Ricotta Walnut Tart

 

I’m resolved to cooking a turkey every year for sake of tradition, but it’s the side dishes and desserts (except pumpkin pie because I don’t care much for that) that make the Thanksgiving dinner I gladly prepare each year special to me. 

They can eat the turkey and pumpkin pie while I savor a piece (or two) of this wonderful dessert tart that I dress up when I make it again for Christmas by adding chopped candied orange peel. 

Ricotta Walnut Tart
1 cup walnut pieces
2/3 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
5 eggs, separated
finely grated rind of 1 orange
2/3 cup whole milk ricotta cheese, room temperature
6 tbsp flour
4 tbsp apricot jam
2 tbsp brandy
2oz  semi-sweet chocolate, shaved

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease and line the bottom of a 9″ spring form pan.

Roughly chop and toast the walnuts in a dry sauté pan.  Set aside to cool. 

Cream together the butter and 1/2 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, orange rind, ricotta cheese, flour and walnuts. Mix together.

Beat the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff. Gradually whisk in the remaining sugar. Fold a quarter of the egg whites into the ricotta mixture, then fold in the rest.

Turn the mixture into the prepared spring form pan and bake for about 30 minutes until risen and firm. Leave the cake to cool in the pan.

Transfer the cake to a serving plate and heat the apricot jam in a small saucepan with 1 tbsp water. Press through a sieve and stir in the brandy. Coat the top and sides of the cake with the brandy mixture. Top with chocolate shavings.

Dry Brine Turkey

I’m already on record as a pumpkin pie hater, I might as well publicly announce I feel the same way about turkey. I understand how people are inspired by the look of a gargantuan perfectly browned Norman Rockwell bird as the centerpiece of a holiday meal. I just don’t understand how so many folks actually like the taste and general lack of moistness of the darned things. I much prefer roasting a large capon (always juicy and tender), but cave into peer pressure every couple of years and give turkey another try.

I’ve had turkey prepared in every way imaginable-injected & deep fried, smoked, crock-pot cooked, spatchcocked & grilled…and with every imaginable spice combo on earth. To date, I’ve only found one way to make a turkey palatable and that would be brining. But not wet brining in an unwieldy vat of salt water, but dry brining.

Brining works this way…soaking in a salt water solution draws the moisture out of the bird initially but then is reabsorbed into the cells of the flesh, seasoning and moisturizing during the process. The salt works to make the turkey retain water as it roasts. The scientific name for this is diffusion and osmosis. I also feel that dry brining improves the texture of the meat (unlike wet brining). Dry brining is easier and far less messy than the current darling of cooking shows, wet brining. The recipe and dry brining technique are straightforward. This is the method I use and I highly recommend it (unless you are roasting a nice plump already juicy capon):

Dry Brined Roast Turkey

For a 12 pound “natural” whole thawed turkey (not Kosher which is already salted) you will need

½ cup kosher or sea salt

2 tablespoon granulated white sugar

(optional but definitely not needed-seasonings such as garlic, herbs, spices, citrus peel, wine, etc.)

Thaw, wash and dry the turkey with paper towels well. Combine the salt and sugar and gently work about a teaspoon under the skin of each breast and thigh as far as possible without tearing the skin.  I carefully use the blunt end of a wooden spoon handle to gently separate the skin from the meat to reach way under the skin. Rub another teaspoon all over the outside of the bird and evenly sprinkle the remainder in the cavity.

Place on a rack, loosely covered with plastic wrap in a large pan (the pan you will be roasting the bird in will do) for 12-24 hours.

To roast, rinse the bird well inside and out under cool water to remove the excess salt and dry the skin and cavity very well with paper towels. The dryer the skin, the crisper the skin will become. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and tuck the tips of the wings under the bird. Rub the bird all over with softened butter. Place the unstuffed bird in a 425 degree oven on a rack and roast for 30 minutes.

After the first 30 minutes, lower the heat to 350 degrees and baste every 30 minutes with additional butter or pan drippings for approximately 2-3 hours or until the internal temperature taken in the thickest part of the thigh registers 165 degrees on a meat thermometer;  juices from inside the cavity will have no trace of pink. Don’t rely on that pop-up thermometer that comes with your turkey.

Remove the turkey from the oven, place on a large platter, uncovered, to rest while you make gravy with the pan drippings. Resting allows the meat juices to redistribute and makes carving easier.

Horseradish

There’s nothing photogenic about horseradish. The leaves of the plant are large and coarse, the roots are gnarly and the grated root is a nondescript shade of pale. But what it lacks in appearance is more than compensated in its powerful punch. 

In the same botanic family as broccoli, cabbage, wasabi and mustard, the fiery flavor of horseradish is concentrated in the root. When grated, enzymes produce allyl isothiocyanate (mustard oil), the chemical that makes horseradish so interesting. 

Fresh horseradish root (called Meerrettich in German) is a tough customer to deal with. I can recall when I was young seeing my father, uncles and grandfather in my grandmother’s basement with scarves tied around their mouths and noses, eyes watering and choking as they grated the horseradish roots that my grandmother grew in her garden that she combined with vinegar, salt and sugar that would be served with holiday meals.

Basic “prepared” horseradish as it it sold in stores can be freshly made with the aid of a food processor. Fresh horseradish root is available in the produce department of most major supermarkets. 

Basic Prepared Horseradish

8-10-inch long piece of horseradish root

2 Tbsp water

1 Tbsp white vinegar

½ tsp white sugar

Pinch salt

Peel the root and chop into small chunks. Place in a bowl of a food processor with the water and process till a fine mash is formed…warning–stand back when opening the bowl of the food processor since it’s when the root is damaged that the gas is released. Add the vinegar, sugar and salt. Pulse again in the processor till well combined. Remove from the processor, place in a glass jar with a lid. Refrigerated, prepared horseradish will keep it’s heat for a couple of weeks. Great as is as a condiment with meat or added to salad dressings, dips and Bloody Mary cocktails.

My all time favorite holiday meal is a beef rib roast that I briefly dry age myself and roast to perfection and nothing goes better with it than this dressed up horseradish cream that also works well with ham, on baked potatoes and as a topping for chilled steamed broccoli.

Whipped Horseradish Cream

8 ounces cold heavy whipping cream

¼ cup sour cream

3-4 tablespoons prepared horseradish

few drops of white vinegar

pinch of sugar

2 very finely minced green onions (white part only)

In a cold bowl whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in the sour cream, horseradish, vinegar, sugar and green onions. Taste for seasoning and add additional salt if desired. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate till serving time.

Mayocoba (Canary) Beans

 

The Mayocoba, or Canary Bean, was named after a small village in Mexico where this new version of an old Incan bean was developed. They are light yellow when dry but when briefly soaked and cooked turn white. About the same size as a pinto bean the interior is creamy with a very tender outer skin which tends to make them easier to digest than other types of small beans. They keep their shape well when cooked for long periods of time in spite of being so tender. Since discovering Mayobcoba beans, I use them in all of my recipes that call for white beans or pinto beans and have come to prefer them because of the buttery, tender texture. They make outstanding baked beans, refried beans and my favorite cold weather soup, bean soup with ham.

Mayocoba Bean Soup

1 ½ cups Mayocoba beans (any white bean will also work well)

1 T olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 celery ribs, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 cups low sodium chicken broth or plain water

1 ham bone

1 bay leaf

½ cup cream sherry

Place the beans in a pot with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil & let boil for 2 minutes. Turn off heat, cover & let sit for at one hour. Drain, rinse & set aside.

In a large soup pot heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic & ham. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables become translucent. Add the beans, ham bone, bay leaf and enough broth or water to cover the beans by ½ inch. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover & simmer for 1-2 hours or until the beans are tender adding additional liquid if needed (some beans require more liquid than others). During the last 5 minutes of simmering add the sherry.

(NOTE: This can also be cooked in a pressure cooker with excellent results. Process for 35-45 minutes according to your pressure cooker’s instructions.)

Remove the ham bone and add any meat on the bone to the soup. Serve hot with corn bread or corn muffins.

 

Buchty

Warm up your weekend kitchen with these Eastern European pull-apart breakfast yeast rolls filled with jam or preserves. Buchty (pronounced booktee) can be made in less than 2½ hours or the dough can be made a day in advance and refrigerated. Just bring the dough to room temperature before shaping and filling with the jam, let rise and bake as directed in the recipe below

Buchty

2 cups milk, lukewarm
1 cup sugar
1 package yeast (instant or regular)
1 tablespoon salt
3 eggs
8 ounces butter, melted
7-8 cups all purpose flour
about 8-10 ounces fruit jam or preserves (raspberry, plum or cherry work very well)

4 tablespoons melted butter for brushing before baking

Place in a cup 2 tablespoons of sugar and  sprinkle the yeast on top.  Fill cup with lukewarm milk and let yeast proof a few minutes.  Whisk the eggs and yeast together. 

In a alrge mixing bowl place 3 1/2 cups flour and the egg/yeast mixture. Add a little of the butter. Mix. Alternate adding flour and butter mixing after each addition. Beat well until dough is satiny and smooth and starts to pull away cleanly from sides of bowel (a little more flour may be added to reach proper consistency).  Cover with clear wrap or towel and place in a warm, area until double in bulk.

Lightly flour your work table. Take a tablespoon sized ball of dough working with your fingers to shape it into a circle, flattening as you go. Place a teaspoon of filling into the center. Bring up sides and pinch to seal. Place pinched side down in a greased 9 x 12 inch baking pan Continue forming more rolls placing them in the pan next to each other until pan is filled. 

Let rise approximately ten minutes. Brush with melted butter and bake in 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until tops are lightly brown. Remove from pan. Cool. Dust with powdered sugar to serve.

Potato Cakes

These are a quick, delicious and attractive potato side dish. They go particularly well with a steak or chicken.  This is the basic recipe but it can be tweaked by adding whatever herbs, cheese or seasonings that compliment your main dish. To make these extra special, fry them in that duck fat you have been saving for a special occasion in your freezer.

Potato Cakes  

6 medium Yukon Gold or red potatoes

3 green onions, minced

2 tablespoons grated parmesan or Swiss cheese

salt & pepper to taste

bacon drippings, butter or vegetable oil for shallow frying

Precook the potatoes in the oven or microwave and set aside to cool.  Can be done a day or two in advance and refrigerated till ready to use if desired. 

In a bowl, mash the potatoes, skin included until roughly broken down. Add the minced green onions , cheese and salt & pepper to taste. Combine well, mashing everything together but leaving chunks using a large fork, wooden spoon or fingers. Shape into 4-6 patties depending on the size desired. 

Preheat a non-stick pan with enough bacon fat or vegetable oil to coat the bottom of the pan to medium high. Place the patties in the oil and fry till golden brown and crusty on both sides. Serve hot.

 

Pumpkin Pie

I don’t particularly care for traditional pumpkin pie. In fact, I dislike it. I’ve been traumatized by too many bad pumpkin pies that have had heavy, wet, slippery fillings, gummy crusts and way too much pumpkin pie spice in the filling. There is only one pumpkin pie recipe I will eat and it’s a recipe I love. It’s creamy, light and full of pumpkin pie flavor. I’ve been making this recipe for many years and it always gets rave reviews. 

This is the pumpkin pie my Hungarian born grandmother always made. She called it Pumpkin Chiffon Pie but it’s more of a mousse than a chiffon because of the whipped cream in the filling. Being Hungarian, every dessert involved heavy cream in one form or other. She was a world class baker and was the cook for the mayor of Pittsburgh way back in the 1930’s. I still roll my pie crusts out with the same rolling pin she used-a straight two foot long piece of  wood fashioned out of a policeman’s night stick my grandfather took from an officer during a scuffle involving a labor union, steelworkers and a strike in Pittsburgh in the early 1900’s. It makes everything it touches taste better. 

This is her recipe

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie 

1  8 or 9 inch single pie crust baked and cooled. Can be either pastry crust or graham cracker style. 

For the filling:

1 package plain powdered gelatin

½  cup brandy or bourbon

1 ½  cups canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

¾  cup brown sugar, firmly packed

3 egg yolks – refrigerate whites for later step

½  cup evaporated milk

¼  tsp. salt

¼ tsp. nutmeg

½  tsp. cinnamon

¼ teaspoon powdered ginger

very small pinch of cloves

6 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

2 cups heavy whipping cream, whipped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon brandy or bourbon

In a small bowl, mix the gelatin and brandy until blended, set aside for 5 minutes.

In a sauce pan add the pumpkin, brown sugar, and the egg yolks. Whisk in the softened gelatin until well mixed. Add the evaporated milk, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Cook for 8 minutes over medium heat stirring constantly to dissolve the gelatin

Place mixture in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to cool completely.

In another bowl, beat the egg whites and pinch of salt, adding 6 tablespoons of sugar slowly while beating on medium. Beat egg whites on high until stiff. Fold egg whites into cooled pumpkin and mix well.

Clean and dry your mixing bowl and add the whipping cream, vanilla and brandy. Whip until medium stiff peaks form and then with a spatula, fold the whipped cream mixture into the pumpkin egg white mixture

Pile pumpkin mixture into cooked and cooled pie crust, Refrigerate for several hours or overnight before serving. Serve with additional whipped cream spiked with brandy.

Funeral Potatoes

Regional recipes of various cuisines have always been of interest to me. The small fundraising paperback cookbooks often compiled by church groups or Junior League ladies are nothing short of a treasure chest for comfort food recipes. They often reflect the cultures and customs of the predominant ethnic or religious groups in the area. 

This delicious artery clogging recipe shows up consistently in many of those regional cookbooks. Called Funeral Potatoes, it seems to span both sides of the United States. There’s an ongoing feud between Utah Mormon cooks and Midwest Lutheran cooks regarding the origins of this one. Called Funeral Potatoes by both groups the recipe will always call for one or two cans of condensed canned cream soup. The legend from both groups will say this recipe was born of actual custom surrounding funerals where covered casseroles were often taken to the home of the bereaved family for consumption after the funeral. These days it’s just as common for holiday meals and any other time an event calls for a quick to assemble, easy to transport dish that can feed a large number of folks. 

The most common version will call for frozen hash browned potatoes in the recipe but I think using potatoes you par cook for this recipe are far better. And while you could also go all Alton Brown by making your own cream sauce for the canned soup called for in this recipe, this really is one time where you can get away with using a can of soup without shame. It’s not the same without the can of soup.

Funeral Potatoes

4 lbs Yukon Gold or round red potatoes

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese

8 ounces sour cream

¼ cup milk

1 can condensed cream of chicken or mushroom soup

4 green onions, finely minced

¼ teaspoon black pepper 

Boil the potatoes till nearly cooked through, they should still be slightly firm when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife and set aside to cool. This can be done a day ahead, just refrigerate the cooked potatoes till needed. 

In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, reserving 1 cup of the grated cheddar. Coarsely grate the cooled potatoes and spread evenly in a 9 x 12 buttered baking dish. Pour the cheese mixture over making sure it combines with the grated potatoes. The recipe can once again be refrigerated, covered with plastic wrap to bake the next day at this point if desired. 

When ready to bake, sprinkle the reserved grated cheddar over the top of the room temperature mixture and bake in a 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes until cooked through and bubbly.

Peppadew Peppers

Have you noticed those round glossy, neon red peppers as one of the choices in your supermarket olive bar? Maybe you assumed the bright red color meant they might be hot round Italian cherry peppers and perhaps too spicy for your taste. But chances are they’re something new in the pepper world. They might be “Peppadew” peppers and if they are they’re tangy (but not fiery), sweet and the perfect size to pop in your mouth or use in recipes. 

I’ve grown dozens of varieties of peppers over the years and was curious why I’ve never seen the seeds for Peppadew peppers in any of the many seed catalogs I receive every year. What I found out was an interesting story. 

The Peppadew is the trademarked brand name of a pepper first grown in the 1990’s in South Africa. The first plant was a naturally occurring hybrid of plants that originated in South America.  The seeds and the brining process are registered and guarded trade properties. The first jars of Peppadew peppers were sold in the Unites States in 2000.

Peppadew Plant

More sweet than tart, they are sold seedless and hollowed out. They can be used in any recipe that you’d use a pickled pepper or sweet pickles. They’re perfect chopped and added to chicken, ham, egg or potato salad.  My very favorite way to serve them is simply stuffed with an herb spiked cream cheese or goat cheese. They are absolutely delicious and look gorgeous served by themselves or as part of a cheese platter or antipasto. They go great with cocktails and are perfect for holiday entertaining. 

I’ve tweaked this recipe in every direction but the basic recipe is still my favorite

Stuffed Peppadew Pepper Appetizer 

10 ounces pickled Peppadew peppers

6 ounces cream cheese (or mild goat cheese)

½ teaspoon each finely minced parsley and green onion

pinch of coarse black pepper 

With a fork mash the herbs together with the room temperature cheese. 

Drain the peppers well and pat dry on paper towels. Carefully fill the cavity of each pepper with the cheese mixture and serve. 

Makes about 20 bite sized stuffed peppers.

Pomegranate Kumquat Relish

Kumquats are small citrus-like fruits about the size of a cherry tomato with an edible skin.  The entire fruit is eaten either fresh out of hand just like grapes or in a variety of recipes.  They work particularly well in preserves and marmalades because of the high pectin content in the skins. When buying kumquats choose firm fruits that are bright orange in color; avoid those with a greenish tint.

Here’s a beautiful relish to serve with holiday roasts and hams. With only three ingredients it’s an easy recipe to put together. Cranberry juice can be substituted for the pomegranate juice for equally delicious results.

Pomegranate Kumquat Relish 

A twist on the traditional cranberry orange relish 

4 cups kumquats (about 1/1/2 lbs)

4 cups sugar

2 cups pomegranate juice 

Wash kumquats and cut in half removing seeds. Combine all everything in a non-aluminum pan and bring to a boil. Lower heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes. 

Remove from the heat, cover the pan and set aside at room temperature overnight (at least 6 hours). This helps pectin to develop. 

The following day return pan to the heat, bring to a boil then over low heat until juices evaporate and any liquid that remains is a medium thick syrup, stirring occasionally. 

When juices have thickened pour into a glass bowl with a tight cover or quart jar and refrigerate until ready to use (up to 4 weeks). 

Mixture can also be canned in sterilized pint jars using standard hot water canning instructions for canning jams & jellies.