Good use of leftovers: Ham, beans and rice

Spiral cut hams were on sale at the grocery store this weekend, so I brought one home. It's always tough to find a ham just the right size for two, so I picked out the smallest one I could find, baked it for supper, and then designated the leftovers for sandwiches and a big pot of red beans and rice.

Yesterday before work, I threw the hambone and generous portions of meat into my slow cooker with a pound of dry red beans (I'd soaked these overnight), a large diced yellow onion, four cloves minced garlic, three 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes and 2 cans chicken broth. I added about three tablespoons chili powder and a bay leaf. I set the heat to low. Six hours later, when I came home for lunch, I stirred everything up, added a large diced red pepper, a whole stalk of celery (which I discarded before serving) and about a cup of "Jasmati" rice. (Any rice would do-- it serves to thicken things up nicely.) By suppertime, this was wonderful. And it'll be wonderful for supper again tonight, and maybe tomorrow.

Gym or cheesecake? I'll take the cheesecake

Lately when faced with a Sunday afternoon choice between hitting the gym and baking some decadent dessert, well, I seem to be opting for dessert more often than not. Yesterday I made a cheesecake topped with berry sauce. It was decadent, yes, but not quite so decadent as a recipe I found at lovemyphilly.blogspot.com (a blog brimming with recipes that call for Philadelphia Cream Cheese -- part of a not-so-stealth marketing campaign, I'm thinking) that called for four whole blocks of cream cheese. (By the way, that Web site features several recipes that call for pre-mixed Philly cheesecake filling, an ingredient I didn't know existed. Nothing is easier than mixing up cheesecake filling. Who's buying this stuff?)

When son Erik was in town some months back, he made a killer cheesecake that also called for four 8-ounce packages of cream cheese. It was tall, it was beautiful, it was enough for 20 people. Here's what I came up with as an alternative (which made plenty, of course, enough that I must hereby resolve to hit the gym, uh, you know, real soon.):

Cheesecake with berry sauce

1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup plus four tablespoons sugar
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese
2 tsp. vanilla
1-1/2 cups sour cream
2 eggs

Heat convection oven to 300 degrees or conventional oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch springform pan. Mix crumbs, butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a bowl, press onto bottom of pan. Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla in large bowl. Add 1/2 cup sour cream. Beat 'til smooth. Add eggs one at a time. Beat on low until well blended. Pour filling over crust. Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Mix remaining sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Spread evenly over cheesecake. Bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool in pan, then cover and refrigerate at least four hours. Top slices with berry sauce before serving.

Berry sauce:

In a saucepan, mix 1 cup water with two cups sugar. Bring to boil. Add a 12-to-16-ounce package frozen mixed berries. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain into a bowl, and spoon some of the cooked berries into the syrup. Refrigerate 'til ready to use. Spoon two tablespoons or so over each slice of cheesecake.

Start the evening with a kir vin blanc

Since we got back from France, we've indulged occasionally in a lovely French apéritif, a kir vin blanc. It's a nice way to start the evening. Invest in a bottle of crème de cassis (nothing fancy, really) and pour a splash into a champagne flute. Then fill with Sauvignon Blanc. This cocktail is sweet, but not too sweet, just perfect to enjoy with a little camembert and a few crackers while dinner is simmering.

For something a little fancier, use champagne instead of white wine. Voilà. Un kir royal.

A traditional favorite: Quiche Lorraine

When I wrote about my new pie weights a few days ago, I didn't elaborate on how to make quiche. Quiche is not quite as in vogue as it was a few years back, but it is so worth the effort. It can be a main dish, or a wonderful side with a bowl of rich soup and a plate of salad. This dish is versatile-- you can add spinach, onions, chopped broccoli or peppers to make a veggie quiche; crab or shrimp for a seafood quiche; or stick to tradition to make Quiche Lorraine with bacon and Swiss cheese.

The traditional is my favorite. This recipe is loosely based on one I found in Julia Child's "The French Chef Cookbook," which features dishes from her first series of television shows broadcast in 1963:

Quiche Lorraine

1 baked 9-inch pie shell
6 to 8 pieces thick-sliced bacon, cooked to medium crispness
1 to 1-1/2 cups grated Swiss cheese
1-1/2 cups half-and-half
Pinch of nutmeg
4 large eggs

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Slice bacon into 1-inch slices. Spread evenly on bottom of pastry shell. Spread cheese evenly over bacon. Beat eggs, half-and-half and nutmeg in a bowl. Place pie shell on middle rack in oven, pull rack out so you can pour the egg mixture into the pie shell. Carefully slide rack back into place. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until knife inserted about an inch from the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A good foundation: Squash & sausage soup

If you've got beans, ham or sausage, a big onion and a couple cans of diced tomatoes, you have everything you need for easy slow-cooker soup. From that foundation, you can create any number of variations.

This week, I threw those basics into my slow cooker with about four cups of my leftover butternut squash, and some dried rosemary. The squash added such a nice, sweet autumn flavor to this dish, and we ended up with enough soup for several meals.

Butternut squash and sausage soup

2 pounds mild Italian sausage
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes
1 pound dry navy beans
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves minced garlic
4 cups butternut squash, seeded and peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
Two tablespoons dried rosemary
Salt and pepper to taste

Clean beans and soak overnight. Drain the beans. In a heavy skillet, cook sausage in olive oil over medium heat until nicely browned. Place all ingredients into the slow cooker. Add enough water to just cover the beans. Cook on low for at least 8 hours. (Like most homemade soups, this is even better the second day than the first. Cover and chill 'til ready to reheat.)

Spice up squash with flavors of India

October is high season for squash. Yesterday I made a chicken and butternut squash stew with curry, cumin and cinnamon. It was quite tasty. I've found it's best to follow the advice of my friend Felicia when using butternut squash-- bake the squash at 350 degrees for 40 minutes to soften it up. Most recipes don't suggest this, but it makes the squash much easier to peel and dice.

I found this recipe in my "Bon Appetit Cookbook." It also happens to be on the Epicurious website. And I overestimated how much squash I'd need, so I have plenty left over. I'm thinking I'll throw the extra into the slow cooker in the morning with browned Italian sausage, white beans, diced onions, garlic, canned tomatoes and spices yet to be determined. I'll report later how that turns out.

Shop-window dessert: Strawberry tart

Yesterday I made a beautiful fresh strawberry tart. Here's all you need to know: Fill a baked pie crust with two pounds whole, cleaned strawberries (with the tops trimmed off). Melt 1/2 cup strawberry jam in a small saucepan, and brush the melted jam evenly over the strawberries. Refrigerate for an hour or so, et voila. Dessert.

If you'd like to bake a cookie-like brown-sugar-almond crust for this, buy "My French Kitchen" and look up the recipe for "Tarte aux Fraises." Sorry, but I don't feel right sharing yet another recipe from this great little cookbook on my blog. (Otherwise, I could fill my blog with all 120 recipes from this book within the next few months!) This crust is sweet and crisp, a perfect compliment to the strawberries. To make this, I bought an 11-inchWilton tart pan with a removable bottom; it's shallower than the pie pan I picked up in Paris. Both are fun to use, and I like the fluted, pastry-shop edges these create.

Crème brulée is easy, after a couple of tries

I wrote last week about my failed attempt at crème brulée. Well, persistence paid off. I did finally manage to make a successful batch. It's not a complicated dessert, but you have to watch what you're doing and whisk like mad when you add hot cream to the eggs, or your eggs will get all lumpy. The first recipe I used called for using a double boiler, and I don't have one (those are hard to find in kitchen stores these days), so I made do by putting a heat-proof dish over the saucepan as I heated the cream. Kind of a clunky operation.

The recipe I liked better was from "Paris Bistro Cooking," a beautiful cookbook that my friend Marti bought for me before our trip to France. Author Linda Dannenberg profiles wonderful Paris bistros, and features recipes and gorgeous color photos in her book. When we were in Paris, we went to one of her featured restaurants, and showed staff there our copies of the book, and the staff signed them for us. They were great. (And so was the food.)

According to Dannenberg, this recipe comes from "Le Petit Marguéry," a restaurant on Boulevard Port-Royal. We didn't make it there on last month's trip, so we have something to look forward to next time.

Crème brulée
2 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
2 split vanilla beans
7 eggs yolks
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar (or super-fine sugar)

Combine milk and cream. Add the vanilla beans, scald over medium heat. Discard vanilla beans. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks and eggs with the granulated sugar. Gradually beat in the milk (whisking constantly!) Strain into oven-proof custard cups or a 1-1/2 quart baking dish.

Place custards cups or baking dish in a large pan of very hot water. Bake until custard is firm (about 40 minutes) Let cool for several hours. Just before serving, preheat broiler and sprinkle custard with brown sugar. Run dishes under the broiler to carmelize the sugar, watching carefully to prevent burning. Or better yet, use a crème brulée torch. I don't have one, but my friend Marti brought hers over for us to use last weekend. She also brought over super-fine sugar from Williams Sonoma, and we ended up with a perfectly crisp sugar crust.

Invest in pie weights for perfect crust

I love shopping for kitchen stuff. A few days ago, I bought something to help get me through the upcoming holiday baking season: a nice jar of pie weights from Williams-Sonoma, for about $11.

Yesterday I made quiche and these pretty little marbles came in so handy. I used a recipe for quiche and crust from "The Best Recipe," from the editors of Cooks Illustrated. It's one of my favorite, most stain-splattered cookbooks. Whatever recipe you use, here's a tip that helps make for a perfect pre-baked crust: Once you've got the pie crust in the pan, chill it for 40 minutes in the refrigerator and then put it into the freezer for 20 minutes before baking. This actually prevents shrinking as the crust bakes. It's quite amazing.

This Cooks Illustrated recipe for a single 9-inch crust is surprisingly easy to handle and is perfectly flaky and delicious:

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
3 tablespoons shortening
4-5 tablespoons ice water

Pulse flour, salt, sugar in food processor. Scatter butter pieces over flour, tossing to coat. Cut butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening and cut in with about 4 more 1-second pulses, 'til it resembles coarse cornmeal. Turn mixture into medium bowl.

Sprinkle four tablespoons ice water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix. Press down on mixture with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 1 tablespoon of water if needed. Shape dough into ball, squeezing two or three times with hands until cohesive. Flatten into 4-inch disk. Dust lightly with flour, wrap in plastic. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days before rolling.

Remove dough from refrigerator; let stand at room temperature to soften slightly. Roll dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch disk, about 1/8 inch thick. Fold dough into quarters, then place dough point in center of pie pan. Unfold dough.

Press dough gently into pan. Trim edge and flute dough at edges. Refrigerate for 40 minutes, then freeze for 20 minutes before baking. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Press doubled 12-inch square of aluminum foil inside dough shell; distribute 1 cup of pie weights or dry beans over foil. Bake about 17 minutes. Carefully remove foil and weights by gathering sides of foil and pulling up and out. For partially baked crust, continue baking about 9 minutes more, until lightly browned. For fully baked crust, bake about 15 minutes more until deep golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool, then fill as directed in your favorite recipes.

Blueberry-apple sauce goes well with pork

Even in our global economy, it remains difficult to find some ingredients in Wichita, Kansas. Yesterday I wanted to make black currant sauce from my new French cookbook. The recipe called for either fresh black currants (uh huh!) or a jar of black currants in syrup. I went to my newly expanded Dillons store, where it seems they sell everything imaginable, but had no luck. I went to a specialty market, but all I found there were the same cans of gourmet goods Dillons offers, for twice the price. I will continue this quest through the winter. As for dinner last night, I substituted blueberries and ended up with a nice berry-and-apple sauce to serve with pork tenderloin.

I did find Chambord black currant jam at Dillons, and I dolloped a bit of that in as my blueberries were cooking. Here's the recipe, adapted from "My French Kitchen," by Joanne Harris and Fran Warde.

Pork with blueberries and apples

1 can blueberries in light syrup
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 pork tenderloins
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
Pinch of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon black currant jam

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Cook the tenderloins over medium heat until golden all over. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 15 minutes. When internal temperature reaches 170 degrees, transfer to a platter. While meat is cooking, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan and cook apples for 10 minutes, until golden. Add cinnamon.

Strain the blueberries and reserve syrup. Put the syrup and jam into the skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cut remaining butter into pieces and whisk to make a glossy sauce. Add the blueberries. Add the apples. Slice the pork and serve with the sauce. (Very nice with potatoes.)

Feathery sweet: Cocoa meringues

Today I attempted crème brulée, with sad results. In fact, I had to toss the whole lot into the garbage disposal. Sigh. However, I did make good use of the big bowl of egg whites I had left over from that fiasco. I decided to try to make meringues like the cookies I'd seen in French pastry shops, and those turned out beautifully.

Son Erik helped me dissect what went wrong with the crème brulée, by the way. When I added hot vanilla-laced cream to my beaten egg yolks, I got distracted and didn't get to stirring things up soon enough. So my egg yolks started to cook and everything turned into a sugary scrambled egg mess. I will try again after dinner tonight; I want to serve crème brulée tomorrow night and apparently it's best to prepare it a day ahead of time.

Here's the recipe for my cocoa meringue cookies. If the crème brulée fails again, these will have to serve as dessert tomorrow.

Cocoa meringues

Let six egg whites reach room temperature. Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Beat egg whites 'til soft peaks form. Keep beating, and add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Slowly add 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar. Continue beating. Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder. Beat until very stiff. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop dollops onto the cookie sheets. Bake for two hours. Turn off oven, let cookies cool in oven, for several hours. Serve with whipped cream and berries if you like.

Slow cooker chicken cacciatore, I'll call it

I love coming home on a Friday night to a nicely prepared dinner, especially one I prepared myself at lunch time.

Today, during my noon hour, I thawed four chicken thighs in the microwave and threw them into the slow cooker with an assortment of ingredients I had on hand: a15-ounce can of tomatoes, a 15-ounce can of tomato sauce, a chopped yellow pepper, a diced red onion, three minced garlic cloves, about a cup of red wine, and a few generous shakes of dried basil. I set the cooker on high, and about three hours later, while I was hard at work downtown, Dave turned the temperature to low. At the end of the day, we poured this nice chicken dish over some freshly cooked new potatoes to enjoy with steamed green peas. Perfectly lovely.

Vive la différence: Salmon in Pinot Noir

Sometimes it pays to take chances in the kitchen. A couple of days ago, I was thumbing through the cookbook I'd just purchased ("My French Kitchen" by Joanne Harris) and decided to prepare her salmon in red wine. I don't usually serve salmon with red wine, much less cook it in an entire bottle of the stuff. But it was really good. And easy too. You start by melting 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a tablespoon of olive oil in a big skillet, then add a finely diced red onion, a chopped clove of garlic and 4 ounces of sliced mushrooms. Saute for 10 minutes.

Then sprinkle in 3 tablespoons flour and mix well (Julia Child says it's very important to cook the flour well before adding liquid to a sauce, so I did...) Then gradually add a 750-ml bottle of Pinot Noir or red Burgundy (I used Pinot Noir), mix 'til smooth and bring to a boil. Add 6 salmon fillets, with skin left on, spooning the wine over them evenly. Cover and simmer for 8 minutes. Lift out the salmon, keep it warm and bring the wine back to a boil. Spoon out the mushrooms and serve them with the salmon over rice. Very nice. Looks a little like beef burgundy when you serve it up, but tastes like beautifully poached fish. Perfect with a glass of red wine.

Apple compote tart has continental charm

I used my new tart pan today to make an apple compote tart that is cooling now and looks just lovely. Yes, it's a little clunky by Paris patisserie standards, but I'm happy with it nonetheless. I adapted a recipe from Epicurious that calls for cooking an apple compote to use as the first layer of the filling, topped with big chunks of apples and brown sugar. I added a little cinnamon when I cooked the compote, and topped the tart with a few almond slices and brushed the top with a glaze of melted apricot preserves before baking. When I do this again, I will brush on the hot glaze just after the tart comes out of the oven, not before. It got just a little scorched the way I did it.

I realize after researching a few recipes that the little removable-bottom pan I bought at E.DeHillerin will not work for a classic "tarte tatin," which requires a heavy skillet to create an upside-down apple pie. I will try that soon. I priced a small tarte tatin pan today at Williams-Sonoma. It was $149. (Sigh. I know where I could get one cheaper.)

Also today, I bought an inspiring cookbook, My French Kitchen, by Joanne Harris (who wrote the novel "Chocolat") and Fran Warde. Here is a quote I love from the preface: "Food -- and its preparation -- should be a pleasure. Faced with such a bewildering selection of 'conveniently' processed foods and ready meals in the supermarkets, it is sometimes hard to remember this. There is nothing convenient about bad food. When in a hurry, it takes less time to make a fabulous salad or sandwich or pasta dish than it does to defrost an overpriced tray of mush." Oui, c'est vrai.

Picnic makes most of warm October day

It might as well still be summer in Wichita, with temperatures hovering close to 90 degrees. I'm so eager for cooler weather, but for now, hey, there's nothing to do but pretend it's July and have a picnic.

Yesterday we did just that, attending a fabulous outdoor jazz concert with friends at the Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine. We all contributed plenty of cheese, excellent bread, grapes and apples, a little sausage, crackers, veggies, nice wine, some chocolates, all of which we spread out on a couple of blankets on the grass to enjoy while listening to the music. Nothing fancy, nothing anyone prepared ahead of time, but fun and delicious. (Recently I've been buying nice French camembert at the grocery store-- I love it when it's mild, and so soft it's as easy to spread as butter.) We had a great time.

It's a little cooler today. Maybe I'll do some cooking.

E. Dehillerin is worth a transatlantic trip

The Louvre is magnifique, and the Eiffel Tower's OK, but for my money, one of the most glorious attractions in Paris is E.Dehillerin, "le spécialiste du matériel de cuisine."

This is a cramped, two-story old store on rue Coquillière in central Paris, filled with copper cookware, knives, baking dishes, madeleine pans, every imaginable kitchen tool. Prices are good, even against our weak dollar. Next time I go to Paris I will take an empty rolling suitcase so I can really make a haul at this place.

As it was, I bought just a few things-- two tarte pans, one to keep and one for my son the pastry expert, wire whisks, and a simple but elegant porcelain serving dish. Oh, and two very sharp chef's knives not suitable for one's carry-on bag. This weekend I'm going to use my new pan to attempt a tarte tatin as good as what we had at "Le Vieux Bistro," a great little restaurant just à côté de Notre Dame de Paris.

Très vite, beautiful crepes

Amy asks how to make crepes. It's a bit of a challenge to explain in writing, but not a challenge to actually accomplish. The key is to use a good crepe pan, heat it to medium-high and melt a dab of butter in the pan just before pouring the batter in. Perfection depends on swishing the batter in the hot pan to evenly coat to create a very thin layer, and flipping carefully after a minute so your crepe doesn't tear.

In France, vendors sell crepes on the street, cooking them to perfection on big flat round skillets and offering a variety of toppings-- Grand Marnier, chocolat, cheese, fruit syrup or a national favorite, Nutella. C'est bon.

At home, you can freeze crepes in a plastic bag, separated by layers of waxed paper, to use later to create a crepe dinner casserole or dessert. Here's an easy recipe from a previous post (I know, I know, it's the equivalent of a blog rerun, but I haven't time to cook since we got back from vacation!):

Crepes

1 cup flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup lukewarm water
4 large eggs
1/2 stick melted butter
3 tablespoons sugar (if you're topping with something sweet)

Whisk well in a mixing bowl. Over medium-high heat, melt a teaspoon of butter in a crepe pan. Remove pan from heat, pour in about 1/2 cup butter, tilting pan to cover entire bottom with a very thin layer of batter. Pour any excess back into mixing bowl. Return to heat, cook for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes, til edges are slightly browned. Carefully turn with a stainless steel spatula. Cook for 1 minute more. Remove from pan, stack on a plate covered with waxed paper. Repeat the drill 'til batter is used up, stacking waxed paper on top of each cooked crepe, adding butter to pan as needed. Cover stack with plastic wrap, refrigerate 'til needed. (Adapted from Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary edition. )

Bringing home the flavors of France

The food in France is, bien sur, wonderful beyond description. How could it be otherwise, with a boulangerie on every block, and a charcuterie, and a patisserie and a cave du vin aussi. On our trip last week, we enjoyed Croque Madame (your basic gourmet cheese sandwich, topped with a fried egg) and pain au chocolat, and beaucoup de fromage, and country pate, and lovely Loire Valley wines. And apple tarts topped with creme fraiche. Steak frites at lunchtime. Escargots before dinner.

Even fresh fruit tastes better in France. At outdoor markets, we bought strawberries more sugary sweet than anyone should be able to buy anywhere this time of year, and elegant grapes and pears.

Yes, we can buy baguettes at American grocery stores these days, but none as crisp and perfect as the baguettes Parisians line up to buy every day at their neighborhood bake shops.

My goal in the months ahead: I'll master the art of warm camembert salad, creme caramel and other French delights. I'll study what Julia Child has to say on the subject of French cooking. And I'll make more crepes. It should be a great winter.