Poached Pears with Ginger

The five 3-course meals I prepared for The Gastronomer for her 2008 Christmas present were a hit, so I decided to repeat the gift for her birthday in 2010. This time, however, I vowed to be more adventurous in my recipe selection--venturing away from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook in search of dishes that would challenge me and open up new frontiers in our kitchen. For the first menu, I returned to Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, which had been the inspiration for an excellent meal featuring a water chestnut salad and Mandarin pork wrapped in scallion crepes a few months before.

I usually write about the appetizer first, then the side dishes and entree, and finally dessert, but in this case I can't resist reversing the order, because this recipe is amazing. It's going straight to the Brightest Stars list--in the interval since we first tried these poached pears last March, I've made them at least four more times at The Gastronomer's request. In fact, I'm eating one right now for inspiration. They are truly a triumph in Asian fusion. I haven't tried any other poached pear recipes, but I can't imagine that they could compare without the ginger and star anise. Honestly, you don't even need the pears--at times when I've had some leftover white wine and ginger on hand I've seriously considered cooking up the sweetly spiced liquid to drink on its own. It's really amazing how the flavors of the cinnamon stick, ginger, lemon, and star anise become infused in the liquid when you boil it.

Recipe by Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine.

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup white wine
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2 2-inch pieces of lemon zest
• 1 4-inch cinnamon stick
• 1 2-inch piece gingerroot, sliced (no need to peel it)
  
• 2 star anise
• 6 firm pears

Place the sugar, water, wine, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon stick, gingerroot, and star anise in a saucepan just large enough to hold all of the pears in a single layer. Bring the liquid to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar, and cook for about 5 minutes to allow the spices to flavor the liquid.

Peel and core the pears. You can either leave them whole or cut them in half [or even quarters--which is much easier--if you don't mind sacrificing presentation]. Carefully place the pears in the boiling liquid, adding more water if necessary to cover them. Return the liquid to a boil. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low. Simmer the pears until they are just tender, 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the ripeness of the pears [The Gastronomer and I have found that it can take up to 45 minutes if the pears are very hard, as is often the case when you purchase them from American supermarkets].

Using a slotted spoon, remove the pears from the liquid and set aside. Increase the heat to high and boil to reduce the liquid to about 2 cups. Strain the sauce, discarding the solids.

If serving hot, place the pears in individual serving dishes and spoon some sauce over each. If serving cold, place the pears in a bowl, pour the sauce over them, and refrigerate, covered.

Yield: 6 servings
Estimated Start-to-Finish Time: Not given
Actual Start-to-Finish Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Substitutions: The Gastronomer has recently been requesting that I add far more than the suggested 2 pieces of lemon zest because she loves eating them after they have cooked with the poaching liquid. Feel free to do the same without fear that the pears will be overly sour--there's enough sugar in the recipe to balance out a lot of lemon flavor. We usually don't bother to reduce the liquid down to 2 cups--it's already sweet and flavorful enough, and it's nice to have more of it!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Crumble Squares

It's time to get excited for the third edition of the Eat My Blog charity bake sale, hosted by The Gastronomer and friends at Tender Greens in West Hollywood (Los Angeles) this Saturday. For the last bake sale in June, I contributed an old family favorite--applesauce spice cake. This time, I wanted to try something new and settled on these pumpkin cheesecake bars. Any recipe with "cheesecake" in the title has the potential to be tricky, so I did a practice run last week. I'm pleased to report that the crumble squares came out great--delicious enough to bring to Thanksgiving dinner with the in-laws.

Get there early on Saturday for the full selection of treats baked by ~70 LA food bloggers and chefs. This is no ordinary bake sale--expect a spread of truly creative, incredible desserts. All proceeds will be donated to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Hope to see you there!

Recipe by Bon Appetit, October 2006, courtesy of Epicurious

For Crust

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
• 1 cup pecan halves (about 4 ounces)
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
  

For Filling

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  

For Topping

• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  

Make Crust

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter 9x9x2-inch metal baking pan. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Pulse first 4 ingredients in a processor until coarse meal forms. Add pecans; using on/off turns, process until nuts are chopped. Add oats; pulse until mixture is moistened but not clumping. Press 3 1/2 cups crumbs onto bottom of prepared square pan (do not clean processor). Transfer remaining crumbs to lined baking sheet. Bake crumbs on sheet until golden, stirring once, about 12 minutes. Cool crumbs. Bake crust until it is beginning to become golden, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven while preparing filling. Maintain oven temperature.

Add Filling

Blend all ingredients in the same food processor until smooth. Spread filling over warm crust; bake until set, dry in center, and beginning to rise at edges, about 20 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Add Topping

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Spread evenly over hot filling. Bake until topping sets and bubbles at edges, about 5 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack. Sprinkle crumbs over topping; gently press into topping. Cover; chill until cold, about 2 hours. Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled. Cut into squares.

Yield: 16 bars
Estimated Start-to-Finish Time: Not given
Actual Start-to-Finish Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Substitutions: I used walnuts in place of pecans since we had a big bag on hand--this worked out fine. The original recipe said to bake the crust for 30 minutes before adding the filling, but I found that it was quite hard after 25 minutes (cutting the bars out of the pan was a bit difficult). Most user reviews on epicurious.com agreed that 30 minutes was too long.

Baked Risotto with Butternut Squash and Sage

Finding a use for leftover ingredients can be a constant struggle in cooking. No one wants to be wasteful, but what are we to do when parsley is only sold in massive bundles, buttermilk is hard to find in containers smaller than one quart, and a single butternut squash is just so bloody big? In our attempts to finish off large boxes of herbs and other such common leftovers, The Gastronomer and I typically find ourselves trekking back to the store for more ingredients to accompany them. This inevitably begets more leftover perishables, and the cycle continues.

This past week, however, the stars aligned for me. The week before we had made a recipe featuring the aforementioned butternut squash, and of course, half of the behemoth was still taking up space in our fridge. While searching through my favorite cookbook for a recipe to use it, I stumbled upon this baked risotto recipe. In addition to sounding delicious and requiring an appropriate portion of butternut squash, it called for fresh sage and chicken broth, both of which we had left over in abundance from The Gastronomer's recent pre-Thanksgiving cooking project. Furthermore, we had several large onions on hand, some leftover white wine, a bag of sliced almonds, just the right amount of Arborio rice, and a Tupperware full of recently-grated Parmesan cheese in the freezer. In a small household such as ours, this was really an astonishing series of coincidences. Clearly, the time was right for this recipe. The risotto turned out fantastic--I'd recommend it even if you don't fortuitously have every single ingredient on hand. Baking risotto is a neat trick to save yourself a half hour of stirring time at the stove while still achieving excellent results.

Recipe by The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

• 3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 onion, minced
• salt
• 2 cups Arborio rice
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• pinch of nutmeg
  
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 3 teaspoons minced fresh sage
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds
• 2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (1 cup)
• pepper

Adjust an over rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bring the broth and bay leaves to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. When little bubbles being rising to the surface but the broth hasn't reached a boil, put a lid on the pan and turn down the heat to the lowest possible setting to keep the broth warm.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until lightly browned, about 9 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook until the edges begin to turn translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and sprinkle with a pinch of nutmeg, cooking for about 15 seconds, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the wine and cook, stirring frequently, until it is completely absorbed, about 2 minutes.

Spread the rice mixture into a 9 by 13-inch baking dish. Stir in the butternut squash and sage, and top with the warm broth. Bake until the squash and rice are tender and the liquid is absorbed, 30 to 35 minutes.

Place almond slices in a skillet and toast on the stove over medium heat until fragrant (about 5 minutes), shaking the skillet occasionally to prevent them from burning.

After removing the baking dish from the oven, stir in the Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and top each serving with toasted almonds.

Yield: 6-8 servings
Estimated Start-to-Finish time: 50 minutes
Actual Start-to-Finish time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Substitutions: The original recipe only called for 1 1/2 teaspoon minced sage, but I used over a tablespoon. The Gastronomer and I thought we could have used even more sage flavor. I didn't weigh the butternut squash but used the whole 1/2 squash that I had on hand. The original recipe listed 1/8 teaspoon saffron as a optional ingredient--I didn't have any and left it out. The extra complexity would have probably been missed more in the simpler variation on the recipe that didn't include squash, sage, and almonds.

Middle Eastern Lentil Soup

For days when you feel like eating extra healthy, you really can't beat a lentil soup. Every 35 g serving of green lentils has 11 g of fiber, 10 g of protein, and no fat. Pretty incredible. I chose this recipe, courtesy of fatfreevegan.com, because of it contains a stellar array of spices---I always get excited about diving into our spice cabinet. When I first finished making it and dug into a bowl, I found it to be a bit unsatisfying; the total absence of sweetness or richness hit me harder than I had anticipated. However, it held up better the next day, when I wasn't so tired from cooking and in need of some truly hearty sustenance. It would make a meager entree, but as a side dish or replacing a salad before a meal, this soup is really quite delicious.

Recipe adapted from fatfreevegan.com

• 2 cups chopped onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 zucchini, chopped in 1/4 - 1/2 inch pieces
• Other vegetables such as eggplant, if desired
  
• 5 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 cups lentils
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice or 1 teaspoon sumac

In a large pot, sauté the onion and garlic in 1/2 cup of the water for about 3 minutes. Add the zucchini and any additional vegetables and saute for 3 more minutes. Stir in the spices and cook for 1 minute. Add the lentils and the remaining water. Simmer the soup for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are cooked (the time may depend on what kind of lentils you are using). Stir in the salt, and add the parsley. Just before serving, stir in the lemon juice or sprinkle each bowl of soup with a little sumac.

Yield: 4 servings
Estimated Start-to-Finish time: Not given
Actual Start-to-Finish time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Substitutions: The original recipe called for red lentils, but I couldn't find any so I used normal yellow/green ones, which are much more fibrous anyway. I didn't have any coriander or turmeric on hand, and I decided that purchasing one new spice for this simple weeknight recipe was enough. Deeming turmeric to be more important (if nothing else, the color of the dish would have been totally different without it), I left out the coriander. I added a bit of extra cumin to replace it. I took the easy way out and used lemon juice instead of sumac. If I make this again, I might try to find some---I'm curious what it's like.

Lime Glazed Coconut Snowballs

Long-time readers of Stellar Recipes may recall that back in November, I served The Gastronomer smoked salmon canapes, Castilian stew, and rosemary cream biscuits to cap off her 2008 Christmas present. You might have worried that this meal didn't include a sweet finish.... What kind of Christmas present makes the poor recipient forgo dessert? Well, never fear--dessert was indeed served, even if the corresponding blog entry has been a long time coming. These lime-glazed coconut snowballs were a fitting conclusion to a wintry feast.
The Gastronomer particularly loved the sugary lime glaze--fortunately, I had some extra left over for her to eat with a spoon.

Recipe by The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup superfine sugar (if you don't want to buy it, process regular granulated sugar in the food processor for 30 seconds)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and softened
• 3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut, chopped fine
  

Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Beat the butter into the flour mixture, one piece at a time, using an electric mixer on medium low speed, then continue to beat until the mixture looks crumbly and wet, 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in 2 tablespoons cream cheese and the vanilla until the dough just begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds.

Knead the dough in the bowl by hand a few times until it forms a large, cohesive mass. Turn the dough out onto a clean counter, divide it in half, and pat into two 4-inch disks. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

While the dough is chilling, whisk 2 tablespoons of the lime juice and the remaining 1 tablespoon cream cheese together in a large bowl until smooth. Add the confectioners' sugar and whisk until smooth, adding the remaining lime juice as needed until the glaze is thin enough to spread easily. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Using your hands, roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until the cookies are light golden brown, about 12 minutes, rotating and switching the baking sheets halfway through baking.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes. Dip the tops the cookies into the glaze and scrape away any excess, then dip into the coconut. Set the cookies back on the wire rack and let stand until the glaze dries and sets, about 20 minutes.

Yield: 40 cookies
Estimated Start-to-Finish Time: 1 hour 40 minutes plus cooling time
Actual Start-to-Finish Time: 2 hours 30 minutes