Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie

Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie

Serves8

• Active time:40 min
• Start to finish:3 hr (includes making pastry)

November 2007

Here we’ve taken pecan pie above and beyond its usual corn-syrupy incarnation. A layer of bittersweet chocolate adds richness to the dessert while simultaneously balancing its sweetness. And an abundance of pecans makes for a supremely satisfying filling.

• 1 (3 1/2- to 4-oz) fine-quality 60%- to 70%-cacao bittersweet chocolate bar, finely chopped
• Pastry dough
• 2 cups pecan halves (7 oz), toasted and cooled
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup dark corn syrup

• Accompaniment:

  lightly sweetened whipped cream

• Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle.
• Melt chocolate in a metal bowl set over barely simmering water, stirring. Remove from heat.
• Roll out dough into a 13-inch round on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin. Fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim excess dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold overhang under and press against rim of pie plate, then crimp decoratively.
• Spread chocolate in bottom of pie shell with back of spoon and let it set, then cover with pecans.
• Whisk together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a bowl, then whisk in corn syrup and pour over pecans.
• Bake pie until filling is puffed and crust is golden, 50 to 60 minutes. (If pie is browning too fast after 30 minutes, loosely cover with foil.) Cool pie on a rack to warm or room temperature. Serve with whipped cream.

Cooks’ note: Pie can be baked 1 day ahead and chilled, uncovered, until cool, then covered. Reheat in a 350°F oven until warm, about 10 minutes.


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Pastry Dough

Makesenough for 1 (9-inch) single-crust pie or 1 (9- to 11-inch) tart shell

• Active time:10 min
• Start to finish:1 1/4 hr

November 2007

Basic is best when it comes to piecrust. There’s no need to fiddle with this multipurpose flaky pastry.

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

• Equipment:

  a pastry or bench scraper

• Blend together flour, butter, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Drizzle 3 tablespoons ice water evenly over mixture and gently stir with a fork (or pulse) until incorporated.
• Squeeze a small handful of dough: If it doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, stirring (or pulsing) until incorporated. Do not overwork dough, or pastry will be tough.
• Turn out dough onto a work surface. Divide dough into 4 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather all dough together with pastry scraper. Press into a ball, then flatten into a 5-inch disk.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.

Cooks’ notes:

• If you’re making two desserts that call for this pastry dough, you can make a double batch.
• Pastry dough can be chilled up to 2 days or frozen, wrapped well, up to 3 months.

P&J's Oysters Rockefeller

"As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans."

— Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

P&J Oyster Company was present at the creation of many legendary dishes of New Orleans' Creole cuisine. One such is the most famous oyster dish of them all – Oysters Rockefeller, invented in the 1880s at Antoine's by the restaurant's proprietor, Jules Alciatore. The appetizer was considered so rich that it had to be named after the richest man of the day, John D. Rockefeller. Al Sunseri of P&J has his own way with Oysters Rockefeller. While his grandfather, Alfred, was a close friend of the Alciatore family, the secret recipe was never divulged.

Suggested Pairing: Blanc de blanc Champagne

...and this is for lagniappe, because we can't very well have a New Orleans night without the official cocktail of NOLA – the Sazerac. We'll be preparing it as a bonus, paired with raw oysters as an accompaniment.

Serving Size: 12 appetizers / 6 main-course servings

• 48 shucked fresh oysters, with bottom shells reserved
• The juices ("liquor") from the oysters
• 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen spinach, thawed
  
• 1 bunch green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 celery stalks, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1/4 head iceberg lettuce, cut into medium chunks
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup anisette liqueur, such as Herbsaint or Pernod
• Juice from 1 lemon
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation Notes:

• The most practical approach to preparing oysters on the half-shell, whether they're to be served cold or hot, is to assemble a "tray" in advance that can be used to cook them or serve them – or both. Spread a 3/4-inch bed of rock salt evenly onto a large rimmed platter or baking pan. Firmly set the shells into the salt. This not only stabilizes the shells so that they won't tip, but the salt also helps retain both heat and cold. Cover the tray with plastic wrap and store at room temperature; or, if the oysters are to be served cold, chill the tray in the refrigerator before serving.
• Create both mixes in advance in separate bags, and place them in the refrigerator until ready to bake. On serving day, go to the fishmonger, get him to shuck some oysters for you (or master the art yourself!) and hook you up with crushed ice or rock salt. At home, distribute the two mixes on top and bake.
  

Preparation:
Prepare a sufficient number of half-shell trays to hold 48 oyster bottom shells, as described above, using oven-proof baking pans or rimmed baking sheets. Set aside.

Strain the oysters over a bowl to remove grit and to separate them from the liquor. Set the oysters and the liquor aside.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Squeeze as much water as possible from the thawed spinach and chop it finely.

In a food processor, pulse the green onions, celery, and lettuce until finely chopped.

In a large saucepan, heat the butter over medium-low heat. Add and sauté the chopped vegetables and spinach for about 10 minutes, stirring. Stir in the cheese and bread crumbs. (The mixture will be very thick.)

In a separate saucepan, poach the oysters in their liquor over medium-low heat until their edges just begin to curl, 3 to 4 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the oysters from the saucepan to a bowl and discard the poaching liquid.

Place one oyster on each of the bottom shells on the prepared half-shell tray(s) and cover each with a spoonful of the sauce. Bake until the oysters are bubbly and the topping begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the oysters from the oven and sprinkle a dash of Herbsaint and a few drops of lemon juice on top of each. Serve immediately.

Recipe Source:
The P&J Oyster Cookbook, by Kit Wohl and the Sunseri Family

Recommended Reading:

• Oyster Selection & Storage Tips (About.com)
• Oyster Cooking Tips (About.com)
  
• What was really in the originally recipe...? (Lindaraxa's Garden)
• Suggested Wine Pairings with Regional Oyster Varietals (Novus Vinum)

Crawfish Etouffee -- A Louisianna Classic

Recipe serves 8-12 people

Ingredients:
2 lbs crawfish tail meat
(Group 1)
1 stick of butter (1/4 cup)
1 cup onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup green bell peppers, finely chopped
1/2 cup red bell peppers, finely chopped
1/2 cup tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 bay leaves
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped (more, if you like)

2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 cup flour
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 oz. sherry
1 cup green onions, sliced
8 cups seafood/shrimp stock [can substitute 4 cups of chicken broth with 4 cups of water]
Salt
Pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Preparation:
Melt butter in pan over medium heat, without browning.

Add Group 1 to butter and sautee for 5-7 minutes over medium-high heat.

Add flour to create white rue. Mix until well-combined and cooks away rawness of flour (approximately 1 minute). Then, add crawfish meat and tomato paste, stirring constantly over medium-high heat. Slowly add stock, about 1 cup at a time, stirring between each pour. Stir until you have a thick, sauce-like consistency. (You might not use all the stock.) Then, bring to a boil and let simmer. Add stock, as necessary to maintain consistency (similar to thick clam chowder) and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.

Add sherry, parsley and green onions over medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Serve with rice and Tobasco sauce.

Recipe by ScooterSMcGee on YouTube video

Tip: As with most Cajun/Creole food, etouffee is better cooked, cooled and reheated so flavors can merry.

Note: About half of the recipes we read include some Worcestshire Sauce, thyme, and/or lemon juice. We will experiment with the original recipe and may add these for round 2.
If you REALLY want wonderful flavor and make more of this dish from scratch, here is a shrimp stock recipe that sounds like it will add more complexity to the dish.

Shrimp Stock Recipe (provided by nolacuisine.com)
The Shells and tails from 2 lb. of Shrimp
1/2 Cup chopped Onion
1/4 Cup chopped Celery
2 Garlic Cloves
1 Lemon sliced
2 Fresh Bay Leaves
3 Sprigs Fresh Thyme
1 tsp. Black Peppercorns




Add all ingredients to a 2 qt. saucepan. Cover this with cold water, it should be about 6-8 Cups Cups. You’ll need 1 1/2 Cups for the Etouffee. Bring almost to a boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer. Simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. Strain.

Tip: When adding fresh Thyme to a simmered dish like this, I always bundle the Thyme tightly with butchers twine. The leaves will remove themselves while cooking, and you will get all of the flavor from the stems. When ready to serve just remove the bundle of stems along with your bay leaves.

First Dinner (Theme: French Bistro)

The first dinner went great. Here are the photos...

Mussels and Pate with a French Baguette

Course 1 (Light/was Course 2 but since it was hot, we started with this first):

Louis Roederer Champagne paired with the Mussels.

Mussels with slices of bread to soak up the sauce.

Pate with bread awaits.

Mussels.

A toast to friends and food...and wine (and champagne)...and...

Pate. Some of us love pate too much.

Seared Scallops in a Lemon Butter Sauce over Belgian Endives

Course 2 (Light/was Course 1):

Scallops.

Wine Pairing: Side Yard Rielsing

Excellent colors.

Herbed Steak Frites in a Mustard-Wine Sauce

Course 3 (Main):

Fries served on top.

Wine Pairing: James Cole Malbec.

Fries on the side.

Lemon Tart (Sabayon method) with a Blood Orange Sorbet and Candied Orange Peels

Course 4 (Dessert):

The whole tart! Looks very French!

Fabulicious tart with sorbet.

Inniskillin Sparkling Ice Wine paired with dessert.

An excellent way to end the dinner!

New Orleans Iced Coffee

Sunday afternoon, John and I went to Fraiche Yogurt in Palo Alto for some yogurt and Blue Bottle coffee. One thing we noticed was New Orleans Iced Coffee! Since it was warm (and John can't resist anything from New Orleans), he gave it a try. Very good alternative (not quite the same, but I am biased) to Vietnamese coffee. If you don't always have condensed milk on hand, they make it with drip coffee, simple syrup and whole milk! Just wanted to share that with y'all. Real recipe to post to follow in a few days...

Our First Dinner - French Bistro

Our first dinner - French Bistro theme - I felt was a huge success. We certainly set the bar high for our first get-together. Looking back at our guiding principles, I definitely think I learned some new techniques (damn you sabayon), enjoyed good food and company, and had fun along the way. Thanks to everyone for making our first dinner memorable. Here's to more good times, extraordinary food, and lively discussions. Bon appetite!

Coquilles St. Jacques

I honestly didn't know we had to make our recipe before our dinner so yes, everyone was our 'guinea pig' as Lee (I think) pointed out at our first dinner. (but the "rules" have changed so we DON'T have to make our dish twice right?) Humm, too many rules to follow =P

This dish seemed easy enough to make on the recipe and sure enough it was. The lemon butter sauce was super easy and I can imagine using this on another dish - perhaps fried artichokes or even steamed, or in a pasta with green peas or asparagus.

The only hiccup we had was how long to sear the scallops. We followed the recipe of 2 min per side, but I felt they needed about an extra minute. We also kept the finished dish in the oven at 175 degrees to keep it warm, so perhaps that contributed to the scallops (in my opinion) being a bit overdone. As we discussed at dinner, it's difficult to keep seafood warm unless you make it right before serving dinner, but I didn't think we'd have time to sear all those scallops and plate them in time. I think a big obstacle to our club will be figuring out how to prepare and plate our dish to the table without compromising quality.

A point on sourcing, as was also discussed. We purchased these from Whole Paycheck at a whopping $21.99/lb. I know we could have gone to TJ's but that would have meant getting them a day before to defrost completely which we didn't think about. In the future, we will definitely do that.

Red and Yellow Endives Pre-Wilt

Endives Post-Wilt

Searing Scallops

Scallops on a Bed of Endives

Eh Voila! Lemon Butter sauce and chives added

Louisiana Deviled Crab Cakes - New Orleans Night

Here we go again! We were looking at salads originally but since we have the 2nd course/2nd appetizer wanted to go with something more substantial leading into the main course. Thus, we arrived at ..... (drum roll)..

Louisiana Deviled Crab Cakes

Ingredients:
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped celery
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon cayenne
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion greens
16 saltines, finely ground
1/2 lb jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Accompaniments: tartar sauce and lemon wedges

Preparation:
Cook onion, bell pepper, and celery in 1 tablespoon butter in a 10-inch nonstick skillet over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 8 minutes.

Whisk together egg, sour cream, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, and salt in a large bowl, then stir in scallion, cooked vegetables, and 1/4 cup saltine crumbs. Gently stir in crabmeat, then form into 4 cakes (2 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter). Dredge cakes in remaining saltine crumbs.

Heat oil and remaining 2 tablespoons butter in cleaned skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then cook crab cakes, turning once, until golden brown, 8 minutes total.

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Tartar Sauce

We also want to make our own tartar sauce as it's not very difficult. The tartar sauce recipe goes like this:

Ingredients:
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped dill pickle
3 tablespoons chopped green onion
1 tablespoon drained capers
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Preparation:
Whisk all ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Season with salt and pepper. Cover; chill at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.

Both recipes sourced from epicurious:
Louisiana Deviled Crab Cakes from Gourmet magazine, April 2001
Tartar Sauce from Bon Appétit, January 1999

Random Musings and Tips

I wanted to share a few of the things we've done as hacks, or cheats, to some of the recipes lately.

High heat searing w/ Sunflower Oil: "don't trip the smoke alarm" technique
I've basically been paranoid about searing just about anything in our condo. One year, Ei-Lun bought be a nice cast iron pan, and I sear/baked some nice ribeyes. That technique called for putting the pan in the oven @500 degrees to pre-heat it, then taking it right to the flame for the searing, with butter. My entire place filled with smoke while it was back in the oven, setting off the ear-searing smoke alarm... From that point forward, I seared less, and if I did sear, I'd get a chair out prior (so I could reach the alarm to shut it off) and I'd wear earplugs.. (I know..ridiculous)

Anyway, I guess it should have been pretty obvious but cooking with butter and olive oil, at high heat = smoke. I've since bought a bottle of sunflower oil...450 degree smoke point! Using this oil I've been able to sear scallops, steaks, pork chops, and have yet to trip the smoke alarm. As a result pretty much anytime we go to whole foods or Costco, I pick up steaks...

Salt/Pepper Overload Sear: "high taste, high blood pressure" technique
In the steak frites recipe it calls for an obscene amount of pepper and salt for the sear. We SousVide prepared the steaks in a cryo-vac bag with salt/pepper, and then I patted the steaks dry before applying the salt/pepper mixture first to both sides. I applied the mustard by hand, i.e. with my hands. That seemed to work pretty well. After a low-smoke sear :) the steaks came out looking nice, but what got me more was the literal blast of flavor from the pepper/salt crust.

So since that time, I've SV/seared another ribeye, and tried just the salt and pepper "crust." Its awesome, and pretty much makes the steak a meal/snack on its own...really tasty. (I also tried a shallots/garlic/chicken-broth(instead of the demi)/red-wine/heavy-cream version of the steak sauce, it was awesome..kinda like that shallot butter they have at Cafe Rouge)

This concludes the "I'm going to die soon" techniques...on to the sorbet trial 2 commentary...

Orange juicing: "quarter and peel" technique
We have been using one of those bar juicers, the one that's kind of a domed, over-sized garlic press. The first time I spent time meticulously slicing off the peel/rind before pressing the juice out. This time, I simply cut the orange into quarters (like orange slices you'd get at a soccer game) and just peeled the peel right off... (duh) Then placing the peeled wedges in the juicer, was 100% juice. In fact we used less oranges this time, and got 3 full cups. Now, granted, these oranges might have had more juice, but I know I was getting every last drop of juice from the oranges this time.

Sorbet: "Alaska fishing cooler" technique
We just prepared the 2nd go of the blood orange sorbet. This time we cooled the sorbet mixture overnight, mostly because it was 3am and we didn't want to stay up another hour to do the sorbet...heh Anyway, it occurred to me when I woke up, that the last time we made the sorbet, we put the ice cream maker on the counter, and when I looked down in to the mixer, the top was always liquid, and the sides were more solid. This time, I decided to use the cooker I take up to Alaska to haul fish back in. (frozen) The cooker is pretty big, so it fit the entire ice cream machine inside. Before we got started, I put Ei-Lun's Popsicle maker that she got for her birthday in the cooler and kept the lid shut to pre-cool the cooler.

The sorbet mixture actually separated overnight, with the sugar on the bottom, so we had to do some mixing before loading it in to the machine. We prepped the machine and set it inside the cooler, added the sorbet mixture and shut the lid of the cooler. 30mins later, we had solid sorbet! A pretty big change from last time, the view down the top of the machine was a nice "mushy" sorbet that was able to hold its own shape. As I unloaded the mixture to the container for storage, I noticed that not only was the sorbet holding its shape nicely, but that the mixing container was still completely frozen. (you can kind of hear the liquid inside the frozen container when its not frozen)

Random musings
I just remembered what I was going to mention, and it was way back during my birthday week-end when Ei-Lun took us to Calistoga. We stopped by Bouchon bakery, and picked up one of their lemon tarts. Two things I wanted to share:
1) The Bouchon lemon tart, tasted like our tart! Ok, theirs looked nicer, (they added a nice meringue on top) and it was smaller, but the crust was the same consistency as ours, as was the filling. I felt a lot better about the first batch we made... I had some doubts when we were originally tasting it, but it seems that it was correct after all. (ps: they didn't braise the top as far as I could tell)
2) Maybe we should go to Bouchon as part of the club! I was chatting with John about this too, basically, now that we've cooked all these dishes, perhaps we can go "see how its done" in the professional setting, and if we go at the right time, we could even ask to speak to the chefs to compare notes or share techniques. (this may have just been the "aw crap we have to cook our dish again in a couple of days" voice talking...)

That's it for now, pâté coming up next. Pâté for lunch... mmm..

-Kirk

ps - lazy at the moment, will add pictures of the above things later. :P

Chicken Liver Pate

Chicken Liver Pate on a Baguette.

One of my favorite things to eat is pate with crackers or toasted bread with some wine. I also love it in Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sandwich). To me, that’s one of the elements that makes that so unique and tasty. Anyway, in the past, I’ve usually had a few store –bought pates, either from a specialty store or from Safeway. But more recently, I’ve seen how it was made, and it didn’t seem too difficult. So when I had the chance to try it for our French Bistro theme, I jumped at the opportunity.

So we bought chicken livers from two different places: Whole Foods and Najiya Market. The ones from the Najiya Market were free range chickens at $3.99/lb. The texture, as I was deveining, seemed a little tougher than the ones from Whole Foods, which were $2.99/lb. But the Najiya ones had less veins for me to remove. I suppose chickens that actually run around probably have a little tougher texture to their meat.

I forgot to pick up Brandy when I was out, and this being the last night before the group dinner, I had to make do. So I dug around in our “cellar,” or closet, and got a cognac. This was a better cognac, so hopefully it’ll taste extra good. I also started a second batch for our group dinner, since the pate would need to sit and chill in the refrigerator, and I would need to seal it with some sort of gelatin to stop the pate from oxidizing prior. So I worked in tandem on two sets of pates, with the latter substituting Scotch Whisky for the missing Brandy.

After processing the mixtures in the food processor, I put the still liquid, but viscous meat sauce into a few bowls to settle. I then made a chicken broth gelatin and poured it on top of the pates to seal them in. As of this writing, I haven’t yet tried the pates as they should taste (chilled), but I did try some in liquid form as I was seasoning. They’re in the refrigerator now solidifying, and I’ll give them a taste tomorrow afternoon prior to our first group dinner.

I’m curious as to how the Scotch will taste versus the Cognac. Also, a note: the Cognac one was cooked more medium, whereas the Scotch one was cooked with a little more caramelizing on the onions as well as more searing on the livers for a more “grilled” taste, I think. We shall see tomorrow.

The ingredients.

Adding scotch to the livers. The other batch was cognac.

The livers bathing in scotch. Some consider this a dream!

Adding the livers to the onions.

After straining out the cognac, we save it for later.

Adding thyme to the livers and onions.

The livers are browning.

Adding the cognac back into the mix.

Into the food processor after the mixture cools.

Adding cream to the food processor.

Finished processing!

Packaging the pate into a container.

The day after, with a chicken broth gelatin seal.