Food Fascination

Now that we’re finally moved and I have a new kitchen set up, Food Fascination is back! While re-organizing my pans, I found the ancient Abelskiver pan I haven’t used in years. If you’ve got one of these pans sitting in the back of your cupboard, time to pull it out and use it. If not, they can usually be picked up very inexpensively in a thrift store. If nothing else, the fluffy, airy batter makes great flapjacks on your grill.

Abelskivers (or Ebelskivers) are traditionally very fluffy pancake balls with a small bit of apple in the center - but tradition needn’t stop you. I love these just plain with a fruit compote, or with a strawberry in the center, or made sweet with chocolate sauce for dessert. Once you’ve got the basic batter, it’s easy to play around with spices and additions.

The trick to abelskivers is to get a very airy, fluffy batter. When the batter cooks, it raises enough that you can flip the ball and it will cook in a round(ish) shape. You’ll want your hand or stand mixer for the egg whites - if you don’t have one, beat in whole eggs with a whisk until your arm is tired and the batter is fluffy.

For a basic, unspiced abelskiver you’ll need:
4 eggs, separated into whites and yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups buttermilk (or 2 cups milk + 2 tablespoons white vinegar)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon baking soda

In a large bowl, stir together the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla with a whisk or fork until it’s a creamy yellow color and slightly fluffy. Mix in the buttermilk. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. If you’re adding spices, blend them in here as well.

In a separate bowl, using a hand or stand mixer, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks (when you pull the beater out, the peaks will stay in the foam). They’ll at least quadruple in size.

Using a scraper spatula, fold the egg white foam into the batter. (Folding is a method of mixing where you scrape from one side of the bowl down to the bottom and across the top, which incorporates the foam without breaking down all the little air bubbles.)

Heat your pan over medium heat, coat with a light layer of cooking spray, and fill each of the depressions 2/3 to 3/4 full with batter. As it cooks, it will rise a bit. Place whatever filling you’d like in the center. After about 1-2 minutes, use a spoon to lift the edge - if it’s brown and holds together, scoop the spoon under the ball and roll it over to cook the other side - this is a technique that will take some practice.

Once the abelskivers are cooked, they should lift right out of your pan. Top and enjoy!

A note on spices:
Like most pancakes you can use a huge variety of spices in these. My personal favorite combination is:
2 tablespoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, and 2 teaspoons cardamom. Other options might be:
1 tablespoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons allspice
Or, try going savory (reduce the sugar in the batter as well)with:
2 teaspoons garlic and 1 teaspoon thyme; or 2 teaspoons basil and 1 teaspoon dried onion powder.

A note on fillings:
The classic filling for abelskivers are apples - usually small chunks of poached apples or apple pie filling. However, just about any small chunk of fruit is tasty with a sweet batter.
A great way to mix it up, though, is reduce the sugar by half and go with a more a savory batter. Try adding bits of cooked sausage, bacon, or steamed vegetables. Let your imagination run wild - these are as plain or as fancy as you’d like them to be!

It was 8:30 am, and I woke up with a lump in my throat and fear in my heart. I had to leave in 1/2 an hour, and I was charged with bringing something for a potluck! Oh no! The place I would be going had few cooking facilities other than a grill, and as I would be busy swordfighting and weaving, there would be no time for cooking. So, with what was in my cupboard, this is what got thrown together, and believe it or not it actually worked well and went over.
It was transported and cooked in one of the dollar-store aluminum pans - both because it was disposable and the thin layer of aluminum would allow it to cook more easily on the indirect heat of a grill (although you could also bake it quite easily.)

Filling:
3 cans of peaches with their juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup brown sugar

Topping:
2 1/2 cups oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon nutmeg
3/4 cup melted butter

In a small bowl, whisk together a few tablespoons of the peach juice and the cornstarch. Dump the peaches and juice into a 9 x 11 pan, then stir in the brown sugar and cornstarch/juice mixture.

In a separate bowl, combine the oats, sugar, and spices. Pour the melted butter over the mixture and stir.

Spread the topping over the filling and cover with foil. “Bake” on a grill or over a fire (use indirect heat - turn half the grill on and set the pan in the other half) for 20-30ish minutes, or in a 300 degree oven for 30 minutes, until it’s bubbling and hot.

Easy, quick, and tasty - if you don’t have peaches, try canned cherries or apples. Try adding 1/2 cup chopped nuts to the topping if you’d like - play around! This recipe is a good “basic” that is quick to throw together - but can be as fancy as you care to make it.

One of those combined-taste, greek-y, spring-is-coming things that I LOVE as a dinner to eat in the sunshine in the back yard (even if I’m still wearing a coat).

It’s also ultra-easy to put together. Use canned or fresh pears - if you use canned, save a little (2-4 tablespoons) or so of the juice. If you use fresh, slice them into 4-6 sections.

You’ll need:
1 can sliced or 3 fresh, sliced pears
1 package crumbled feta cheese
fresh mint leaves (just a few sprigs, depending on your taste)
2-4 tablespoons canned pear juice or 4 tablespoons water and 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon butter

Cut the tablespoon of butter into small chunks and spread it over the bottom of a small glass baking dish (8×8 or a round pie pan). Spread the pears over the butter and pour the canned juice or water and sugar over the pears.
Arrange the mint leaves around the pears. Sprinkle the feta over the entire conglomeration. Cover with foil.

Bake at 250 for 10-20 minutes, or until pears are warmed through and the feta is beginning to melt.

Serve warm as an appetizer or dessert.

No, this isn’t a commentary on the PC qualities of how we refer to fruit. It’s about creating your own fruit reductions and sauces - something I’ve only recently started doing, but have fallen in love with. Since it is winter, and getting fresh fruit can be an expensive proposition, using frozen fruit in new ways is especially attractive. By simply boiling frozen fruit, you can get a sauce to use just about anywhere - on your Flourless Chocolate Cake or whipped in with plain cream cheese. With significantly less sugar and more flavor than processed “fruit sauces,” this is a great way to treat yourself without guilt.

The method itself is simple - in a large saucepan or steep-walled frying pan, combine approximately 2 cups frozen, unsweetened fruit and 2 cups water. Place over medium-high heat and boil, stirring occasionally. The boiling water will break down the frozen fruit, and you’ll get a very watery, soupy mix. Let this mix boil down, stirring every few minutes, until it is as thick as you’d like (for medium-thick, great as a sauce, it usually takes 15-25 total minutes.) Depending on your tastes, this mixture can easily be sweetened by adding a tablespoon or so of honey or sugar while it’s reducing (boiling), and a few sprinkles of salt will up the flavor. If you would prefer a smooth sauce instead of the slightly chunky one that this results in, give it a few go-rounds in a blender or food processor. Unsweetened, the sauce will be fairly tart - this is because the fruit they freeze is usually much “younger” than the fruit you’d buy in the store - it didn’t spend as much time being shipped around, and is usually picked smaller and slightly less ripe than fruit destined to be sold “fresh”.

It’s important that you use frozen fruit in this recipe - when fruit freezes, the water inside it crystallizes, pushing the cell walls out. When the fruit thaws, those cell walls can’t spring back, and the fruit becomes mushy. By putting the fruit in the path of very hot water, the cells not only thaw, but “explode” from the huge change in temperature, and therefore break down much more easily.

Once the fruit is broken down and mixed in with water, you continue boiling it to evaporate the water. This serves two purposes - concentrating the flavor that seeps out into the water, and, along with the natural pectin in fruit, thickening the sauce.

I’ve done this with strawberries, blueberries, and peaches - but it would work with just about any frozen fruit. If you’ve got only fresh fruit - no worries - cut it into small pieces, stick it in the freezer overnight, and then boil it down.

What can you do with a fruit reduction? Just about anything! Some of my favorites -

Using it as a sauce on desserts
Replace 1/4 cup of the liquid in a muffin or quick bread recipe with reduction
Mix 1/2 to 1 cup of reduction in with softened cream cheese for a much-healthier homemade flavored spread
Add to milkshakes or protein shakes
Stir in with your oatmeal
Mix with whipped topping for a fruity way to top things off

Store fruit reduction in a sealed container in your fridge for up to a week - or (for the ultimate in irony) freeze it, then thaw in the microwave or fridge when you’re ready to use it.

Yes, the holidays are technically over. However, that doesn’t mean cranberry sauce should be relegated to the “never again for a year” category. It’s not only great on turkey, but it’s amazing with cheesecake, Flourless Chocolate Cake , even baked chicken or stuffing.

Cranberry sauce isn’t all about the jellified cranberry substance you pick up out of a can. With a blender or a saucepan, you can get enough cranberry sauce to last you weeks. Both of these recipes last for up to three to four weeks, sealed, in the fridge. Try it on pork, too!

This version can be made with or without the alcohol. If you have a large group coming over, I would suggest two bowls - lead (add alcohol) to one, and leave the other alone. Label appropriately

Gentleman Jack’s CranOrange:
Try soaking the orange peel in the whiskey for this recipe. The flavor from the orange will seep into the alcohol and add an extra hit of taste, if you’ve got the time.

4 cups fresh cranberries
2 cups sugar
1 whole, peeled, small orange.
Combine in a blender and whirr away until it’s smooth. If needed, add a bit of orange juice to get it to blend smooth. Right before serving, stir in anywhere from 1 to 3 shots of whiskey (such as Jack Daniels).

Jezebel Sauce
3 cups fresh cranberries
1 small package blackberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup honey mead (check your local liquor stores - mead is traditional honey wine. If you can’t find the mead or are avoiding alcohol, add 1/4 cup honey and 3/4 cup water.)
2 teaspoons fresh horseradish, grated (in the produce section - or find pre-grated by the ketchup)

In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, boil the berries and the water until everything is mushy (add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup water if it’s getting dry. Add the sugar, mead, and horseradish. This will be a very thick, chunky sauce - if you want it smoother, give it a few rounds in a blender or food processor. The horseradish gives it a kick, but not enough to actually taste the horseradish.  Thanks to my dear friend Clacy for this!

I love pomegranates, but I can’t stand getting covered in purplish red juice everywhere. Help!

I, too, used to have this problem! Pomegranates are wonderful to eat, and the shot of juice in a ruby-red seed is amazingly happy. However, digging the seeds out can be a messy, sticky fiasco.

Easy solution - use the specific densities of the different bits of the fruit. Translation - slice into the skin enough to get a grip enough to crack it open. Submerge the entire thing in a large bowl full of water, then crack it open and begin to peel apart the seeds and pith. The seeds are heavier than water, because they contain natural sugars, but the rind and pith (the white stuff) is lighter than water, and will float to the top. The water rinses away any seeds you manage to break.

Once you’ve torn apart the pomegranate, simply skim the pith and rind off the top, drain the water, and you’ve got a bowl full of fruity gems!

Try using them as garnish on fruit salads, or eat them as an afternoon snack. Either way, it’s worth the effort.