Blue Cayenne

What do a Pavlova, a bowl of cherry Garcia and a Margarita have in common? You got that one right! They are all foods named after a famous person. (The Pavlova meringue confection is named after the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Cherry Garcia is named after, well, Jerry Garcia. The Margarita is named after Rita Hayworth.)

Here is a riff on another tribute food–the Wellington. The original dish, the beef Wellington, was named after the Dublin-born British military hero and Prime Minister, The Duke of Wellington–Arthur Wellesley to his friends. (Wellington, you will remember, was the hero of Waterloo, the fateful battle that inflicted a final crushing defeat on Napoleon and sent him into a last brooding exile in the mid-Atlantic.) A beef Wellington, if you are unfamiliar with it, is a decadent beef tenderloin slathered in foie gras and duxelles and wrapped in a tender-crispy puff pastry. Here is a photo of the hunky Wellesley:

In reality, the beef Wellington was probably an in-your-face rebranding of a French dish, the filet de boeuf en croute. Take that, France! When I read that bit of history, I was reminded of our own “Freedom Fry” moment. Remember when Congressman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) got himself all wrapped up in a tizzy and renamed the French fries in the Congressional cafeteria freedom fries? ( He was furious that the French refused to back our invasion of Iraq. French President Jacques Chirac argued that the U.S. invasion was premature and that U.N. weapons inspectors should be given more time to determine if Iraq did indeed possess weapons of mass destruction.)

Here is my adaptation of Melissa Clark’s butternut squash and mushroom Wellington. (http://Melissa Clark’s Butternut Squash and Mushroom Wellington)

By the way, Rita Hayworth’s real name was Margarita.

Yields 6-8 Servings

Butternut Squash and Mushroom Wellington

45 minPrep Time

30 minCook Time

1 hr, 15 Total Time

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Ingredients

• 4 T. butter
• 1 1/4 lb. butternut squash (peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
• 1 t. maple syrup
• 1/2 t. chopped fresh thyme
• 1/8 t. smoked sweet paprika (or regular paprika)
• 1/2 t. kosher salt (or more to taste)
• 2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• 1 large shallot (finely chopped)
• 3/4 lb. cremini mushrooms (roughly chopped)
• 1/3 C. dry white wine
• 1/4 t. ground black pepper
• 2 T. chopped parsley
• Flour
• 1 (14 to 16 ounce) package of puff pastry
• 1 C. crumbled goat cheese
• 1 egg (whisked with 1/2 t. water)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with either parchment or a Silipat mat.
2. Divide your butternut cubes into two portions. Melt 1 T. butter over a medium-high heat. Put one portion of the butternut cubes into the hot skillet with the butter. The butternut squash cubes should lay on the pan in a single layer. The combination of the high heat and the butter will begin to caramelize the squash. Cook the squash for 4 minutes undisturbed. At 4 minutes, stir the squash and continue to cook for another 7 or 8 minutes. Watch the squash while it is cooking. You want it to caramelize but there is a fine line between that and burning. Remove from the pan and put into a bowl. Cook the other half of the butternut squash in 1 T. melted butter in the same way. At the end of the cooking, mix in the syrup, thyme, paprika and 1/4 t. salt. Cook for one more minute. Put this squash mixture into the bowl with the first half of the squash you cooked. Stir. Set aside.
3. Turn your heat to medium and melt the remaining 2 T. of butter in the same skillet that you used to cook the squash. Add the garlic and the shallot and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and the remaining salt to the skillet and cook until the mushrooms soften and release their juices. Continue to cook the mushrooms until their liquid evaporates (about 10 minutes). Add the wine, stir and cook until the wine evaporates (5 minutes). Stir the pepper and parsley into the mixture. Adjust seasonings. Set aside.
4. Lightly flour your working surface and unfold the defrosted puff pastry (follow directions for defrosting on the package). You will need one large sheet of the puff pastry (a 10 by 15 inch rectangle). Cut the puff pastry into two 5 inch by 15 inch rectangles. Leaving a 1/4 inch border around the edges of the puff pastry, arrange the chopped, cooked mushroom mixture down the center of the pastry. Sprinkle crumbled goat cheese over the mushrooms. Spoon the squash down the center of the mushrooms and cheese (you will want to make a thinner spread of the squash on top of the mushroom-cheese mixture (like a stripe of squash down the center of the mushrooms and cheese), leaving about a 1 1/2 inch border.
5. Brush the exposed edges of your pastry with egg wash. Grab the short ends of the pastry and fold them toward the middle, crimping the edges of pastry to seal them. Now, pinch the long sides of the pastry together to seal that part. Turn the puff pastry package over and place seam down on your prepared baking sheet. Brush the top of your pastry with egg wash and bake for approximately 30 minutes until it is puffed and golden brown.
6. Remove from oven and let the Wellington rest for a few minutes before cutting it. Cut into slices with a serrated knife and serve.

Nutrition

Calories

909 cal

Fat

66 g

Carbs

64 g

Protein

11 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

67

https://bluecayenne.com/butternut-squash-mushroom-wellington

Tender artichoke hearts. Lemon. Grape tomatoes. Herbs galore. Yum.

A friend served this as the main course at a dinner party I was fortunate to attend a few years ago. She confided that the recipe came from a Jamie Oliver book, The Naked Chef–yet another cookbook I’ve added to my collection. (You can buy the cookbook here on Amazon)

Although thorny artichokes can be downright cranky to prep, they should be a regular part of your culinary repertoire–particularly during the peak of the season that runs from March through May. Rich in folate, dietary fiber, vitamins C and K, magnesium and potassium (whew!), they pack more antioxidants than red wine or chocolate.  (I’m thinking that a meal incorporating artichokes and an abundance of red wine and chocolate would be a downright health food trifecta!)

If you live here in California, you have no excuse for not making artichokes a part of your healthy diet. California produces nearly 100% of the U.S. artichoke crop and beautiful artichokes can be found in nearly every market. If you hesitate to serve artichokes because you suffer from artichoke peeling anxiety (let’s call it APA), this video demystifies the process: Video: How to peel an artichoke.

Here is my adaptation of Oliver’s recipe. I served this with a green salad and toasted Israeli couscous from Trader Joe’s. The flat taste of the couscous was a perfect counterpoint to the rich blend of olive oil, lemon and herb flavors in the artichoke dish. Part of enjoying any dish, of course, is the visual experience and this dish doesn’t disappoint. Here, the bright red grape tomatoes, bathed in silky olive oil and with their warm juicy red goodness bursting out of their skins, make this dish pop.

Quite a feast for me on a quiet Friday night. Oliver’s dish is certainly all that and a bag of chips!

Yields 4 Servings

Artichokes, Sweet Cherry Tomatoes, Thyme and Basil

40 minPrep Time

40 minCook Time

1 hr, 20 Total Time

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Ingredients

• 4 medium to large globe artichokes
• Olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly-ground pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic (sliced thin)
• A handful of fresh thyme leaves
• A handful of fresh basil leaves (torn)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon (and more for the soaking water for the artichoke hearts)
• 20 ripe cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1 small dried red chili (or to taste)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Peel and prepare artichoke hearts. Quarter them and put them in a bowl of water with lemon juice to keep the artichokes from discoloring.
3. Add olive oil to a saucepan and sauté artichoke hearts for about 5 minutes with the lid on your pan. Add one half of the garlic, half the thyme and a generous pinch of salt to the pan. Cook (with the lid off the pan) until the garlic softens. Add the lemon juice to the pan and cook until the liquid in the pan has cooked away. Remove from the heat.
4. Wash and dry the tomatoes. Put in a bowl with some olive oil, salt and pepper, dried chili, and one half of the torn basil. Mix these ingredients well so that the oil coats the tomatoes. Pour the tomatoes into a baking dish and spread them out evenly.
5. Add the artichoke heart quarters to the tomatoes in the baking dish along with the remaining garlic. Sprinkle the remaining thyme and basil over the dish, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 40 minutes.

Notes

I served this with Israeli couscous.

Nutrition

Calories

162 cal

Fat

2 g

Carbs

35 g

Protein

8 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

61

https://bluecayenne.com/bag-chips-artichokes

Apparently Queen Elizabeth is a foodie.

She loves raspberry jam cookie sandwiches, white peaches, Dubonnet and gin, and chocolate biscuit cake. Scones are a constant at her tea table where she reportedly crumbles some of them up and slips them under the table to her beloved corgis. Like the rest of us, she enjoys having bowls of snacks, particularly mixed nuts, readily available when she is in the mood to nosh. (Remember the gossipy e-mail leaks a couple of years ago that revealed that the Queen was in a bit of a tizzy about the royal police guards who were pilfering nuts from the bowls that were kept in the palace corridors–nuts that were clearly intended for Her? Reportedly, she started marking the bowls to deter the thieves and a frosty royal memo was issued. If I may add my two cents here, I guess we all have our triggers, but I don’t think I would get into a war of words with the people protecting my life over a few bowls of nuts.  Just sayin… )

Purportedly, the chocolate biscuit cake is her favorite after-dinner dessert. Wills’, too. (He had the cake as his groom’s cake at his wedding to Kate Middleton.)

On the occasion of the recent celebration of the Queen’s 91st birthday, the press ran a number of anecdote-filled stories about the bespoke chocolate biscuit cake and the Queen’s obsession with it.

The anecdote I liked best was one about the Queen’s travels (by train) from Buckingham Palace to Windsor Castle. On those trips, it is the job of a member of the royal household to package up a chocolate biscuit cake (most likely a left-over cake since the thrifty Queen eats a slice every day and insists upon finishing every last piece of a biscuit cake before starting a new one).  A member of the royal household then rides in the train car behind the Queen’s car with the box of cake safely stowed on his lap. Great image. I’m picturing the honorable and ever-reliable Mr. Bates sitting patiently with the Queen’s cake as the verdant green English countryside rolls by outside his window. Full disclosure: I think I’m in love with Mr. Bates. When did they stop making men like that?)

Speaking of love, the love of chocolate has a long history among British royals. Chocolate was introduced into England from The New World during the age of exploration. England’s Seventeenth Century King Charles I enjoyed drinking hot chocolate at court until that no-fun Puritan Oliver Cromwell condemned chocolate as “sinfully pleasurable.” Charles lost his head during the civil war that followed, but when the monarchy was restored under Charles II, chocolate quickly came back into royal favor. When William and Mary came to the throne in 1689, they had a special chocolate kitchen built at Kensington Palace. Cadbury has been supplying a special dark chocolate to the British royals since Victorian times. The recipe is a trade secret. Maybe Elizabeth’s chocolate sweet tooth is in her genes.

Here is the recipe for the Queen’s chocolate biscuit cake. To my taste, it is more like a candy bar in the shape of a cake. Fresh out of the refrigerator, let it sit on your counter for a while before cutting it. It is rich. Serve it in small slices. A scoop of high-end vanilla ice cream would be a good accompaniment.

This cake recipe was adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe. Here is the link: Bon Appetit’s Chocolate Biscuit Cake .

Here is the recipe:

Yields 16 Servings

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

20 minPrep Time

20 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 1/2 C. plus 6 T. (4 sticks minus 2 T.) unsalted butter
• 30 oz. bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped (do not exceed 61% cacao)
• 3/4 C. heavy whipping cream
• 6 T. Lyle's Golden Syrup
• 2 7.5 oz. packages of Rich Tea Biscuits coarsely chopped
• (or butter biscuits like Le Petit Beurre)
• For Glaze
• 8 oz. semisweet chocolate (coarsely chopped)
• 1 C. heavy whipping cream
• 1 T. light corn syrup

Instructions

1. Use a springform pan that has been lightly-coated with vegetable oil spray. Put a round of parchment paper on the bottom of the springform pan.
2. Melt butter and chocolate over low heat in a medium saucepan. Add cream and golden syrup to the pan and stir. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully mix in the coarsely-chopped biscuits. Pour this mixture into the prepared springform pan and tap on the counter to settle and smooth the mixture. Refrigerate overnight (until set).
3. For the glaze, put your chopped chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the whipping cream and corn syrup until it simmers. Pour the simmering cream/syrup mixture over the chocolate and let the mixture sit for about five minutes. Stir until the ingredients are totally melted and the mixture is very smooth. Let the glaze cool slightly but it should still be pourable when you apply it to the cake.
4. Remove the cake from the refrigerator. Remove the cake from the pan. (You will probably need to run a knife around the edge of the springform pan to dislodge the chilled cake.) Invert the cake onto a wire rack that you have positioned over a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Remove the bottom plate of the springform pan and the round of parchment paper from the cake. Pour the glaze over the cake and let it dribble down the sides of the cake. Use a spatula to smooth the glaze onto the cake. Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes until the glaze sets. Remove from refrigerator and let the cake sit on your counter for a while to make it easier to cut. Garnish with a sliced strawberry.

Notes

I halved this recipe with no problems.

I used Scharffenberger bittersweet chocolate. It was 70% cacao rather than the 61% (max) called for in the recipe. The cake is very rich. I will try it with a lower percentage cacao the next time I make it.

Amazon.com carries the Lyle's Golden Syrup called for in this recipe.

I was able to find Rich Tea Biscuits at Stater Brothers in the imported foods section.

Nutrition

Calories

77 cal

Fat

8 g

Carbs

1 g

Protein

1 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

58

https://bluecayenne.com/mr-bates-queens-cake