Champagne Chicken

Leave a comment

Champagne Chicken

This is not your average chicken dish. It may look fairly ordinary in the photos but this chicken is particularly royal. Drenched in a champagne mushroom sauce, it’s fit for a King…or a special occasion such as New Years. I would recommend making this with leftover champagne after new years but for many of us, “leftover” champagne is usually non-existent. In this case, get the party started early by opening that bottle while cooking new years eve dinner and toast to the chef.

This recipe comes from “The Art of Good Cooking” and can easily be halved. Sparkling wine may also be substituted for the champagne, making it a bit more the budget friendly. The chicken is actually cooked in the champagne (or wine) sauce, absorbing its sweet fruity tones. Mushrooms are added and the sauce is then thickened further with egg yolk and cream (substitute half and half if you would like). And since it wouldn’t be a Paula Peck dish without fresh parsley – the sauce is finished with chopped fresh parsley as well as tarragon. Simple yet deliciously rich, this chicken is the perfect side- kick for that champagne toast. Happy New Year!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
6 chicken legs, skinned
6 chicken thighs, skinned
1/2 cup chopped shallots
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon
salt and pepper
2 cups champagne or sparkling wine (approximately)
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced and sauteed 2 tablespoons butter
1 cup heavy cream or half and half
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon

Melt butter in a broad heavy pan over medium heat. Add chicken legs and thighs and sauté slowly, turning frequently, until chicken loses its pink color on the outside. Add shallots and continue to sauté until they are soft. Remove chicken and keep warm.

Stir flour into pan. Cook for a few minutes over low heat, stirring constantly. Add dried tarragon, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat and whisk in champagne. Return chicken to sauce. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes, until chicken is just tender and juices run clear when pierced with a fork. Remove chicken pieces to a platter and keep warm.

Add sauteed, sliced mushrooms to sauce. If sauce seems thin, raise heat to reduce it a little, while stirring, being careful not to scorch the sauce. Remove from heat.

Whisk cream and egg yolks together. Stir this mixture into sauce. Replace over low heat, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens a little more. Add tarragon and half the parsley. Taste for seasoning and pour over chicken.

Adapted from “The Art of Good Cooking,” by Paula Peck.

 

Yum

Chocolate Roll

2 comments
Chocolate Roll or Buche de Noel | ImPECKableeats.com

Chocolate Roll or Buche de Noel | ImPECKableeats.com

This is basically a Bûche de Noël. I refrained from calling it that for two reasons. The first is that my grandmother never referred to it as such and instead called it a chocolate roll. Probably because she was technically Jewish but also because my grandfather was somewhat anti-holiday. The second reason is that most Buche de Noel has meringue mushrooms and/or other decorations that make it look like a log – all tasty but a fair amount of extra work when we all know the cake is the real star of the show.

Although three separate components make up this cake, each is fairly quick and the assembly is simple. My grandmother’s multi-purpose Chocolate Pastry (sponge cake) is the base of the cake. Made with melted semi-sweet chocolate and meringue, it melts in your mouth even before the filling and frosting are added. Basic whipped cream flavored with cocoa powder makes up the filling. The roll is perfectly delicious with just the cake and filling but to take it up a notch, I frosted it with another versatile Paula Peck recipe: Mocha Buttercream. I might be addicted to this stuff. It’s so easy to make and the coffee deepens the chocolate flavor, making it bold and rich. The final chocolate roll is moist and chocolaty, the perfect dessert to end Christmas dinner or even just to satisfy a serious chocolate cake craving.

Ingredients:

Cake
1 recipe Chocolate Pastry

Filling
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted

Frosting
1/2 recipe Speedy Mocha Buttercream

For the filling:

Whip heavy cream in an electric mixer. When cream begins to thicken, gradually add sugar, vanilla, and cocoa powder.

To assemble the chocolate roll:

Place chocolate pastry on a sheet of wax paper large enough to extend at least 1 inch on all sides and dusted with cocoa powder. Spread pastry with filling. Lifting one long side of the wax paper, roll pastry inward. Continue to lift wax paper while pastry rolls up, jelly-roll style. Roll will crack, but cracks will be covered with frosting. Twist wax paper firmly around chocolate roll to help give it shape. Frost cake with mocha buttercream.

Adapted from “The Art of Fine Baking,” by Paula Peck.

Yum

Oysters in White Wine Sauce

Leave a comment
Oysters in White Wine Sauce

Oysters in White Wine Sauce close

Most of us don’t think about eating oysters during the holidays, or for that matter in winter at all. But here in the Northeast, specifically on the East End of Long Island, oysters are currently at their tastiest. From late November to mid-January, these delicacies are both large and plump – allowing for additional preparation methods.  It’s hard to compete with the fresh sea taste of a raw oyster, but the cold winter weather often demands hot food this time of year. This unpublished recipe for Oysters in White Wine sauce by my grandmother, Paula Peck, is the perfect compromise of a warm comforting dish that still has the fresh flavor of oysters pulled from the water that same day.

Fresh Peconic Bay Oysters in a Lantern Net

Fresh Peconic Bay Oysters in a Lantern Net

My grandmother and her close friend, James Beard, shared similar views regarding fish and seafood. She insisted that fish and seafood must always be fresh and never overcooked – now standard culinary rules that weren’t as common back in the 1960’s. Although she demanded high quality seafood (usually from Citerella in those days), it’s unlikely she ever got to enjoy the level of freshness that the bays of Eastern Long Island can provide.

With my father working with the Southold Project in Aquaculture Training (SPAT)  – a Cornell Cooperative Extension Program in Southold to revitalize the shellfish of Long Island, I’m often spoiled by the superior quality of the oysters I eat when visiting. These amazing mollusks bulk up over the summer in preparation for winter hibernation (and for us to eat them!), making them an excellent candidate for this soup-like dish. Vegetables and herbs are combined with white wine, lemon juice, and olive oil then simmered for an hour until slightly thickened and fragrant. The shelled (fat) oysters are then simply added with all of their juices and quickly poached until just barely tender. The cooked oysters can then be served back in their shells, making Oysters in White Wine Sauce the perfect appetizer for one of my grandmother’s famous dinner parties for James Beard and Craig Claiborne, as well as your next holiday party.

Ingredients:

1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
8 peppercorns
3 springs fresh thyme
3-4 sprigs parsley
2 dozen oysters, shucked (with juice) – bottom shells reserved
salt
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 small tomato, finely diced

Combine all ingredients except oysters, salt, chopped parsley, and tomato in a deep heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer for one hour.

Add oysters and their juice. When liquid begins to simmer around edges of pot, turn off heat (no more than 4-5 minutes). Season with salt to taste.

To serve, remove each oyster with slotted spoon into reserved shells (or small bowls). Spoon some of the sauce and vegetables into shells. Sprinkle with diced tomato and chopped parley. Garnish with slices of lemon.

Oysters in White Wine Sauce

Yum

Old Fashioned Gingerbread with Orange Scented Whipped Cream

3 comments
Gingerbread with Orange Scented Whipped Cream

Gingerbread with Orange Scented Whipped Cream

Gingerbread goes hand in hand with the holidays. Its spicy warmth is irresistible on those cold winter nights in front of the fireplace or admiring the Christmas tree. We often associate gingerbread with cookies or even houses these days, but it actually takes many different forms – often depending on its European origin. This cake form is now considered particularly old fashioned. The recipe is adapted from “The James Beard Cookbook” and when it was published in 1959, James Beard was already describing it as truly old fashioned – which means it’s pretty darn old. However, classics such as these are timeless and good food never gets old especially if the ingredients and preparation remain simple.

I couldn’t resist adding a twist to the whipped cream, a must-have on top of each steaming hot piece. The cinnamon and cloves get along famously with citrus so a touch of fresh zest along with the juice of an orange, balances the spicy sweet flavors of this understated holiday specialty. My grandmother used whipped cream in many of her desserts. She actually has a page in her baking book devoted to how to make, flavor, and stabilize it. I like to think of this combination of old fashioned gingerbread with orange scented whipped cream as a joint recipe among two accomplished friends (James Beard and my grandmother, Paula Peck).

Ingredients:

Gingerbread
1 cup molasses
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup sour cream

Orange Scented Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest

For the Gingerbread:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8×8 cake pan.

Put molasses and butter in a saucepan and heat until they boil. Sift the flour, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and ground cloves. When the butter and molasses are slightly cooled, add sour cream and then stir in spices and flour. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm with a large dollop of orange scented whipped cream.

For the Whipped Cream:

Whip heavy cream in an electric mixer. When cream begins to thicken, gradually add sugar, vanilla, and orange juice. Fold in orange zest.

Gingerbread recipe adapted from “The James Beard Cookbook,” by James Beard.

Gingerbread with Orange Scented Whipped Cream

Yum

Apple Cranberry Pie

Leave a comment
Apple Cranberry Pie

Apple Cranberry Pie

It started out as an apple pie – classic and simple. Then I added cranberries, followed by orange zest and spices. Before I could stop myself, a festive deep dish apple cranberry pie had been created. It turns out it’s a great way to use up those extra cranberries from Thanksgiving while creating a dessert fit for the next holiday party. Like a few other recipes I’m working on for the holiday season, this is not from the Paula Peck archives. The cream cheese pie crust recipe is from the cookbook, “John Clancy’s Favorite Recipes” by John Clancy, a chef and friend of my grandmother from the same 1970’s + era. With just his name scribbled across a few of my grandmother’s unpublished recipes, I know little about John Clancy. I’ve heard that his strength was baking more so than cooking, and I assume he met my grandmother through James Beard, with whom he taught cooking classes. In addition to a handful of cookbooks and his work as a teacher, he was also a restaurateur- owning a successful restaurant in Greenwich Village.

Since the original cream cheese pastry recipe is for one 9-inch shell, I doubled it to fit this double crusted pie. For those of you concerned about the additional dairy and fat from the cream cheese, my grandmother’s rich tart pastry would also work well (not that it’s anymore diet friendly though). The pastry crust creates a fragile shell around the filling which is jam packed with tender apples and juicy cranberries that are liberally sweetened to balance the tartness of the fruit. Spiced with cinnamon and just a pinch cloves and nutmeg, this apple cranberry pie will fill your home with the sweet aroma of the holidays.

Ingredients:

Cream Cheese Pastry (double crust)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter
6 ounces of cream cheese

Filling
3 lbs apples (honey crisp or granny smith work well)
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 a lemon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch cloves and nutmeg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cubed
milk (for brushing)

For the pie crust:

Combine the flour, salt, and sugar with an electric mixer. Add butter and cream cheese and mix on medium speed until the ingredients are well blended. Form dough into a disk and chill 30 minutes.

Cut disk in half and roll out half the dough into a round about 1/8 inch thick (chill remaining half until ready to use). Transfer dough to a 9-inch pie plate. Press the dough against the sides and bottom and trim edges, leaving a 1/2 inch overhang. Chill the pie shell for 30 minutes.

While the pie shell chills, prepare the filling:

Peel and slice apples 1/4 inch thick. Rub apples with half of a lemon to stop them from browning while you slice them. In a large bowl, combine the apples with the cranberries, sugar, orange zest, spices, and flour.

Roll out remaining pastry into a large round about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer filling into chilled pie shell and dot with butter. Roll the pastry onto a rolling pin and unroll over filling. Trim edges and pinch together top pastry with the overhang from the pastry shell. Chill pie for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush the pie with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar. Cut 4-5 steam vents (about 2 inches long). Bake 40 min – 1 hour or until apples are tender when a toothpick or cake tester is inserted into the pie.

Cream Cheese Pastry recipe adapted from “John Clancy’s Favorite Recipes,” by John Clancy.

Yum

1 … 15 16 17 18 19 … 34