Archive for September, 2008

End of Summer Corn Chowder

Published
by
jillian
on September 6, 2008
in Recipes and Soups
. 2 Comments

DSC_2998, originally uploaded by jasonrr.

Late summer local corn is like the consolation price at the end of the season. I hate that sense that school is starting and less free time is on the horizon. Just about every year around this time, I make some variety of corn chowder. Usually it involves shrimp, but I decided to start this chowder off with bacon because it was what I had in my freezer at the moment. I love the smokiness that it added. I used cipolli onions because they happened to have them at the farmer’s market. You could replace them with shallots or yellow onions.
We had this with a simple heirloom tomato, basil and balsamic vinegar salad and more of that fabulous Bread Alone whole grain baguette. It was the perfect end of summer meal.

4 strips of bacon
4 small cipolini onions
2 carrots chopped
2 stalks of celery
4 ears worth of corn removed from the cob
1 clove finely chopped garlic
4 Yukon Gold potatoes, dice 3 ½ and grate the other 1/2
½ cup good quality sherry
1 tsp fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup water
1 quart chicken stock
½ cup heavy cream
1 tbsp fresh chopped dill

Cook the bacon in a large sauce pot adding a tablespoon of olive oil if the bacon in very lean. Remove the crisp bacon and drain on paper towel. Add the chopped onion and an additional tablespoon of olive oil. Sautee until the onions are translucent then add the carrots and corn. Cook for about 5 minutes and add the corn and garlic. Add three and a half of the potatoes and sherry and allow the alcohol to cook off for 2 minutes. Add the water, chicken stock, thyme, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and add the grated potato. Allow the soup to simmer for at least an hour.

About fifteen minutes before serving stir in the cream, reserved bacon and fresh dill.

Raspberry Chocolate Pavlova

Published
by
jillian
on September 3, 2008
in Dessert and Recipes
. 5 Comments

DSC_3002, originally uploaded by jasonrr.

I have always wanted to make a Pavlova. I love meringue, berries and whipped cream and combining them seemed like a natural idea. For my birthday over the weekend I decided to give it a try. This post could also be titled “How I used the leftovers from making éclairs”. I had four egg whites left over, some pastry cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce, all of which found a home in this dessert.

I had read some conflicting things about temperatures for baking Pavlovas. I found that this recipe from Joy of Baking worked out perfectly, and I will definitely be using it again. The outside was lightly crisp and the inside was marshmallowy.

To top the Pavlova, I combined about ¾ cup of pastry cream with about ½ cup of whipped cream. If I didn’t have the pastry cream on hand, I would have just used whipped cream. In fact, I did add a layer of whipped cream on top of the pastry cream because I thought the yellow tinge of the pastry cream looked kind of unappealing next to the meringue. Things like this drive me nuts. Anyway, on top of this I added about a pint and a half of raspberries. Over the raspberries, I drizzled the chocolate sauce. I have to say this was pretty damn perfect and better than most birthday cakes.

Zucchini Lasagna with Grilled Eggplant

Published
by
jillian
on September 2, 2008
in Dinner and Recipes
. 3 Comments

DSC_2893, originally uploaded by jasonrr.

Back to my regularly scheduled zucchini programming. I was inspired by a post I saw over on A Good Appetite where slices of zucchini replaced noodles in a lasagna. I decided to go a vegetarian route and incorporate an eggplant that I had on hand and ricotta cheese. I didn’t cook the zucchini prior to baking, but I did lightly grill the eggplant. Although I AWAYS have canned tomatoes on hand, when I went to take a can out there was none to be had. I did have fresh tomatoes, garlic and some vegetable juice thus a sauce was born.

This tasted great, and we really didn’t miss the noodles. The zucchini did release quit a bit of water as it baked but it didn’t affect anything after it was served.
The bread pictured is from Bread Alone in upstate NY. We just love their stuff, especially the while grain baguettes. Perfect for garlic bread!

For the sauce:
1 onion
2 pints cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 chopped red or green pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups of vegetable juice
3 tbsp fresh basil
1 tbsp fresh parsley

Sautee the onion in olive oil. When translucent add tomatoes and peppers add garlic and cook for another minute. Add vegetable juice and ground pepper. Simmer for 20 minutes and taste for salt. Add the fresh basil and parsley just before using.

For the lasagna:
I alternated layers of raw zucchini, grilled eggplant, sauce and ricotta (to this I added 1 egg, chopped basil, 1tsp garlic powder and salt and pepper) and topped it with a fresh sliced tomato. I basked this for about 1 hour 15 minutes until it was bubbly and the top was slightly browned.