Fresh Tart

Warm Fruit Souffle

FreshTartSteph — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:55:39 PDT

Let me say this right away so that you don't stop reading: Souffles are so easy to make! I made this version with rhubarb but you can use almost any juicy fruit - local strawberries are finally happening!

Soon there will be cherries, blueberries, peaches, plums... Play away.

This recipes uses four egg whites. Don't toss the yolks! Just cover and refrigerate and make Old-Fashioned Vanilla Pudding with Crushed Strawberries the next day (or the day before - you choose). My recipe for Warm Fruit Souffle (in this case, rhubarb) at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Not-Too-Heavy Chocolate Souffles

FreshTartSteph — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 07:27:20 PST

Happy Birthday Fresh Tart!

Five years old today - crazy, huh? And exciting. I've been horribly remiss on working on my site redesign, but I swear I will finish it. There's much to clean up and sort out and categorize. An overwhelming much. But I'm dying to have a searchable recipe index as well as a few innovative and fun new things to try, so I'm on it.

Yes, updating Fresh Tart is my New Year's resolution!

Until then, please enjoy these most delicious chocolate souffles, from Alice Medrich's marvelous chocolate cookbook BitterSweet. Despite their decadent, chocolate-y goodness, these souffles are really rather light (around 200 calories without whipped cream), which makes them the perfect end to any menu you can dream up. No flour (gluten- and grain-free!), a small amount of butter, and a splash of milk mean these are mostly chocolate and eggs.

Everyone - and I mean everyone - adores them, hot from the oven, topped with a dollop of whipped cream. If you have leftovers, make sure to reheat them in the micro for a bit, since they really must be warm to shine.

You can make these up to two days ahead of time - I'm not kidding. Just cover and refrigerate, then bake for 15 minutes before you serve. I make them so often that I have the recipe memorized.

Intensely Bittersweet Souffles (aka Not-Too-Heavy Chocolate Souffles!)
From BitterSweet by Alice Medrich
Serves 8

About 2 Tbsp. sugar for the ramekins
8 oz. bittersweet 70% chocolate, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/3 c. milk
3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 large egg white, at room temperature
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 c. sugar

For the topping:
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. sugar

If you are baking the souffles right away, position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Butter eight 6-oz. ramekins and sprinkle with sugar.

Place the chocolate, butter, and milk in a large heatproof bowl in a large skillet of barely simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the water bath and whisk in the egg yolks. (Don't worry if the mixture stiffens lightly or is less than perfectly smooth at this point.) Set aside.

In a medium, dry bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form when the beaters are lifted. Gradually sprinkle in the 1/4 c. of sugar and beat at high speed until the whites are stiff but not dry. Fold one-quarter of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it, then fold in the remaining egg whites.

Divide the mixture evenly among the prepared ramekins, filling each three-quarters full. (The souffles can be prepared to this point, covered,and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bake directly from the refrigerator.)

Place souffles on a baking sheet. Bake until they rise and crack on top and a wooden skewer plunged into the center emerges very moist and gooey (but the centers should not be completely liquid), 14-16 minutes, perhaps a minute or so longer if the souffles have been refrigerated.

Meanwhile, make the topping: Beat the cream with the vanilla and sugar until it holds a soft shape (or stiffer, if you like it that way). Transfer to a serving bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

When they are done, serve souffles immediately with whipped cream.

Politically Correct Beef Burgundy

FreshTartSteph — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:17:00 PST

Hey friends, how's it going? I've actually had a couple of kind inquiries about my health due to my two-week bloggy absence - rest assured, everything's fine here, in fact great. My excuse? Um...total and complete obsession with the presidential election. I confess, I got bit hard by the political bug this cycle. I just love absorbing it, the strategies, the moves, the ins and outs, ups and downs. I have a limited amount of time each day I can allocate to being online and well, er, the election won over my blog. So not moderate, I know. But I'm back now, my guy won and since he seems to be moving on pretty well without my strategic advice, I'll let it go now. (In my next life I'll have to be a political operative, though, yeah...)

I wasn't all politics, all the time, however - I did actually feed my family. Even my extended family, when my cousin Peter, his wife Kristin, and their adorable twin daughters Erin and Emily came for a visit from Sheboygan, Wisconsin. My aunts Mary and Marge drove in too, and my cousin Kim, and we had a grand time last Saturday night catching up. Erin and Emily are two - yes, twin two-year olds, busy and clever and everywhere all at once, just as you might imagine. They both love to sing, especially Erin, and the stereo effect of twin toddler song is beyond cute. They regaled us with song and chat for more than a couple of hours at the dinner table, an impressive feat for two busy two-year olds. It was a complete blast.

I made beef burgundy, inspired by a lovely coq qu vin that John and I split at Salut Bar Americain last week (I believe it's their Monday night chicken special - I recommend it very highly). Great do-ahead dish, beef burgundy, although lengthy to prepare - split it into two days of prep and you'll be sitting pretty for your next dinner party. We opened with a simple salad, with parsleyed potatoes alongside the beef, and my aunt Marge's apple crisp for dessert. Uff da that was a meal. (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

John and I in fact hit Salut twice in three days, no lie. Somewhere between Politico and Pollster, we fit in a lovely lunch at Salut's bar - steak frites with a glass of burgundy. Romantic, delicious, just lovely all 'round. I've had a French thing ever since - beef burgundy on Saturday, followed by a simple cheese souffle on Monday night. So airy and pretty, souffle, and so easy too. Tres bien.

Moderate it: if I'm serving potatoes, I don't also serve bread, although I did bend that rule a bit and put croutons in the salad I served as a first course.

Tomatoes, Green Beans, Carrots

FreshTartSteph — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:44:00 PDT

What's this you see? The sorry banquet (wedding, fundraiser, church dinner, you name it) side-dish we've all had a million times, green beans with carrots? Yep, it is indeed - and it was deeeelicious. The green beans and carrots both arrived in my CSA veggie share today, so I simmered until just tender and tossed with a little butter and minced chives. So fresh, wow, the way they're supposed to taste. How...fun!

No, I didn't serve a baked chicken breast alongside (I can only go so far with the banquet kitsch), but instead made these pretty little tomato souffles. I found the recipe online (recipezaar), adapted from Earl Peyroux's book Gourmet Cooking. Peyroux had a long-running cooking show on PBS (although I've never seen it) and the book looks actually pretty fantastic. Funny the things you discover when you google "tomato souffle" (as you can tell, I'm still reaching, looking for inspiration, more than a bit tired of my usual fish& veggies). The souffles are so simple - hollowed-out garden-ripe tomatoes, filled with a tomato-egg filling (I added a bit of goat cheese as well, but I think any cheese would be nice), baked until puffed and browned. Next time I'll add a bit more cheese and salt. As constructed, less than 200 cals/tomato, nice.

Speaking of veggies, I had a great idea tonight, in the vein of one of my (unfulfilled) fantasies...living close enough to everything I love to bike and walk to-and-from. Restaurants, grocery shopping, oh heck even a farmer's market (it's the France/Italy fantasy, where one markets with a basket, buying fresh bread, bottle of wine, cheeses, and fresh veggies on the way home from work... Photo, also a fantasy, I neither bike in the city without a helmet, nor with a fedora, hahaha...)

Since I can do exactly none of those things from where I live, I decided to bike to pick up my CSA veggie share, just a few blocks away. All went well on the way there (although it was a tad tricky getting on my high-bar bike with jeans on, strreeetch), with my last-week's empty box flattened and tucked under my arm. I uber-ungracefully hopped off my bike, deposited the flattened box, and picked up my new box, chock-full of veggies. It was...really heavy! WAY too heavy, in fact, to handle with one arm on my way home, although I gave it my best shot (getting up on my bike, lifting the box, and quickly realizing there was no-way, no-how to balance it with one arm). So I had to put the box back, bike home, and drive back to pick the thing up. Talk about un-fantasy! If anyone watched the whole event, you're very welcome for the entertainment (my attempted box balancing on my neighbor's driveway must have been...completely dorksville at best).

And hey, I have to mention because it's a deliciously good deal, we enjoyed a glass of - get this - Virgin Vines Chardonnay before dinner. Virgin as in Richard Branson, yep, we learned of it from John's parents (you can buy it easily in NYC). As far as we know, it's not available locally, but it sells online for less than $13.00/bottle. And it's tasty, I'm rarely a fan of domestic Chardonnays (I just do not dig the oaky Chardonnay thing) but this is completely simple and clean and crisp, very food friendly.

And Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Moderate it: souffles are really so easy, and pretty, and not heavy at all. And oh, they're delicious to boot! With an average of one egg and a couple of tablespoons of grated cheeseper person, they seem so much more decadent than they really are. Enjoy!

FreshTartSteph — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:51:00 PST

Well, we indeed did a big salad last night...right before I pulled a luscious, unctuous Gruyere souffle, studded with paper-thin slices of mushrooms and leeks, from the oven. Sooo good with a glass of LittoraiPinot Noir it was damn near illegal. Why souffle? Well, it's easier than it seems, gorgeous to behold, a lovely dinner for two (no timing pressure), The Kill to eat, and just plain fun to make and devour! I mean savor. Savor! Party in a pan, a souffle, party in a pan. (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

Tonight, party on the palate, bringing on the heat with Quick Chicken Gumbo. Not as hot tonight as the first time I made gumbo, oh so many years ago - with 1/4 cup (!) of cayenne pepper (major inexperienced misread of that recipe, ouch) - but hot enough to tingle, just right. I sauteed a little pan of okra separately as well, to keep it crisp, and used it as a garnish. Nathan looked at the okra very skeptically, but gave it a try, decided it was delicious, and dug in. YESSS when kids try new foods! Especially vegetables!

I have to confess I wasn't uber-hungry for dinner, after catching a late lunch with my aunt Mary. She was 'round these parts for a visit with our joint hair guru, Nisa at Spalon Montage. We met at Beaujo's Wine Bar in Edina, with lots of craziness to gossip and cackle about while digging into yummy lentil soup and chopped salads chock full o' roasted beets, blue cheese, pine nuts, and red onion. Beaujo's always delivers delicious, simple food, and a tasty wine list... Perfect fare for a cozy post-movie nosh, or much-needed sustenance in the midst of some pretty killer shopping.

And of course for a post-hairdo luncheon! Yay for my aunts getting their hair prettified here in the Minneapple!