Yet another pretty Dessert photo

Happy Birthday to Jenny! You can read Jenny's poems by following the link on my blog page(Le Poeme). I made this cake for her birthday dinner. It's another Maida Heatter beauty. It's called the Montana Mountain Cake. Because it's about as tall as a Montana mountain (the nice icing peaks don't hurt either). And, I didn't even bake the layers in 8" cake pans, as she says you can. It would have been ridiculous!

It's three tall layers of delicious mild chocolate cake with loads of coffee-caramel 7-minute icing. Very impressive - when you walk in the door, the guests all go "Oooh!" and "Aaahhh!" Even more ooohs and aaahhhs when they taste it.

People ask me if I like baking desserts best. Certainly, the adulation is lovely. I really love cooking, with baking another part of cooking. I don't really understand people who say they can't bake, especially great chefs/cooks. If you meet me, don't tell me you can't bake. You might not be able to bake this cake as your first (or even 10th) foray into baking, but you can bake. Takes a bit more attention to detail, but if you can follow a recipe, you can bake.

Goat Cheese - Porcini Tamales

Goat cheese tamale with fig-lemon salsa

Here's one of the tamale recipes I made for Christmas: a moderately aged goat cheese wrapped in a porcini masa. The recipe is based on one from Tamales by Mark Miller, Stephen Pyles and John Sedlar. It's served with a tasty fig-lemon salsa. In the original recipe, the goat cheese is paired with a black olive masa (which sounds like another stellar combination) but I wanted to try the porcini one. It's not a powerful mushroom flavor, just an undercurrent of earthy nuttiness.

Wrapping tamales takes a bit of time and practice and it's nice to have extra hands to make the work go quickly. This recipe makes 8 tamales, so you won't be stuck wrapping forever even if you make them on your own. They are worth the effort.

This recipe calls for an aged goat cheese. I used a ripe Humboldt Fog® from Cypress Grove Chevre in Northern California. It's an earthy pungent cheese. You could use a milder goat cheese, one that isn't aged but it can be very sticky to work with. Also, the aged goat is the perfect counterpoint to the sweet fig salsa.

Beet and Carrot Salad with Coriander-Sesame Salt

I pulled this recipe off of Epicurious.com. It's fantastic. Really, really delicious. What a great way to get your vegetables. Because these are hardy vegetables, it keeps quite nicely for a few days in the fridge too. The beets turn the carrots red, but who really cares?

Beet and Carrot Salad with Coriander-Sesame Salt

Lamb and Walnut Stew

Lamb and Walnut stew over Israeli couscous

I love pomegranate molasses. It's highly reduced pomegranate juice and it is intense and syrupy. Like molasses, but it has a tart-sweet flavor that is totally unique. You can find it in ethnic grocery stores (ones with a good selection of Middle Eastern products are a good bet) or high-end supermarkets, like Whole Foods.

A little of this stuff goes a long way, given its intensity. Which means that a bottle of it lasts a long, long time. It does keep forever but I'm always on the look-out for recipes that use it effectively.

This is a richly flavored stew perfect for winter. Though the pomegranate molasses is sweet, it is not overly sweet. A perfect balance of sweet, tart, and spicy. Not hot spicy but exotic spicy.

This recipe is from Sephardic Cooking by Copeland Marks (Primus, 1994), an incredible collection of Sephardic recipes from Europe, Africa, and Asia. Sephardic Jewish cooking retains more of its Middle Eastern roots and is normally associated with the Mediterranean. But, Sephardic cooking comes from such unexpected places as India and Central Asia. This recipe is Persian, what is now known as Iran. I used lamb but you could make this with any meat: chicken parts, turkey thighs, beef, or veal.

Like most stews, this tastes even better after it's chilled overnight and reheated. It freezes great too.

Fesenjan: Meat Stew in Pomegranate and Walnut Sauce
(serves 6)

Masa Cornbread Stuffing

Another successful Thanksgiving dinner! This cornbread stuffing was a big hit. The cornbread has a twist: it's made with masa flour (corn tortilla mix) as well as cornmeal. Masa is also used for making tamales. It has a distinctive flavor that I just love. This recipe came from Epicurious and I've made some modifications. It makes a lot, which is fine for a big Thanksgiving dinner but not for a regular dinner or small party. I've cut the recipe in half for the stuffing but not for the cornbread. Use half the pan of cornbread and freeze the rest. Cornbread freezes really well; cut it into serving-size pieces and freeze them so you can pull out just what you need.

Masa Cornbread
(makes enough for stuffing + plenty for eating)

Brisket with Green Chiles

This recipe occurred to me when I had defrosted a brisket and found my crisper drawer filled with Hatch green chiles from my garden. Kind of a hybrid derived from my life: brisket for my Jewish New York upbringing, and green chiles for my adopted home in, nominally, the Southwest. Colorado isn't really what most people think of as the Southwest but parts of it were part of the original Spanish colony. Lots of old Hispanic influences. I'm a huge fan of Southwestern food. I worked at an incredible Southwestern restaurant, Zolo Grill, when I first made the switch from engineer to chef. Still love that food! If you ever find yourself in Boulder, check it out. It's still one of the best meals in town.

This is a slow cooker recipe because it's a great way to cook a brisket. Brisket is a tough cut. Lots and lots of fat and collagen. But, that's what makes it so very good. Though this is delicious the day it's made, it's even better if if you chill it overnight, and reheat it. Also gives you a chance to easily skim off the copious fat. Otherwise, it's kind of an oil slick!

Brisket with Green Chiles
(serves 6-8)

2 ¼ - 2 ½ pounds beef brisket, in one piece
1 ½ Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 large onions, sliced
6 large New Mexican green chiles, such as Hatch, roasted, peeled, and seeded
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¾ teaspoon ground ancho chile
1 teaspoon ground mild Chimayo red chile
3 cups beef stock
2 large cloves garlic, sliced

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season brisket with frac12; the salt and frac12; the pepper. Brown in hot skillet. Remove to a 3-5 quart slow cooker. Add onion and chiles to skillet and cook until limp and browned. Add cumin and chile powder. Stir and cook for about 1 minute. Add 1 cup beef stock, and scrape up any browned bits in skillet. Pour the whole thing into the slow cooker, along with remaining salt, pepper, beef stock, and sliced garlic. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. To serve, slice or shred meat.

Salmon on a Plank

I decided to try something new with the salmon. Grill it on a plank. Grill isn't really correct because the planks aren't put directly over the heat. Cooking on a plank is a moist heat method. The planks are soaked in water first. When the planks are placed in a hot grill, the planks start to steam, cooking the salmon. Since the planks themselves have aromatic properties, the steam is imbued with this delicious, interesting scent of woodsy-ness. And, it's quite yummy and wonderfully moist.

As I said, this is an indirect grilling method. You need a grill with at least 2 heating elements, or a charcoal grill that is big enough to put the hot coals on one side and room for the planks on the unheated side.

I used cedar planks, but alder planks work well too. The planks are reusable. You don't put them over a direct flame so they don't get charred, particularly when cooking fast-cooking salmon. A single plank is big enough to hold 2 fillets of about 6 oz. each which is enough for 2 servings.

Cedar Planked Salmon
(serves 4)