Popovers

Tags

Fannie Farmer, Fannie Farmer's Cookbook, How to make popovers video, How to Video, Marion Cunningham and Julia Child, Popover, Popover Recipe, Popovers, Popovers Recipe

Popover!

Popovers may be my favorite food, even more so than my beloved fresh pasta.

Popovers and I go way back.  I have been making them since I was about nine years old. They were my original “piece de resistance” recipe.

When I was ten, I wrote Santa a letter begging him for some proper popover tins.  Mom’s muffin tins were adequate, but I knew the narrower and taller shape would make the popovers even more dramatically tall. Santa came through that year, but made sure to attach a note that specified that my new tins were from Mrs. Claus. I happily ran off to the kitchen to try them out and ignored my other presents. Why was a ten year-old so intent on a piece of kitchen equipment?

The summer before, I had found a tattered old cookbook, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, in a cupboard at my godmother Charlene’s cottage. I asked her if she would bake something from it with me and we decided on popovers. The recipe was simple and in no time we had them in the oven. Thirty-five minutes later something magical emerged. What I had expected to be some muffin-like baked goods had popped over into something incredible. We cracked them open and devoured them with jam. They were eggy, warm, buttery and amazing. I was instantly smitten.

When I returned home, I found the same recipe in Marion Cunningham’s The Fannie Farmer Baking Book. A little later I was watching Baking with Julia and there with Julia was Marion Cunningham making her signature popovers. My childhood heroine with my new popover goddess! I had to learn to make this amazing food for myself! So with the determination that only a child possesses, I set out to master the popover and soon I was begging Santa for the proper equipment.

I have been cooking popovers ever since and have tried many different recipes and techniques. This recipe always produces show-stopping popovers and the key is to start them in a warm oven pre-heated to 425°.  When I first started making them I swore by a cold oven start. After all, my first recipe was from Marion Cunningham and she said to place them in a cold oven. I have tried both methods many times and seem to have the best results with a warm oven. The popovers are bigger and crispier on the outside. Still, if you forget to preheat your oven, never fear. Simply pop them in and turn your oven to 425° and follow the rest of the directions. They will still be delicious.

Popovers (Makes six to eight popovers)

• 1 cup all-purpose white flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1¼ cup milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• optional: ¼ cup grated Gruyere cheese
• optional: fresh herbs to taste

Preheat your oven to 425°. Bring all ingredients to room temperature. Butter a popover tin or six ramekins.

Mix flour and salt together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, butter and milk. (Add cheese and herbs at this point.)

Pour liquid ingredients over the flour mixture. Fold until just combined. Do not overbeat. Some lumps may remain.

Fill the popover tins one-half to two-thirds full. Put water into any unfilled popover cups.

Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 425°. Then turn your oven down to 350° and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Remove popovers from oven and remove them from the tin. Puncture a small hole in all of the popovers to all the steam to escape and keep the insides from getting gummy. Serve immediately.

Lobster and Shrimp Risotto with Kippy Rudy

Tags

Arborrio Rice, Contest, fish stock, How to clean a lobster, How to Video, Kippy Rudy, Lobster, Lobster and Shrimp Risotto, Lobster Risotto, Maine Shrimp

The lobstah!

A few weeks ago, my friend and accomplished cook, Kippy Rudy volunteered to be my first guinea pig for my food blog videos. I had just procured a new camera and was eager to test it out. The blog was barely a few days old and I wanted to see if I could incorporate videos. We decided to feature her beloved Lobster Risotto which she has been perfecting over the past few months.

Kippy Rudy in her kitchen

One night we took over her kitchen and invited over some friends to help with the chaos. Harris and Meredith came over to help, provide comments and keep us laughing and sane. Marina, Kippy’s daughter, helped me light the space and do screen tests. We started around 6 pm and did not eat until 10 pm. It was a long night full of tech problems, giggle fests, wine and learning. All of us were pretty silly by the end.

The next day I downloaded my camera and anxiously realized that I had shot over two hours of video. To top it off you could hear my tripod creaking through the entire shot. Oh well, you learn from your mistakes! In addition you could hear all of us laughing and cracking “that’s what she said” jokes throughout. Would it be ok for something as serious as my fledgling food blog?

So I reminded myself of the true goal of cooking and food. Yes, at its core level food is about nourishment but it is so much more. Food is a common ground; a medium through which we all can enjoy, laugh and come together. Why do I love Julia Child so much? Because she embraced the silly, the mistakes and the adventurous! By golly! This video was not going to win me an award but it would at least document what a great time we had filming it. Kippy had done a top-notch job demonstrating how to clean a lobster and had provided me with a wonderful glimpse into the world of risotto.  The video deserved to be shown.

To fully embrace the silly I’ve decided to add a contest to this post. First person to comment with the correct amount of times there is an outburst from the peanut gallery will win a bag of Aborrio rice! You must use a valid email address to enter and the mother of the author does not qualify for this contest (sorry Ma!).

For the full recipe see below the video.

Kippy Rudy’s Lobster and Shrimp Risotto:

• 5 cups fish stock
• 1 1/4 cup aborrio rice
• medium onion, chopped
• olive oil
• garlic
• 3/4 c white wine
• meat of 1-2 cooked lobsters
• 1 lb cooked Maine shrimp
• fresh parsley (1/4 cup, more to taste)
• parmesan (at least 1/2 cup, more to taste)
• 1 1/2 tbs butter

1. Heat the stock and keep warm on the burner.

2. Add olive oil to heavy bottom pot on medium heat, when hot add onion and saute until tender. Add garlic (I do more garlic than most people, one two or three good cloves, but you can go more mild). Stir and add rice, coating in olive oil of the pan. Stir for a few minutes, then add wine. When all the wine is absorbed, begin adding ladelfulls of stock. Stir continuously, tradition dictates a figure eight pattern. When all the liquid is absorbed, add another ladelfull of hot stock. This process will continue until rice is tender, about 22 minutes.

3. Just before the rice is finished, add the chopped lobster and shrimp. At the end stir in cheese and parsley, and glaze with the butter at end. Garnish with more parsley and cheese.

Lobster and Shrimp Risotto

The Omelette Epiphany

Tags

Aleppo Pepper, Eggs, French Omelette, Griffon Ridge, How to Video, Julia Child, Madame E. Saint-Ange, Omelette

Eggs are a big deal at my house. We have always had a flock of spoiled chickens in the backyard, so there is a never-ending supply of fresh eggs.

So spoiled that Amelia temporarily got away with roosting in the dining room while we treated her for an injury. (Don't worry they are never in the kitchen!)

Most mornings my family has eggs for breakfast. Omelettes are a favorite. I have been making them forever. Sometimes, when I made over-stuffed folded omelettes, I would have a horrible time getting them to fold in half or thirds. They would fall apart, burn, get dry or the fillings would fall all over hell’s creation.

Then one day the mediocre folded-omelette clouds parted and the light of simplicity showered down upon me: the omelette epiphany! There on YouTube was the answer and the end to all my dry, lackluster egg creations. Naturally, Julia was the angel of culinary mercy who spared me a lifetime of dry, overcooked eggs. She revealed her technique for l’omelette roulée to my humble eyes in this video:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8109928

Basic Omelette Ingredients

The key is simplicity!  Keep it simple and forgo the heavy fillings that take so much time to add that the eggs overcook. If you want the multi-combos of fillings and sauces, just serve them on top or to the side of the omelette.  Add a minimum of herbs, spices, or cheese to the eggs, so the whole cooking time will be no more than a minute.

Madame E. Saint-Ange describes the perfectly cooked omelette as:

“a creamy omelet: an omelet that has the consistency of scrambled eggs inside and an exterior that is just solid enough so that it can be rolled on itself.” (La Bonne Cuisine)

Julia says, an omelette “should be soft and tender inside, enclosed by a cloak of lightly coagulated egg.”  (We, Americans, tend to be overly concerned about undercooked eggs and so fearful of the 1 in 20,000 eggs that may contain salmonella that we deny ourselves so many delicious foods and condemn ourselves to eating dried, overly cooked eggs.)

Fresh Eggs from the Coop!

So keep the ingredients to a minimum. Each omelette should be prepared individually and contain two to three eggs. To the eggs, you may add salt, pepper, a few herbs or spices, thinly sliced or grated cheese and a teaspoon of water, if you like.  The water forms steam as it hits the hot pan and contributes to the tenderness and lightness of the eggs.  I usually do not add the water. My current favorite egg addition is Aleppo pepper from Griffon Ridge’s stand at the local winter market.  These beautiful red flakes add just a hint of faint heat.

The final ingredient is butter. Add about a tablespoon of butter into a hot pan and swirl it around to coat the entire pan.  As Julia says in the video, “If you don’t have a hot enough pan, you ain’t got it.”  Wait for the foaming of the butter to subside and just before the butter begins to brown, quickly add the beaten eggs.  Swirl again to distribute the eggs, and then pause for a few seconds before you begin the jerking.

It’s all in the motion: continuously jerking the pan towards you until the eggs begin folding over themselves on the far side of the pan.  Julia says:

“The perfect way to master the movement is to practice outdoors with half a cupful of dried beans. As soon as you are able to make them flip over themselves in a group, you have the right feeling; but the actual omelette-making gesture is sharper and rougher…You must have the courage to be rough.”

The last few jerks should include a lifting of the handle to tilt the eggs further onto themselves at the far side of the pan.

I am big fan of the half moon omelette and have made a video clip demonstrating the flipping motion necessary to get that shape. No matter how the eggs come together, be confident that they will be delicious!

Here is my video of the Omelette Epiphany. Please let me know what you think of the format and any other suggestions.