Category Archives: Recipes

Recipe: Meat Loaf & Buttered Kale.

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Meat Loaf, Mashed Potatoes & Buttered Kale

Meat loaf! Simple, almost pedestrian — diner food. When was the last time you saw it on a restaurant menu? Someone needs to remedy that, so here’s a wonderful recipe adapted from one by the great Ina Garten that appears in her inaugural cookbook, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1999).

Ms Garten’s recipe calls for ground turkey, but we opted for a mix of ground turkey, ground pork and ground beef for a more complex presentation. Our vegetable was Buttered Kale — also a simple presentation in a French style (inspired by another great chef, Joël Robuchon), simply blanched and served with lots and lots of butter.  Every cook should have in your library The Complete Robuchon (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009).  Mashed potatoes are the perfect accompaniment, but you’re on your own for a recipe.  Serve with a well chilled dry white wine, like our soon to be released 2012 Annefield Pinot Gris.

Meat Loaf

  • 3 cups chopped yellow onions (two onions)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
  • 1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce (or Soy sauce)
  • 3/4 cup chicken broth
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons tomato paste
  • 5 pounds ground turkey (or a mix of your choice of ground meats — beef, pork, veal, turkey)
  • 1 1/2 cups plain dry breadcrumbs
  • 4 large eggs, beaten
  • 3/4 cup ketchup
  1. Preheat oven to 325° Fahrenheit
  2. In a medium sauté pan, on medium-low heat, cook the onions, olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme until the onions are translucent, approximately 15 minutes.
  3. Add the Worcestershire sauce (or Soy sauce), chicken broth, and tomato paste; mix well.  Allow to cool to room temperature.
  4. Combine the ground meat, bread crumbs, eggs and onion mixture in a large bowl.  Mix well and and shape into a rectangular loaf on an un-greased baking sheet.
  5. Spread the ketchup evenly on top.
  6. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, until the internal temperature is is 160º Fahrenheit and the meat loaf is cooked through.

Serves 8 to 10.  Serve hot, room temperature, or cold — it’s perfect in a sandwich.

Buttered Kale

Robuchon treats kale the same way as cabbage, which is blanched prior to its final cooking so it is easier to digest.

  • 2 pounds kale
  • 1 stick well chilled butter, diced
  • Pepper
  1. Blanch the kale.  In a large sauce pan, bring 1 to 2 quarts water to a boil with 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons salt.  Cut out the fibrous stalks and rinse well under cold water.  Once the water is boiling, add about 6 tablespoons distilled white vinegar.  Plunge the kale into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the kale to a colander and rinse it under cold running water.  Drain.
  2. Bring 1 1/2 quarts water to a boil with 2 teaspoons coarse salt.  When the water is bubbling, add the already blanched kale.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Use a slotted spoon to remove the cabbage to a colander.   Drain well, pressing down on the kale to extract as much water as possible.
  3. Put the still-hot kale into a pot over medium heat.  Add the cold, diced butter bit by bit, stirring it in with a wooden spoon.  Add 2 pinches of pepper and crush and stir the kale with a fork.  Taste for salt and pepper, and adjust, if necessary.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

Recipe: Turkey Pot Pie.

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Turkey Pot PieThat blasted eBay is truly a blessing and a curse.  A blessing because it makes finding things you don’t need easy — and a curse for the same reason.

Earlier in the week Mike came across a well-priced set of china for sale that would complement an incomplete set we already own.  It was being sold by a woman in Kernersville, North Carolina who wanted it picked up — it was about 10 place settings.  Road trip!  Kernersville is about two and a half hours from Saxe, so we packed up a large cooler and packing supplies, threw the dogs into the car and hit the road.  We stopped for lunch at the Bistro B & Wine Bar, which was excellent — and admittedly unexpected, offering a very sophisticated menu and presentation.

On the way we listed to a segment of the radio program Science Friday with Ira Flatow.  One of the guests on the program was Chef and television personality Jack Bishop talking about the “Science of Good Cooking.”  He described how to make perfect pie pastry by adding Vodka to the dough in addition to the water used to bring the dough together — this results in a perfectly tender and flaky crust.  He recommended 80 proof Vodka; any brand would do.  We were thinking of making a turkey pot pie with leftover turkey from Christmas dinner, so we decided to give it a try.

The pie crust needs to be prepared first, since it needs time to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour prior to being rolled out.  And this Turkey Pot Pie recipe is the perfect follow-up to a turkey dinner — it even incorporates leftover gravy from the meal.  You can add mushrooms and other leftover vegetables, if desired.  And that pie crust?  It did not disappoint — it really is the best pie crust ever.

Pie Crust

  • 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1/2 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 5 tablespoons (or more) of a 50/50 mix of ice water and 80 proof Vodka (mix together and place in the freezer until ready to use — we mixed together 1/4 cup of each)
  1. Blend flour, sugar and salt in a food processor.  Add butter and shortening; using on/off turns, blend until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
  2. Transfer to a medium sized bowl.  Add 5 tablespoons of water/Vodka mixture and mix with a pastry blender or fork until the dough begins to clump together; add more water by the teaspoon if dry.  Gather dough together; expect to see flakes of butter.
  3. Divide dough in half.  Flatten each half into a disk.  Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to three days.

Turkey Pot Pie

  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion
  • 2 carrots, thinly sliced carrots
  • 1 1/2 cups diced cooked turkey (7 to 8 ounces)
  • 1 to 1/4 cups gravy
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
  • 1/4 cup frozen green peas
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley
  • 1 egg white, beaten to blend with 1 teaspoon water
  • pie crust
  1. Melt butter with olive oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat.
  2. Add chopped union and sauté until golden, 7 to 8 minutes.  Add sliced carrots; cover and cook until carrots soften slightly, about 2 minutes. Add diced turkey, gravy, and thyme.  Bring filling mixture to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer to thicken if necessary (if the gravy was thickened with flour or corn starch, a lengthy simmer won’t be necessary).  Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3. Mix in peas and chopped parsley.  Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until cool, about 30 minutes.
  4. Pour into rolled out pie shell.  Lightly brush rim of filled pie dish with egg glaze.  Place crust atop filling and fold edge of dough over edge of pie dish.  Pinch dough rim to seal crust all around.  Press down on top edge of crust with fork tines to seal decoratively.  Chill 10 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Lightly brush top of pie with glaze.  Make three or four 1/4-inch slits in center of pie to allow steam to escape.
  6. Bake pie until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, about 30 to 35 minutes.  Remove oven and let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with a dry white wine, like our 2011 Annefield Vineyards Chardonnay.

Recipe: Cookies for Christmas.

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This past weekend we were invited to “cookie exchange” party and had to come up with “Christmas Cookies” to bring.  Our solution, of course, called for lots of colored sugars on simple shortbread.  We opted for a recipe presented by Alice Waters in The Art of Simple Food (New York: Clarkson Potter, 2007).  It’s a great book — all of the recipes live up to the title, and are informed by her sophistication and practicality.  This mixture can be either formed into logs of different shapes then chilled and sliced, but we opted to use these Swedish cookie cutters we found at a flea market.

Butter Cookies

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1 egg, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons milk
  • 2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

Makes about 4 dozen

  1. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  2. Beat in vanilla, salt, lemon zest, egg and milk.
  3. Add flour gradually, stirring until just incorporated.
  4. Divide the dough in half.  Roll each half between two sheets of parchment paper until the dough is uniformly 1/4 inch thick.  Transfer to a baking sheet and refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes until the dough is firm.
  5. Gently peel away the top layer of parchment, turn the dough over unto a fresh sheet of parchment paper.  Gently peel away the second sheet of parchment.  Cut the dough into shapes with cookie cutters.
  6. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Transfer the cookies with a spatula onto lined baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart.  Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden.  Decorate with frosting.

Frosting

  • 3 large egg whites
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
  1. Beat the egg whites a the bowl of a stand mixer at medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
  2. Beat in the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract until the mixture is creamy.  If desired, add drops of red or green food coloring.
  3. When the cookies have cooled, use a knife or offset spatula to paint the top of each cookie with a layer of icing.
  4. If using sugar decorations, apply immediately before the icing hardens.

Cookie Cutters.

Cookies.

Happy Friendsgiving! A Thanksgiving Feast at Annefield.

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We may never host a traditional Thanksgiving again.

The days leading up to Thanksgiving Day in the states is always a comedy.  Days before in grocery stores are swarms of frantic people clutching shopping lists, looking for the produce or canned goods they’ve always used for this annual repast — or use twice a year, since in many families the same menu is unwaveringly served at Christmas.

This year we decided to have dinner on Saturday, and called it “Friendsgiving.”  Originally it was to be  a “Moveable Feast” like last year, but one person had t0 bow out because of family commitments, so we decided to do the entire thing here at Annefield.  The timing was perfect — polishing the silver occurred weeks ago; a few dishes (the ice creams) were prepared a week ago; we spent Thursday afternoon setting the table; a few dishes more were prepared on Friday (the sweet potatoes and curried pumpkin soup), and Saturday morning left cooking the two turkeys, the oyster stuffing, the quinoa stuffing, baking bread, preparing the beans and snow peas, and re-heating the sides prepared the day before.

We needed to press the wood cookstove into service for the extra burners, and we used it as a big warming plate.  The pace was perfect, with no last minute harried moments of forgotten dishes.  Our friend Sandy did the appetizers, salad and the carrot cake, and Jeanene brought other desserts, so admittedly we had less to do than normal.  The brined turkey was especially aromatic, and very tender, while the Butterball was just as tender and delicious.  It all came together to make a magical evening, though the monumental dish washing afterwards has us shopping for dishwasher-friendly fine china.  Everyone pitched in after dessert (and between some courses), so it wasn’t that difficult.

Friendsgiving

Passed:

Oysters Rockefeller
Mini Crab Cakes

2011 Annefield Vineyards Chardonnay
2011 Annefield Vineyards Rosé
2011 Annefield Vineyards Viognier
NV Barboursville Vineyards Brut
NV Etienne Dumont Brut

*

Seated:

Amuse-bouche

Oyster Cream with Caviar and Mignonette

NV Veuve Cliquot Brut
*
Curried Pumpkin Soup

2009 Kistler Vineyards Russian River Valley Chardonnay, Vine Hill Vineyard
*
Arugula and Fennel Salad

2010 Hunting Creek Vineyards Royal Blush Rosé
*
Roasted Turkey Two Ways: Traditional Butterball and
“Spruced Up” Turkey (Brined à la Patrick O’Connell of the Inn at Little Washington)
Creole Oyster Stuffing
Quinoa Stuffing with Squash and Dried Fruit
Steamed Jasmine Rice
Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes
Candied Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon
Green Beans with Snow Peas and Chives
Spiced Cranberry Sauce

2010 Ankida Ridge Vineyards Pinot Noir
2010 Kistler Vineyards Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
*
Peanut Pie
Carrot Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream
Coconut Cake

Warre’s Otima 10-year Old Tawny Port
Blandy’s 10-year Old Madiera

*

The Amuse-bouche took much thought and a little experimentation.  The Oyster Cream is a inspired by a very old recipe published by Mary Randolph in The Virginia House-wife (Washington: Davis and Force, 1824) (facsimile published by the University of South Carolina Press, 1984).  The book exhibits a surprisingly modern sensibility, with easily adapted recipes.  Others who have written about it call it “Oyster Ice Cream,” which calls to mind dessert, so better to not go there and stick with Mrs Randolph’s terminology.  Here is her version:

Oyster Soup.

Put on two quarts of oysters, with three quarts of water, three onions chopped up, two or three slices of lean ham, pepper and salt; boil it till reduced one half, strain it through a seive, return the liquid into the pot, put in one quart of fresh oysters, boil it till they are sufficiently done, and thicken the soup with four spoonful of flour, two gills of rich cream, and the yelks of six new laid eggs beaten well; boil it a few minutes after the thickening is put in.  Take care that it does not curdle, and that the flour is not in lumps: serve it up with the last oysters that were put in.  If the flavor of thyme be agreeable you may put in a little, but take care that it does not boil in it long enough to discolor the soup.

Oyster Cream.

Make a rich soup, (see directions for oyster soup.) strain it from the oysters, and freeze it.

We reduced the quantity and made some modifications — namely omitted the flour since one of our guests has gluten issues; besides, it isn’t needed for ice cream.  ”Two gills” is about one cup.  Here’s what we did:

Oyster Cream with Caviar and Mignonette

  • 1 quart water
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 24 oz oysters in their liquor
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 3 oz ham steak
  • six large egg yolks
  • 1 oz Caviar (your choice — see note below)
  • Classic Mignonette (recipe below

Special equipment: egg cups or espresso cups for serving

  1. In a bowl, whisk egg yolks and set aside.
  2. In a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat, bring the oysters, oyster liquor, water, milk, whipped cream and ham to a simmer until reduced by half, about 30 to 45 minutes.
  3. Strain mixture through a fine sieve, discard (or eat) the oysters.  Gradually whisk the mixture into the egg yolks.
  4. Return the entire mixture to the sauce pan.  Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.  Be careful not to let it boil.  Strain mixture into a clean bowl, let cool to room temperature.
  5. Cover and refrigerate until completely cold or overnight.
  6. Transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze.

Assemble for serving:

  1. Fill the cups with the mixture after removing it from the ice cream maker, filling to 1/4 inch below the rim.  We used egg cups, which hold approximately 1 1/2 ounces; espresso cups would work, too.  Fill to 1/4 inch below the rim.  Cover with plastic wrap, then freeze.
  2. When ready to serve, remove from the freezer, remove the plastic wrap.
  3. Add 1/2 teaspoon of Mignonette.
  4. Carefully mound 1/2 teaspoon (or more) of Caviar in the middle.
  5. Allow to thaw at room temperature for approximately 15 minutes before serving.

Note: A two-ounce container of Caviar was sufficient for our group of 14.  One ounce is enough for eight servings.  We selected domestic Wild Paddlefish Roe from Balducci’s (this was as local as we could get — this particular fish is harvested in the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers, and the Eastern part of the Tennessee River watershed is in Virginia).  This recipe produces enough Oyster Cream for 16 servings.

Classic Mignonette

Mignonette is a traditional accompaniment to oysters on the half shell, and perfectly complements the briny Caviar and smooth, subtle Oyster Cream with a refreshing acid bite.

  • 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons dry red wine
  • 1/4 cup shallots, minced (or substitute white onion)
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Stir together all of the ingredients in small bowl.  Let stand 20 minutes to allow the shallots (or white onion) to soften.  Season with black pepper to taste.  Refrigerate, and serve with the Oyster Cream and Caviar.