.

Jack Daniel's Salmon

I started summer classes last night, and Andrew was nice enough to make dinner. He made Jack Daniel's Salmon, one of my favorites. Plus it's super-easy: he made the marinade after work, let the salmon sit and cooked it in the oven when I got home. Last night we had it with couscous and green beans. These pictures are from our one-month anniversary, when we made a salad with mandarin oranges and uncooked Ramen noodles. Yum!

I know my recent posts make it look like I am obsessed with bourbon, but I promise this is just a super-good salmon recipe. I've loved it since I was little. You really do want it with couscous so it can absorb all the marinade.

Jack Daniel's Salmon

1 cup Jack Daniel’s (or other bourbon)

½ cup soy sauce

2 rounded Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated finely

8 cloves garlic, sliced

4 Tablespoons brown sugar

½ cup olive oil

2 Tablespoons Grey Poupon mustard

Mix ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes. Cool.

When the marinade is cool, pour over up to 3 pounds of salmon. Marinate for at least an hour and up to 2 hours. Salmon can be simmered with marinade, skin side up, on top of the stove for 10-15 minutes, or baked at 375 for 20-25 minutes, until flesh is firm. Do not crowd salmon in pan as it will extend cooking time and dry out salmon near the edges of the pan.

Spoon some of the marinade and the caramelized garlic over the salmon to serve.

Derby Pie: Chocolate, Pecans and Bourbon, Oh My!

The Great Gatsby came out this weekend. Like everyone else in the world, I read it in high school and loved it. I especially remember wondering what a mint julep was--they seemed to always be drinking mint juleps! When I went off to W&L, mint juleps were a spring term tradition. Alumni weekend usually fell on Derby weekend, two forces conspiring for fraternity boys to descend upon the Lexington Kroger and clear it out of mint.

Last weekend, Andrew and I made plans to make mint juleps and watch the Kentucky Derby. So I made derby pie. It is the perfect, almost sinful combination of chocolate, pecans and bourbon. I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe almost exactly--aside from swapping pecans for walnuts, because pecans are better. Otherwise, it was perfect. You get a pretty strong taste of bourbon, which I love. The consistency of the pie would still be good if you left out the bourbon, but why would you do that?

Derby Pie from America's Test Kitchen
The star chefs at America's test kitchen recommend refrigerating and then freezing your crust before you bake it. I didn't do this, and I think it turned out fine. I would use pie weights if you have them. (I didn't, but my crust puffed up so much I finally went to Bed Bath & Beyond and dropped $5 on some ceramic weights the next day!)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cover your chilled pie crust with parchment paper and pie weights. I used my homemade pie crust (recipe here). Bake 20-25 minutes or until the dough doesn't look wet. Remove pie from oven, take off parchment paper and weights, and reduce temperature to 325 degrees.

Chop 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate into small pieces. Sprinkle the chocolate on the bottom of the hot crust and let it sit and melt. After 5 minutes, spread the chocolate into an even layer.

Cut 1 stick unsalted butter into small pieces. Melt it in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until butter is a nutty brown. Remove from heat and slowly stir in 3 tablespoons bourbon. Let cool 5 minutes.

Whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add 2 large eggs plus 1 yolk and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Slowly add the warm butter mixture.

Chop 1 1/2 cups walnuts or pecans. (America's Test Kitchen says to toast the nuts first; I didn't and thought they were still delicious.) Add nuts to the mixture and pour the whole filling into the chocolate-lined crust. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until center only jiggles a little. Cool on a wire rack for 4 hours, or in the fridge.

Candied Grapefruit Peel

We're moving toward Advent: a time to feather your nest, play John Rutter and cook up a storm. So today I'm sharing another Christmas classic: candied grapefruit peel. It takes something you'd normally throw away and makes it so delicious. My auntie Flo suggests dipping it in dark chocolate, but I love it plain. It's definitely a motivation to eat your grapefruit in the morning--Andrew and I have been saving our empty grapefruit halves in a Ziplock bag in the fridge. You could also make it with oranges, or really any citrus. Mommy helped Andrew and me make our first batch, seven grapefruits' worth, when she and Daddy were here a few weeks ago. Mommy always says that it is even more precious because of all the work that goes into it!

I'm posting the version of the recipe that Mommy wrote up a few years ago because it is full of her wisdom.

Candied Grapefruit Peel
This recipe comes from the original Joy of Cooking but obviously, it's much older. I love how it uses something you'd otherwise throw away (or compost).

Slice grapefruit peel into thin slices and remove all the pith (the white part). I use a small paring knife for this and it takes forever. A good movie and/or a glass of wine (or homemade egg nog) helps.

Cover peel with cold water and bring slowly to a boil. Drain thoroughly. Repeat 5 times. This removes the bitterness of the peel.

The peel, ready to go in the sugar syrup

Make a sugar syrup using 1/4 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar for the peel of one grapefruit or two oranges.

Boil the peel in the syrup until all syrup is absorbed. Cool slightly. Roll in granulated sugar and spread to dry. This part has to be done pretty quickly because if you let the syruped peel cool too much you can't spread it.

Sugared peel can be dipped in chocolate if desired.

Keeps a long time in a tin but a very short time in a dish (because you'll be eating it!).

Egg Nog

It's time for one of my favorite Christmas traditions: egg nog. Growing up, Harrison and I were stuck with  the storebought fake stuff--we'd thin it with milk to make it taste better. But now we're allowed to have the real stuff, from the milk gallon marked EGG NOG. It tastes like joy and happiness and sitting by the fire on Christmas Eve with cookies and friends before you head to the third service at church. It's a very old family recipe: Auntie Nette has the recipe written in my great-great-great grandmother Jane Paxon Ely Bailey's own hand.

 The original recipe calls for a dozen eggs, but since salmonella is a thing, we've been using Egg Beaters.

Andrew and me before Christmas Weekend his senior year!

 If you don't like egg nog--or, worse, if you think that storebought stuff mixed with rum is yummy--you must try this recipe. Instead of being thick and gross, it's light and airy and creamy and spiced and amazing. Andrew didn't think he liked egg nog until I made it for him his senior year; he's made it every Christmas since. Actually, we went ahead and made some while I was baking my pecan pie the Tuesday before Thanksgiving... we deserved it!

Andrew gave me a Jefferson cup with my future monogram last Christmas for my egg nog!

Egg Nog (my third-great-grandmother's recipe)
If you're using whole eggs (or just the yolks): Separate the yolks from the whites in 1 dozen eggs. Beat yolks with 12 Tablespoons sugar until very light. Beat whites in a flat dish.

If you're using Egg Beaters: Mix together 1 dozen egg-equivalent with 12 Tablespoons sugar.

Mix 9 oz. cognac and 4 1/2 oz. rum in a pitcher. Pour liquor very slowly into yolks (or Egg Beaters), stirring until well mixed. Pour in 1 quart milk, 1 pint light cream and 1 pint whipping cream. Add allspice, cloves and nutmeg to taste. Pour in egg whites (if separated) at the end. I like to sprinkle some nutmeg on top before serving.