Blue Cayenne

Damn!

It is almost November and Blue Cayenne almost missed celebrating October as National Caramel Month.

What was I thinking?

The only excuse I can think of is that I’ve been in a sugar-induced stupor for the last couple of weeks. With Halloween approaching, I bought a huge bag of Costco chocolates for the trick or treaters. You know how that goes.

Although my intentions were pure, I’m well on my way to finishing off the tiny “fun-size” Milky Ways and have found myself eyeing the little Butterfingers. The little ghouls and goblins on my street are just going to have make do with the (ugh!) peanut-butter cups and the Baby Ruths.

In the four days left of October, there is still time for us to celebrate caramel month, though. What better way to do that than with this recipe adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine for a decadent caramelized honey, nut and seed tart.  It is a beauty–full of wonderful nuts and seeds held in place by an abundance of gooey caramel. Your guests will swoon!

You are probably sitting there reading this and wondering about the history of caramels.

Some believe that the confection was invented by the Arabs and transferred to Europe via the Crusades. Interestingly, the word for candy derives from the Arabic word qandi (made of sugar).

Caramels were mostly an aristocratic indulgence in Europe until the 19th century when the cost of sugar declined and put the candy within the reach of people of more modest means. It appears that the popularity of caramel candy in America coincided with the collapse in world sugar prices.

For some reason, early American caramel manufacturing was concentrated in Pennsylvania. Milton Hershey was one of the early manufacturers of American caramels.  In 1900, Hershey sold his caramel company (The Lancaster Caramel Company) and shifted his attention to chocolate candy production, saying “Caramels are just a fad, but chocolate is a permanent thing.”

I will leave it to you to decide if this caramel tart is a fad. I’ve added it as a permanent part of my cooking notebooks.

A link to the original recipe for this caramel and nut tart appears at the bottom of this post.

Ingredients: Caramelized Honey, Nut and Seed Tart

Crust
1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1/4 C. powdered sugar
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/2 C. (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter (cut into pieces)
2 large egg yolks
1 T. water

Filling
1/4 C. honey
1 T. water
1/4 C. granulated sugar
1/4 C. heavy cream
4 T. unsalted butter
2 T. light corn syrup
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. vanilla extract
2 C. mixed unsalted (and roasted) nuts (such as pecans, hazelnuts, peanuts, pistachios, and/or sliced almonds)
1/3 C. unsalted, roasted seeds (such a pumpkin or sunflower or a mixture)

Directions:

Bake at 350 degrees F. in a 9 inch (diameter) springform pan.

For the crust, combine flour, powdered sugar and salt in a food processor. Add the butter to the food processor bowl and pulse until the butter is mixed in and the mixture has the texture of coarse meal with a few pea-sized pieces of butter remaining. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks with 1 T. water. Turn the food processor on and slowly pour the egg yolk mixture into the butter/flour mixture. Continue processing until the mixture begins to form into large pieces of dough. Scoop the dough out of the processor and, with lightly floured fingers, form the dough into a ball and put it into the springform pan. Using your floured fingers, press the dough into the bottom and one inch up the sides of the springform pan. Smooth the dough into the pan and freeze for fifteen to twenty minutes or until the dough is frozen solid.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Once the dough is frozen, remove from the freezer the prick the bottom of the dough with a fork. Bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes. The dough should be slightly golden in color. Remove crust from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

For the filling, simmer honey and 1 T. water in a saucepan over medium to low heat until the mixture is darkened in color and has a nice nutty aroma. This will take about two minutes. While this is happening, DON’T stir the mixture. Instead swirl the mixture in the pan and use a pastry brush dipped in water to brush away the sugar crystals that form on the side of the pan. Otherwise, you compromise your caramel-making efforts.  Next, carefully stir in granulated sugar, heavy cream, butter, corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Increase the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil. Continue cooking your caramel for give to eight minutes (swirling the pan again–not stirring– and brushing down the sides of the pan with the pastry brush) until your caramel is dark in color and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Watch your caramel carefully to be sure that it doesn’t burn. If you overcook your caramel, it will turn into toffee.

Stir in the nuts and seeds and continue stirring until the caramel mixture coats the nuts.

Scrape the caramel nut mixture into your prepared pie shell and, using a spatula, spread the thick mixture until it fills the crust and extends to the edges of the crust.

Bake in a 350 degree F. oven until the filling for the pie is a deep golden brown and your caramel is bubbling away. This will take 25-30 minutes. Let your tart cool before cutting and serving.

Serve with a scoop of high quality French vanilla ice cream.

Here is the link to the original recipe:

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/caramelized-honey-nut-and-seed-tart

Last night, a group of old friends and I got together at Costa Mesa’s Segerstrom Center for the Arts to see the Carole King musical Beautiful.

It was a snap-your-fingers kind of show, one that made you laugh out loud and sing along. The audience was large, appreciative and, for the most part, of-a-certain age.

And there we sat, six good friends enjoying each other’s company. Most of us taught high school together for decades–seeing each other daily and unified in our commitment to give our students the best we had on any given day.

These days, we’re sure to make time to enjoy each other’s company. We get together for the theatre. We take in an occasional movie. We share events in each other’s lives over lunch.  As good friends do, we also support each other when life throws us those inevitable curves and the going gets tough.

This morning, when I think of my friends Carol, Carole, Murnez, Michelle and Debbie, the final lines in one of Carole King’s classic songs come to mind:

“Ain’t it good to know, ain’t it good to know, ain’t it good to know/You’ve got a friend/You’ve got a friend”

Ain’t it, indeed?

Here’s the food part of this post. In the spirit of the 70s when King’s solo career began to soar, what could be more appropriate than a casserole dish? Remember all those casserole pot-lucks?

Here is a recipe for a pretty wonderful cheese enchilada casserole. I hope you will share it with your friends.

This recipe was adapted from a Ree Drummond recipe. A link to the original recipe appears at the end of this post.

Ingredients: Cheese Enchiladas

1 C. sour cream (at room temperature)
1/4 t. ground cumin
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
2-3 green onions (sliced)
3 C. grated sharp cheddar cheese
10 corn tortillas
Enchilada Sauce (see recipe in the Blue Cayenne index at the right or by clicking on this link

As American as enchilada sauce…

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Spoon a few tablespoons of the enchilada sauce into a baking pan.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, cumin, cayenne pepper, green onions and 2 cups of grated cheese. Set aside.

Heat corn tortillas (on a grill or in the microwave). Dip each tortilla in the enchilada sauce. Lay the tortilla on a plate and fill the tortilla with a strip of the cheese filling. Roll the tortilla and put it seam side down in a large casserole dish. Repeat until you’ve used up all your tortillas and all your filling.

Cover the enchiladas with remaining cup of grated cheese and bake in the 375 degree F. oven until the enchiladas are hot and bubbling, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let enchiladas sit for a few minutes.

Garnish with chopped avocado, sliced black olives, sour cream, chopped onions and/or additional grated cheese.

Here is a link to the original Ree Drummond recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/cheese-enchiladas.html

I have a brunch coming up next week and I’ve been experimenting with breakfast stratas (Is that the correct plural for strata? My spell checker is being a little edgy about the “s”.)

There are, I’m finding, a lot of mediocre strata recipes out there, particularly if you plan to skip sausage as an ingredient. I tried one that had high praise from many many many reviewers and it was just plain mushy–even with day-old bread. Awful. So, then, I tried another recipe. Meh.

Then…there is was. Spinach and cheese strata based upon a old Gourmet Magazine recipe. (The loss of Gourmet Magazine was a category 5 catastrophe for cooks in my opinion.)

What is so good about this recipe? The mix of gruyere and parmigiano-reggiano is a perfect blend, (Costco has a good gruyere at a reasonable price that I used for this recipe.) The egg custard flavored with a bit of Dijon has a good texture and just the right amount of bite. The spinach and onion give the dish just the right mellow savory taste.

Perfection!

Cook’s Note:  I’ve made this several more times since posting this recipe and find that the amount of custard you need to use is quite variable depending upon the denseness of bread you use. In my last strata, I held out a good cup and a quarter of the egg custard mix. I would recommend that you pour the custard slowly over the bread/cheese/spinach base but stop short of using the whole amount. To my taste, you don’t want to have the mixture awash in liquid.

Ingredients: Spinach and Cheese Strata
1 ten ounce bag chopped frozen spinach (thawed and water squeezed out)
3 T. unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion (chopped)
6 ounces coarsely grated Gruyere
8 C.  (1/2 pound) Italian sandwich bread (cut into 1-inch cubes) I used Trader Joe’s Tuscan Pane bread and dried it out in the oven at 200 degrees for a half an hour before using it. This might not be a necessary step if you are using day-old bread.
2 ounces finely-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
9 large eggs
2 3/4 C. half-and-half (or milk)
2 T. Dijon mustard
1  t. salt
1/2  t. black pepper
1/4 t. freshly- grated nutmeg

Directions:
Thaw spinach and squeeze as much of the liquid out of the spinach as you can. Set aside.

Melt butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add chopped onion and sauté for about 5 minutes until onion is soft and translucent. Stir onion frequently to keep it from burning. Add 1/2 t. salt, 1/4 t. pepper and nutmeg.  Add the chopped spinach, stir and remove mixture from heat.

In a 3-quart buttered baking dish, spread one third of the bread cubes evenly over the dish. Spread one third of the spinach/onion mixture over the bread cubes and then sprinkle one third of each of the cheeses over the top of the spinach. Repeat this layering twice, ending with grated cheese.

Whisk eggs in a large bowl. Add half-and-half (or milk), mustard, and remaining salt and black pepper. Whisk the mixture until it is well-combined. Pour this egg custard mixture over the strata, distributing the custard as evenly as possible.

Cover strata with saran wrap and press down on the mixture to be sure the egg custard is evenly distributed and covers the bread. Refrigerate overnight. Remove from refrigerator 1/2 hour before baking.

In a preheated 350 degree F. oven, bake the strata (uncovered) until it is puffed, set and a light golden brown all over the top. This will take 45 to 55 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let the strata stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Here is the link to the original recipe from Gourmet Magazine:

http://www.epicurious.com/search/spinach%20and%20cheese%20strata?search=spinach+and+cheese+strata