The culinary lifestyle as art.
Thanksgiving is right around the corner and holiday planning is in overdrive. I was commissioned by Pillsbury to come up with some food ideas for the classic Pillsbury Crescent Rolls. I remember loving these as child. They are a great medium as short cut if you are really not baking inclined.
Here is another recipe I developed , incorporating Old El Paso Traditional Refried Beans.These Latin inspired hand pies, empanada’s, can be filled with many sweet and savory fillings.Using Old El Paso Refried beans with chicken and cheese add an extra creaminess. I used premade empanada dough discs , which can be found in the Latin food freezer section in specialty supermarkets. You can also use a basic premade refrigerated pie dough. Or if you have the time, patience, and skill, try making your own empanada dough. Either way your guests will enjoy these snacks, or even a meal in one. Play with sizes to determine your portions or style of serving. The accompanying sauce has a zesty coolness of cilantro and lime. Perfect for dipping.
Empanada’s can be baked or fried. In this recipe I fried them. If you fry at the optimal temperature( around 350 degrees minimum), the result is perfect and food is not greasy. I love how frying blisters the dough and makes it perfectly crunchy and flakey. If you choose to bake your empanada, bake in 400 degree oven for 15 minutes on a silicone mat lined baking sheet. Be sure to brush tops with a bit of oil.
So you see the methods and options for empanada’s are endless. Savory, sweet, vegan, meat filled. Enjoy. And remember using a product like Old El Paso Refried beans adds more creaminess and goes with a multitude of filling options.
The other day I was in Stanley’s and saw a nice punnet of kumquat’s staring at me. Do you look at some foods and think back to your first taste, which may or may not have been pleasant? That’s how I felt with kumquat’s. I wanted to love the cute miniature citrus fruit , but a distant memory of just eating one raw off someones little tree, as child always held me back. Well I’m a big girl now, 43 years of age, to be exact and it was time to acquaint myself with Kumquats again. Surely if I cooked them down to a confit , almost candy like, they will go down well? And yes they did. Talk about a burst of sunshine and citrus finished with a hint of bourbon and cinnamon. The kumquats picked me up and tickled my tongue, as I ate it on hot buttered bread and black coffee. Preserved kumquat’s are better than orange marmalade in my opinion.The flavor more pronounced, as it’s really all concentrated in the peel.
Certain Someone is not a big jam , preserve type. He loves his charcuterie, black coffee , good bread and butter on lazy weekend mornings. So while I made a small batch, I wanted more applications for my confit. I had small sheets of commercial puff pastry in my freezer and nuts in the cupboard.
I took my kitchen shears and cut up a small amount of the candid kumquats to smaller pieces, as the confit was made from kumquat halves. I spread them over the defrosted puff pastry, added a mixture of pistachios and raw sugar which had been blended to a coarse crumb, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I then carefully rolled them up on either end, to meet in the middle. The rolls were sliced and dipped in more of the pistachio sugar crumb and baked on a parchment lined baking sheet at 375 degrees until golden. Careful not to burn the bottoms as the sugars from the confit and sugar crumb will caramelize. Remove from oven and let cook. You will have a nice tea or coffee time snack.
It’s been radio silent for a month or so here at Coco Cooks. Since the New Year , I haven’t been primarily busy with catering, but more holding down the day job, and moving into a new home. The catering business is slow, but picking up for spring. Certain Someone has taken the plunge and purchased a fabulous town home for us. After a decade in my spacious yet cluttered condo, I should have known better. Moving is hard work and cleaning up afterwards to prep your home for rental even harder. It’s like erasing a decade. I purchased that home with the money my Mother left me after her death. It was the biggest decision I ever made . I took care of my father there for a while. It wasn’t ideal for either of us, but he got stronger and was well cared for until his death. So the house was filled with a little sorrow, but joy as well. It served a s the place where I really came of age on my own.The old condo was comforting and cozy. Then I met Certain Someone. It wasn’t our intention to move in together, as I just never really believed in it. But circumstances happen, and we did, and never looked back. It worked for both of us. But two people who have led full lives, tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. Life was just getting cluttered. Certain Someone yearned to be up North in the Lincoln Park area, and now here we are.
I love the new town house. It has four stories and full of light. The chefs kitchen is huge, with a large pantry to hold my many appliances and dry goods. The cabinets are ample. I have a double oven. Now my very used kitchen, looks manageable. It’s a show kitchen, but a practical one that will get its workout. I can house my catering supplies , cake decorating and crafting supplies and equipment in the garage for storage, out of site. My favorite part is rooftop terrace where I like to enjoy a morning coffee or late night drink in the sun. I have such plans for the terrace. Some container gardening and a new Weber gas grill to entertain. Certain Someone is proud as a peacock. He did good and I’m glad he purchased this home with the thoughts of what features would make me happy as well. Now I just pray I can get a tenant in the old place.
I’ve been cooking , but resorting to old favorites, and nothing really to write about. Plus with Weight Watchers, it hasn’t made for much I want to share. I have lost 10 lbs thus far with Weight Watchers and another 10 prior since January. So a total of 20 lbs.With the move, I’m cognizant of what I’m eating but not so careful to count the points and as many days we we just grabbed what and where we could in transition. But its a lifestyle, and very easy to hope back onto. The four flights of stairs keep me leaner too.
So what am I doing about to show you a decadent pie? Well I need to keep my baking skills up and Easter is approaching. I’ve been hearing everyone rave about Lucky Peach Magazine , and I went on Amazon and got issues 2 and 3 to see what all the hype was about. When Certain Someone and I were on a New York a few years back, I led him to a David Chang restaurant. Good, but too hipster for him and he hated the fact he had to wait in line and eat elbow to elbow at the bar. I hear everyone rave about Chang’s Pastry Chef Christina Tosi from Milk Bar. From what I’ve seen and heard of her desserts, she likes to use things like cornflakes, potato chips, and other processed things. But sneering or not, she is creative and has the chops and technique. So I was immediately captivated by her recipes in the Sweet Spot Issue 2. Now mind you , I’ve just moved , and as it was bound to happen, while I thought I had everything needed for the recipe, I didn’t. So I made a few more substitutions than planned. Tosi’s recipe is for a simple yet complex Banana Cream Pie made with bananas, aged funky and sweet. Well I didn’t have days to wait and I’m impulsive. The markets in my new neighborhood , don’t have a discount rotting produce rack, like some other ones I know. But I did find some ripe bananas that weren’t too starchy. I decided to mix it up with a very ripe mango . Tosi adds food color for a cartoon like yellow, because the real color is more starchy white and gluelike. With the mango, I had a nice orange tint, but still added some golden food color. I was out of butter( Quel horror) and cheated and used butter flavored vegetable shortening for the chocolate crumb. Christina is very fussy and picky in her recipe writing, because she wants us to get it right. But I was confident in my baking ability to throw some caution to the wind and sub where I needed to. I even ran out of whipping cream, and chilled up some evaporated milk for the final stage to whip. Don’t laugh. It didn’t help that the recipe layout was a bit confusing ( the next page read bottom to top, rather than top to bottom)and I ended up using more cream in my cooked custard, and thereby depleting what I needed for the final stage of whipping.This Cream Pie process , reminded me more of the cooked banana pudding base my mother used to make . So how did it turn out? Naturally with substitutions the recipe is seriously compromised. But what I got was a great pie , on the runnier side. I solved that dilemma by freezing it. Once frozen, and cut, the slices thawed into a nice creamy custard. In pastry workshops I’ve taken, most pastry components are always frozen to yield perfect assembly . This pie will do on a nice warm day on on your Easter Table. That’s what a good cook should be able to do. Turn around and save a situation. I will give you my variation of how I made this pie, loosely inspired by Christina Tosi of Milk Bar .
Well a New Year, 2012 , is upon us! Life has been good,but at times trying this past year. All in all 2011 forced change for the good. I can say I’m a sweeter peaceful place than I was previous years. The money may be slightly less, but the happiness is there, and I no longer feel my creativity is being stifled.I’m with people that value my work, talent and contributions. I’m blossoming. It’s the best feeling to have clients call you and want to pay for your food ans services. As things like universal laws take hold , naturally there is always some wrench thrown at you to see if you will halt in progress and determination. As I type this I’m waiting for the glass repair people to come for the second time in two weeks to replace a busted window on my new car ( which I purchased for the new job and catering gigs). The pathetic hoodlums can try all they want.I will continue dust myself off and pick myself up. In the meantime their misdeeds allow me to share with you a recipe that’s full of happiness and sunshine, while I wait for the repair guys. See… making sunshine out of darkness.
The other day at work I came across a doughnut pan by accident.It was fate. I had seen them but never put it on my list. Now that we will moving soon to a bigger place with tons of pantry space, I justified the purchase and got it. Certain Someone is moving us to the North Side. The next few months will be busy. Anyway I played around cake doughnuts recipes, but really wanted a yeast recipe that could be baked. I was led here and decided to use this , but baked. In hind site I see this idea of baked pineapple upside down doughnut would probably be amazing in a cake doughnut version. But for now ,we are going with the yeast version. I love this concoction because it’s not really overly sweet. The pineapple is finished with a torch for optimal caramelizing. With the yeast doughnut, the pineapple sits more atop the fully doughnut, whereas with the cake version, I believe the pineapple would have sank in more and imbedded itself.
Have you entered my giveaway for a Artisan Basket from Creminelli? What are you waiting for?
