combustication

Me and this attractive man will be heading off to beautiful, warm and sunny Puerto Rico tomorrow for a much needed break from work and New York City. Unfortunately, we will be missing some awesome parties, and for that I’m sorry, but just think of all of the rum I can drink cheaply in San Juan (by the way, a big “happy birthday” to Simon and Sara, I’ll bake you treats, I promise)? I will be going here (Luquillo Beach) and here, oh and some other places too. I hear there may be some wet snow in New York on Saturday…enjoy!

In a nod to Halloween, and what I think is a brilliant idea, here is an entertaining article on adult trick-or-treating. Also, make these Candy Corn Cookies for your Halloween bash, I bet they are awesome (full disclosure: I love candy corn).

While I’m gone, please let me know ideas for jams and other goodies I can make as gifts because I’m writing something for Digs Magazine and any extra thoughts (what do YOU want me to give you for the holidays) would be appreciated. Leave said thoughts in the comment section or email me.

Rock-n-roll is easy. At least, I think so. Hmm, this isn’t working. I was trying to figure out how I could write a post about OK Go AND my jam questions and just starting writing bad puns about rock-n-roll and jamming. Those words were deleted because they were extremely embarrassing. I digress.

I was at the gym today, running like a cheetah (on all fours…I mean quickly) and suddenly I almost fell off the treadmill. OK Go was on my gym’s television doing the “A Million Ways” dance. This is the same dance that they performed on Good Morning America with the same Andy (that’s him at the top) who said it was okay to drink whiskey to warm up my vocal cords and who let me sing into a microphone with his sock wrapped around it…amazing. If he can teach Diane Sawyer how to dance, I can open up a damn restaurant.

In jam related news: Europeans seem to have a different method of sterilizing jars and preserving jam. Both Nicky and Clothilde from the amazing Delicious Days and Chocolate & Zucchini appear to just boil jars, plop in warm jam, cap it, upend the jam jar and voila! Jam. American jam making consists of buying jars with two seals, boiling everything, putting in jam, boiling everything again, etc.

I am so confused!! What’s right? What’s wrong? Does anyone have any idea?

Please go over to Dumpling Junkie and check out the fine writing of Man in Gray’s red headed bassist. Best use of the word “jalapeno-ness” ever.

Check out my flaming torch and over 70 other delectable dark chocolate desserts over at the Sugar High Friday: The Darkside wrapup. I don’t even know where to begin. Since I fell in love with bread baking this Saturday, I think I will have to attempt the Pane Ciocollato. Apparently, it goes well with a sharp cheese. Chocolate and cheese…two of my favorite things. People will be getting Rosemary Scented Chocolate Truffles and Dark Chocolate Macadamia Nuggets for Christmas this year.

Thanks a million to Lovescool for hosting and being so prompt in putting up the entries. I can’t wait till the next one. Here’s my recipe for Wasabi and Ginger Dark Chocolate Creme Brulees.

Homemade pasta is awesome. Making homemade pasta without a pasta roller is not. In fact, my right forearm is slightly twinging as I type, a reminder of my intense pasta rolling on Saturday. Granted, I had some help, but the next time I try to make ravioli, I’m using this. I recommend doing this on a rainy day when you don’t want to leave your kitchen.

The actual dough making was a breeze with my stand mixer. It’s the kneading and rolling that takes time. I’m too lazy to list out the steps, so go here for a good tutorial. Instead of hand mixing it with a fork, I just put the flour in my mixer and used a dough hook while I incorporated the beaten eggs. I also put some salt in the flour mixture for flavor and used unbleached all-purpose flour.

Rolling the dough is really the hardest part. It is definitely possible to do it yourself, but it is hard going on the forearms. The result was worth it though - fresh pasta with a roasted butternut squash.

The color of the filling alone is gorgeous and it matched up with the eggy dough perfectly. It juxtaposed nicely with the bright green of the asparagus and the caramel color of the onions - this is a nice looking dish. I made some fresh herb and garlic bread to go with it that looked amazing, but that recipe will be posted when I have some pictures.

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Caramelized Onions, Asparagus and Blue Cheese
Ingredients
(for about 40 ravioli)

The filling:
3 small butternut squashes
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup rosemary olive oil (infuse regular olive oil with a few sprigs of rosemary for at least a week to get this taste)
salt and pepper to taste
dash of nutmeg

Ravioli dough (here)
OR you can use wonton wrappers and save yourself time and forearm pain

The topping:
1 large sweet onion, chopped finely and caramelized
bunch of asparagus, steamed
blue cheese
more rosemary olive oil

what to do
For Filling:
Preheat oven to 350F. Cut squashes in half and scoop out seeds. Place face down in a baking pan and add about 1.5 inches of water and roast for at least an hour (this is when you can make your pasta dough). Take squash out and let cool. Scoop out flesh and place in food processor (or use a potato masher to smash it up in a large bowl) with the pine nuts, olive oil, salt and pepper and nutmeg. Blend until creamy and place in the fridge while your pasta dough is rising.

For the Ravioli:
Roll out dough into thin sheets and place a teaspoon of the filling down one side. Fold over the other side over the filling (should look like little pillows) and press gently from the middle outwards so that there are no air bubbles. Use a rolling pin to flatten out the edges, if you want, and then cut out the squares of ravioli using a sharp knife or pastry cutter (recommended), trimming the sides as well. You know very well what ravioli looks like, so just go to town.

Place on a floured sheet and put more flour on top. Since your making these in batches, place damp paper towels over the ravioli so they don’t dry up. Continue to fill up the ravioli until you have a whole mess of them. Place in fridge if you’re using them later or…

Bring a big pot of salted water to boil and gently place the ravioli in it. They should be done in about 5 minutes or until they rise to the top. Take out using a slotted spoon and arrange on plate. Place caramelized onions on top, add some sprigs of asparagus and crumbles of blue cheese and drizzle the olive oil on top.

Devour.

Clicking around the internet today, I found Cooking with the Times, a series of food lessons on a variety of topics with tips from Jacques Torres and some other culinary lumineries. The best part is that you don’t have to be an awful Times Select member to have access to the lessons - they’re all free! We’ll see how long that lasts…

This is for Sugar High Friday, hosted by Lovescool. This recipe creates an impressively rich dessert with the added bonus of being able to make it a day ahead of time. This translates to “perfect for dinner parties” since you don’t have to worry about it until the time of the serving. I didn’t throw a dinner party though, cause I’m lazy. I just had people over for some champagne and a tasting.

I made the custards last night while consuming vast quantities of red wine that Phil had bought to break his fast and I think it’s impressive that I didn’t burn myself - as I am wont to do. The recipe is an adaptation of one that I found here, but only read the reviews on the Epicurious version this morning, so I was nervous about the tasting. I knew that all of that cream and half and half sounded funny to me from my success at previous crème brulees, but I thought it would be necessary to cut the chocolate. Also, I had no idea if my wasabi and ginger infusion would work. My fears proved to be unfounded.

Even though the weather in NYC has been craptastic and full of rain since last Friday, some brave friends came over for the taste test. As you can see from the pictures of their faces (see below), it was a success. The texture wasn’t as velvety as my other crème brulee(Earl Grey Creme Brulee), but it was still more like a custard and not like a mousse, which I was worried about. They did say that it did seem more “moussy” then a creme brulee, but some people liked that better than the normal yolky taste of the traditional creme brulee. The caramelized top was, of course, enjoyed by all and people DID taste the ginger, but only slightly tasted the wasabi. All I can say is that all of the ramekins are clean…some licked clean.

Adam: “It was like ingesting a rejected Neruda poem. Like making love to a Spanish girl with a bad case of lice…but tasty lice…but lice that had been doused in chocolate. The top was a tectonic plate of sugary infatuation. A saccharine vie manque…but the inside fulfilled my need for something savory and homey and thoroughly soul robbing…throbbing. END

This is Adam who dictated the above comment. I think he’s drunk. He also writes for Opera Magazine…surprise, surprise.

This is Bryan.

The instructions do seem quite long, but remember, you do this recipe the night before and then rest easy til the next day. I think it’s all worth the work.

Wasabi & Ginger Dark Chocolate Crème Brulees

Ingredients:
2 cups whipping cream (organic is best if you can get it)
2 cups half and half (same as above)
1 tablespoon wasabi
2 ounces of peeled ginger, chopped into large bits
8 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped (I used Green & Blacks 70% Dark)
8 large egg yolks, brought to room temperature
1/3 cup superfine sugar (just food process regular sugar if you can’t find this)
8 tablespoons turbinado sugar (packets stolen from various Starbucks in the city - I actually ran in and just stole packets of Sugar in the Raw during the morning rush hour)

What to Do

Preheat oven to 300F and set a kettle full of water to boil for the hot water bath.

Bring cream, half and half, ginger and wasabi powder to boil in heavy large saucepan, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low once brought to a boil. Add chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let sit for 5-7 minutes with a lid on.

Meanwhile, whisk yolks and 1/3 cup sugar in large bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in hot chocolate mixture. Strain into large bowl using a fine mesh strainer.

Divide custard among custard cups (I had enough for 10 cups). Place cups in large baking pan. If you’re using a metal pan, line the bottom with newspaper so the hot water bath will heat evenly. Add enough of the water from the kettle to the pan to come halfway up sides of cups. Bake until custards are set, about 50 minutes. Remove from water; if serving same day, chill for at least 2 hours. For best results, cover with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight.

For the delicious top: Preheat broiler if you don’t have a kitchen torch. Remove custards from fridge and blot with a paper towel. Let sit out for 10 minutes or so if you are using glass custard cups. Sprinkle each custard with the turbinado sugar. Broil until sugar turns golden, watching closely to avoid burning, about 3 minutes. If using a torch, hold about 2″ from the top of the custard and set a light to it baby! This shouldn’t take too long to caramelize.

Let sit for about 10 minutes or so and serve. Try to use small bites and keep moaning at a minimum.

For my contribution to this month’s Sugar High Friday. I prepped my dish last night and tonight I will serve it to some awesome friends and post the recipe, pictures and comments from other people. Crossing my fingers for tastiness. For those too lazy to click on the link, the main ingredient is: DARK CHOCOLATE…one of my favorites. Countdown to 9pm EST starts NOW.

Anyone want to play drunkie scrabble on Sundays? Anyone?

Some pics from the trip to Rhode Island, including a picture of Jeremiah taking a bite out of a Valomilk, a candy which I became obsessed with tasting after reading Steve Almond’s sweetly enjoyable Candyfreak. If you like candy, or would just like to know about all of the other little candy factories in America that don’t produce Snickers, this is your read.

The Valomilk tasted of the stuff dreams are made of…marshmallowy clouded dreams with a milk chocolate bite. You can find it at Cracker Barrel stores and it’s pricey (almost $2 for 2 cups), but you have to know that all of the ingredients are preservative free. They even use Bourbon vanilla from Madagascar vanilla beans - the most expensive kind. This results in a creamy and gooey filling (like the inside of a toasted marshmallow) that goes far beyond one of those marshmallow pumpkins or santas that Russel trots out this time of year - that filling is like a marshmallow flavored sponge. The chocolate is also hand tempered, which gives it an almost dark chocolate sheen and is less cloying than Hershey’s. The result is a top notch treat that should be shared with someone because eating a whole package is too much decadance. Of course, you can eat the whole package very slowly and enjoy the experience, which is also a good idea.

Fun fact: Valomilks cannot be transported by air because the filling reacts badly to the pressure and they explode. EXPLODING CANDY!

p.s. Almond just wrote this piece over at Salon that is both hilarious and a scathing commentary on lit bloggers. I want more chocolate.

p.p.s. Because it has to do with marshmallows and is hilarious, Malloween and the original Marshie.

Dark chocolate and creamy marshmallow in a Reese’s like cup. Ummm.

This was found at a supermarket, so it’s food related and Bryan related.