Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Well the holiday season is in full swing and so are the parties. And parties mean party food! If I had not been sicker than sick for onion day, this would have been my entry. But alas the forces of nature did not allow that and so I am presenting my dish to you now. I love this dish and bring it often to parties. This can be presented in two ways. One as an appetizer, where you would put a nice wedge on a plate along with some greens and some bread. Or two, the way I do it most often as a “spread” for crackers, bread and what not. The cheesecake itself is good but it is the onion pear jam/chutney(which ever you prefer) is what makes this special. So if you want to serve something a little unusual but tasty, put this out on your holiday buffet table.

 Blue Cheese Cheesecake with Onion Pear Jam

1 3/4 lbs softened cream cheese
8 oz shredded Asiago cheese
8 oz blue cheese, crumbled
5 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp white pepper

Grease a 9-inch springform pan.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream cheeses together until smooth.
Add eggs one at a time.
Add cream and pepper. Combine.
Bake uncovered in a water bath until golden brown and center is set.About 45-50 minutes.
Cool Completely, remove sides of pan.

Onion Pear Jam

4 cups onions, diced
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups pears, peeled, chopped
2 TBSP fruit vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper

Saute onions in oil until brown. Reduce heat and cook until glazed.
Add pears, vinegar, sugar, cayenne and salt. Cook till pears are crispy tender.
Remove mixture ans simmer juice utnil a thick glaze.
Mix pear onion mixture with glaze. Cool.
Cover cooled cheesecke with jam and serve with bread or crackers.

Originally I was not going to participate in this go around of HHDD. I’m just not a fritter girl. I mean I eat them, the apple ones that are all gooped up with icing and such from the bakery but I wasn’t sure I wanted to make them. I was uninspired until I ran across a recipe in a cookbook I bought last week, Kathy Casey’s Northwest Table. She is a local chef(but you can buy the book anywhere) and I think she is very inventive. I have two of her cookbooks now and I love them both, if you are a more advanced chef I highly recommed you go out and buy her cookbooks. Anyway, I ran across a recipe for Chanterelle Fritters. The only problem was that these were the kind of fritter where you dip the item(in this case a mushroom) in a batter and fry it….and well, I don’t like that kind of fritter. So again I thought I would skip this round. I was running out of time but circumstances changed(it is raining big time…and we were suppose to go to the pumpkin patch) and time opened up. Knowing that I didn’t want to just dip the mushroom in batter and fry it, I messed with the recipe and came up with something that is more of what I think a fritter should be. I also made a saffron aioli to go with it.

Mushroom Medley Fritters

1/4 pound chanteralle mushrooms

1/4 pound crimini mushrooms

1/4 pound of button mushrooms

2 eggs

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup semolina

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme

vegetable oil for frying

Wipe of brush the mushrooms of any dirt. Chop the mushrooms into a 1 inch dice. Mix the mushroom varieties together and set aside.

In a deep fryer or Dutch Oven, heat 4 inches of oil to 350F.

In a bowl mix together the remaining ingredients, adding the buttermilk last. Depending on your preference you may or may not want to use the whole 3/4 cup of buttermilk. So slowly add the buttermilk until you get the consistancy you want. I wanted mine to be like pancake batter. Add chopped mushrooms to batter and mix until incorporated.

Working in small batches, scoop out the batter(I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup) and place into the hot oil. Do not over-crowd the fryer. Move the fritters around with a spoon or thongs and turn as needed to get even cooking. Fry until golden and very crispy. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Source: Recipe inspired by Kathy Casey’s Chanterelle Fritters from her book Kathy Casey’s Northwest Table

Saffron Aioli
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
Large pinch of saffron threads
1 cup mayonnaise
2 garlic cloves, minced
Whisk vinegar, honey, and saffron threads in heavy small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to boil. Remove from heat. Cool completely. Mix mayonnaise and garlic in medium bowl to blend. Mix in cooled vinegar mixture. Season aioli to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
Bon Appétit
July 2000
Bobby Flay

Well Donna Day is rapdily approaching once again and this time around savory tarts is the theme. I chose to make a tart that helps to welcome the upcoming Fall. My local Farmer’s Market is slowly weeding out the fruits of summer to make way for the apples, pears and pumpkins that make up the Fall I know and love. I almost always bake with Granny Smiths(perhaps a rut I should get out of) and today was no exception to that rule. The dried cherries were added as my nod goodbye to the Summer fruits(they were the last of some ones from the Farmers Market and they are no longer carrying them till next Summer). To learn more about this event, visit Running with Tweezers, this month’s host for more information.

Caramelized Apple, Onion and Roquefort Tart

2 TBSP unsalted butter

1 cup thinly sliced sweet onions

2 cups sliced apples, skins left on

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 ground black pepper

1/3 cup toasted walnuts

4 ounces dried cherries

2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed

4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large, heavy skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions and saute until caramelized. Add the apples and continue to caramelize. Add the wine and cook untl dry, about 2 minutes. Add the salt and pepper, stir well and remove from heat. Add the walnuts and dried cherries and stir well to combine. Let cool.

On a lightly floured surface, 1 at a time, roll out the pastry sheets. You can cut them into rounds, rectangles or press them into tart pans…I did all three. Make sure to grease your pans.

Place the apple/onion mixture into or on top of(depending on which tart style you chose) your tart. Sprinkle blue cheese on top of each tart. Bake until golden and puffed, 20-25 minutes.

All text and images on this site have ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Copyright (c) 2006 by Peabody Rudd.

Blog Party #13 is here and the theme was more than challenging. No oven, or stove top or any cooking of any kind. Sounds easy till you start really thinking about it. Want to make chicken salad, after all that is not hot, but wait…you have to cook the chicken. So I went to my mound of cookbooks and dragged out Martha Stewarts Hors D’Oeuvres Handbook, surely there was something there that didn’t need to be cooked. There were tons of non-cook recipes, but thumbing through all the photographs I ran across a beautiful picture of little balls of goat cheese on a plate of olive oil. How lovely I thought. Though I feel it was more than ambitious for me to try(quite the pain to do and photograph) it was something I wanted to try. So there I stood rolling out little balls of cheese, rolling them in various herbs and trying somewhat successfully to roll them in a line of smoked paprika.
My drink is a Green Tea Collins simply because I love green tea. I have it everyday. So when I found a recipe that involved green tea and vodka, that sounded good to me.

Herbed and Spiced Goat Cheese Balls
Adapted recipe
Makes 3 1/2 Dozen

1 1/4 pounds soft goat cheese
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
You can use pretty much any herbs or spices you want. I used the following:
1 1/4 TBSP chopped fresh chives
2 TBSP chopped pistachio nuts
1 1/2 TBSP fresh thyme
2 tsp smoked paprika

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Form 1 tablespoon of goat cheese into a small ball. Transfer to the baking sheet. Continue with the remaining cheese. Refrigerate the balls for 10 minutes to set slightly.
2. In seperate small bowls, place your herbs/spices. Roll the balls in the desired coating. To make the paprika band, sprinkle the paprika in a straight line on a cutting board. Straighten the edge of the paprika with a knife. Roll the ball down the line to form the paprika strip.
3. Pour olive oil onto a serving platter. Arragne the goat cheese balls on the platter and serve with toothpicks on the side.
Source: Martha Stewart Hors D’Oeuvres Handbook by Martha Stewart

Green Tea Collins
2 ounces vodka
2 ounces strong green tea, cooled
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 tsp simple syrup
1/4 tsp grated fresh ginger
lemon wheel for garnish
Place the vodka, green tea, lemon juice, simple syrup, grated ginger, and plenty of cracked ice in a shaker, and shake vigorously to combine. Strain thoroughly into a Collins glass(we don’t have any so I went with a pint glass) filled with ice. Garnish with a wheel of lemon and serve.
Source: Cocktail Parties with a Twist by Alexandra and Eliot Angle