Monday, April 30, 2012

And Victoria's Winner is...

Victoria Hamilton would like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on her Sunday guest blog. She is pleased to announce "Allessea" is the winner of her new Vintage Kitchen Mystery, A DEADLY GRIND, along with the custom bookmark.

Congratulations, Allessea!

Please send your snail mail address to: Victoria at vicoriahamiltonmysteries dot com and your prizes will be sent out to you.

May you read with joy!

~ Cleo

Amy's Black Truffle Oil Stir Fry

I've been away having a grand time. Avery, Sheila, Lucy, and I signed books at Salt & Pepper Books in Occoquan, Virginia.

Christine Myskowski, owner of this charming bookstore, carries an incredible selection of cookbooks, as well as fiction involving food. Christine served a delightful spread, including heavenly salted caramel cupcakes that inspired me to try making my own.

Roberta at Salt & Pepper

After our signing, we headed to Malice Domestic for a fabulous weekend of mystery. It's always such fun to get together face to face with friends, especially those from Mystery Lovers Kitchen.

Sheila at Malice Domestic

Jenn McKinley came all the way from Arizona, and it was the first time we've ever actually met. But we feel like we've know each other for years.

Jenn and Avery at Malice Domestic

After my long drive back on Sunday, my friend Amy, who house/dog/cat sat for me, whipped up a wonderful stir fry so I wouldn't have to cook. What a luxury!

Amy's latest fondness is for black truffle oil, which I had never tried.

It's actually sunflower oil, infused with black truffle extract. The taste and smell are very distinctive. Truffles are a type of fungus, and the black ones are highly sought after. I've read that you either love them or hate them. Those who love them are passionate about them, which might be why some consider them an aphrodisiac.

Amy's a stir fry pro, carefully selecting ingredients so that some remain

crunchy while others offer a softer texture. She takes the texture contrast up a step so the dish is visually interesting, too, by slicing the zucchini in rounds and cutting them in half but cutting the squash in strips. In addition, she passed on the traditional carbs and served the stir fry on fresh spinach leaves.

In the recipe below, she layers in the vegetables gradually, with the mushrooms last, so they don't overcook. Amy says that mushrooms grab the flavor of the truffle oil, and I have to agree. They popped with flavor.

Amy's Black Truffle Oil Stir Fry

1 tablespoon black truffle oil plus extra
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/4 teaspoons white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon tarragon
pinch fennel seed
pinch oregano
pinch basil
1 onion, sliced
12 baby carrots
1/2 large red pepper
8 white button mushrooms
1 small yellow squash (about 1/2 cup)
1 small zucchini (about 1/2 cup)
3/4 pound chicken tenders, sliced into 1-inch sections
salt and pepper to taste
fresh spinach (enough to make a circle about 7 or 8 inches in diameter)

Slice mushrooms and place in small bowl. Drizzle with black truffle oil. Set aside.

Pour oils into a large pan and add the garlic, white wine vinegar, ginger, tarragon, fennel seed, oregano, and basil. Cook on low heat for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Add 1/3 of the onion and slowly raise heat to medium. When the oil begins to bubble just a bit, add chicken and stir. When no pink shows on the outside of the chicken, add the carrots. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes. Add red pepper and cook 1 minute. Stir in the squash and the zucchini, and cook 2 more minutes. Continue stirring and add mushrooms. Make sure chicken is cooked through. Add pepper and salt to taste and serve over fresh spinach leaves.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Lucy Burdette's Broccoli Rabe and Sausage Pasta

LUCY BURDETTE: It's a cold and rainy day in Connecticut--the kind of day that calls out for something hot and hearty for supper. And it's also the season for broccoli rabe (aka rapini) which is, for those not familiar, related to the mustard family with a slightly bitter taste. The heads resemble tiny broccoli bunches and the stems are eaten right along with the green leafy parts.

Broccoli rabe calls out to be paired with sausage, though I've gotten to the point where I feel guilty when I eat it. However, I spotted some Aidell's Italian-style chicken sausage in the local market and snapped that up. This dinner is quick--maybe half an hour start to finish if you remember to start your pasta water boiling early.

Ingredients:

1 bunch broccoli rabe, washed and chopped into one-inch pieces (discard tough ends and any yellow leaves

1 package Aidell's Italian chicken sausage (4 links) or other to your taste
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 box sturdy pasta such as ziti or rotelli
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Slice the sausage into rounds and fry it in olive oil (1-2 Tbsp) until brown and crispy. Remove to a bowl. Saute the garlic in the same pan for 45 seconds, then add the chopped broccoli rabe and the chicken broth.

Steam until bright green but still a little crunchy. Add the sausage back in and heat. Hot pepper flakes could be added here if you like a little more zip.

Serve over pasta with lots and lots of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste.

(For dessert, we are having chunks of pineapple and strawberries with a couple of Wendy's buttery shortbread cookies. If you haven't tried them, delicious!)

PS Tonight, Saturday April 28, we'll find out the Agatha Award winners at the Malice Domestic convention for the celebration of the traditional mystery. Best of luck to Krista Davis for her Best Novel nomination! And we hope one of the MLK nominees (Krista, Avery, or Lucy) comes home with the teapot for best short story!

Lucy Burdette is the author of the Key West food critic mysteries, including AN APPETITE FOR MURDER and, coming in September, DEATH IN FOUR COURSES. The new cover knocks her socks off! You can "like" her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter, or check out her new obsession, Pinterest!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Frangipane Plum Tart

by Sheila Connolly

I told you that the frangipane in the freezer was calling to me. I know, I should wait for fresh, local fruit, but that's a few months away, and I want it now! So I cheated and bought plums from Chile. In case you're wondering "why plums?", it's because they belong to the same genus (Prunus) as almonds, as do peaches and cherries, so they kind of belong together. And it's waaay too early for peaches in the market.

I wanted to keep this simple (I told you I was impatient). I already had the frangipane, so I thawed that. Then I made a simple short sugar crust and pressed it into a tart pan. I would have made the vanilla crumb crust that I used earlier, but my husband ate all the vanilla wafers while I wasn't looking. So I pulled out Julia Child's sweet crust recipe, except I used a Cuisinart to blend things. Use whatever sweet crust you like.

Preparing the plums was the slowest part. I could have just sliced them and laid them on the tart, but I'll confess the ones in the market were not particularly sweet or soft and I wasn't sure they'd cook quickly enough, so I cut them in half (removing the pit), and poached them briefly in a sugar syrup (water and sugar in a 3:1 ratio, brought to a simmer to dissolve the sugar). I simmered the plums gently for 10 minutes, then let them cool in the syrup, then drained them on a rack. You could peel them (after poaching), but plum skin is fairly thin, so it was not a problem in the finished pie.

Now that all the components are ready (crust, frangipane, plums), spread a layer of frangipane on the crust, then lay your plums over that.

Ready for the oven

Bake the tart in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes, or until the frangipane is lightly browned.

And ready to eat!

If you want to glaze your tart, melt jelly (apricot or seedless raspberry) in a small, heavy saucepan (or a microwave) until it boils. Strain if needed (you want this to become smooth and glossy on the tart). As soon as the tart comes out of the oven, brush the glaze over the surface. Let the tart cool. (You could also sprinkle some coarse sugar on top, for a different appearance). Let the tart cool to room temperature and serve.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

If you haven't guessed by now, I really dig pizza. I've already posted two pizza recipes here (one for a polenta-crusted pizza and one for pizza Margherita). I've also promised to post my deep dish recipe ... a promise I renew now. (By the way, by "my" deep dish recipe, I really mean the deep dish recipe from America's Test Kitchen. But I'll claim it in a heartbeat.)

But today I share with you my more regular, "hey, let's have pizza" pizza recipe. The recipe takes about 2 hours, start to finish. Maybe a little more. But most of the time, you're just waiting for the dough to rise. If I get home a few minutes after five, I can have dinner ready by 7 or so, just right for our weeknight schedule.

Pizza isn't really difficult, but there are a few tips to get the best possible results:

Mushroom Saute - Always Cook Out the Water in Vegies

Use fresh yeast. Old yeast won't rise, and your crust will be hard as a rock.
Heat your oven to 425 for a good 45 minutes before you start baking the crust, and put the pizza stone (or your pan) in there from the get-go. Cooking on a thoroughly preheated surface is key.
Par-bake your crust. I bake my crust until it's, well, crusty ... and just starting to turn golden. This way, the crust gets nice and crispy but your toppings don't burn.
Precook your vegies, too. I love mushrooms on my pizza, so I cook a huge container of them in a few glugs of olive oil and a tablespoon of minced garlic, over medium-high heat, until the mushrooms give off most of their liquid and just start to brown. If you put raw vegies on your pizza, they'll give off water when they bake and make your pizza soggy.
If you precook your vegies and use pre-cooked meats (or, say, meatless pepperoni), you can put all of your toppings UNDER your cheese. The cheese then holds the toppings in place and browns nicely.
Use good ingredients. Real mozzarella. Freshly cooked (not canned) vegetables. High-quality sauce. I used to make my sauce, but have learned that it's not worth the effort ... especially when I can buy cans of Pastorelli's pizza sauce at Target and World Market. It's better than anything I could possibly make myself. Dang. So good.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

1 1/2 c. warm water
1 Tbs. sugar or honey
1 packet (about 2 1/2 tsp.) yeast

1 c. all-purpose flour
2 1/2 - 3 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. vital wheat gluten
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbs. olive oil
3 Tbs. dried herbs (basil and/or oregano)
1 heaping Tbs. minced garlic

Preheat oven and pizza stone to 425 degrees.

Mix sugar/honey in the warm water and add yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast blooms.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix flours, gluten, salt, and dried herbs. Add the oil, garlic, and yeast/water. Mix until the dough comes together and becomes fairly elastic (about 5 minutes).

Turn dough into a large bowl coated with olive oil. Turn dough ball to coat, then cover bowl with plastic wrap and then a towel. Set in a warm, draft-free spot and allow to rise 1 1/2 hours (until doubled in size).

Punch down and divide into two smaller balls. Roll out on silpat or lightly floured or oiled counter into a 14-inch round.

Sprinkle a bit of cornmeal onto pizza stone and transfer dough to the stone. Bake about 12 minutes, watching for the formation of bubbled (break them with the tip of a knife or a fork). Remove the first crust and repeat with second ball of dough. While the second crust is baking, top the first:

Generous sauce, veggie pepperoni, sauteed mushrooms, sliced black olives, and mozzarella cheese ... or the toppings of your choice!

Bake the topped pizza another 10 - 15 minutes (until the cheese is melted and starting to brown). Allow the baked pizza to cool for about 5 minutes before slicing.

By the way, this is great the next day. Cold. For breakfast. Yum.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Chocolate & Raspberry - Anything Better?

I made something really easy this week. Why? Well, first off, because it's delicious and I was in the mood for something really decadent with chocolate and raspberries.

Secondly, because time is short. Many authors, including me, are heading to the Malice Domestic mystery conference in Bethesda, Maryland (or Washington D.C. as some of us prefer to think of it). What a fabulous area. The Smithsonian, the zoo, the history!

What a fun conference. It starts early on Friday.

[Before all this, I'm heading to Salt & Pepper Books in Occoquan, VA Thursday with MLK author pals, Krista, Lucy, and Sheila. I'll have lots of photos from that event on the site next week and perhaps...some other news...can you stand the wait? :) ]

Back to Malice Domestic...

There are panels and there's a banquet where the Agatha Awards are presented. Last year, THE LONG QUICHE GOODBYE won the best first novel.

This year...

Krista's THE DIVA HAUNTS THE HOUSE is nominated for best novel, and Krista, Lucy (Roberta), and I (Daryl) are all nominated for best short story. Whee.

Win or lose, we're going to party. By the way, I posted a blog on Fresh Fiction on April 19 about what to do if you're going to the convention for your first time. Take a peek. I hope the tips are helpful. {Note: I also posted them as "note" on my Facebook page if you can't log in to Fresh Fiction.}

Hey, if you are going to attend the conference, please make sure you say hello to all of us! We love meeting our readers.

So here's what I made. Chocolate Raspberry Decadence.

First, I made is a gluten-free chocolate cake. Easy, right out of a bag from Pamela's. I love her bakery goods. You can make any chocolate cake for this, of course, if you don't have to eat gluten-free. Then, have on hand raspberries, raspberry jam, and mascarpone cheese.

Mascarpone cheese is an Italian cheese that is like cream cheese but richer. It's easy to spread. It's milky-white and often used in desserts like Tiramisu and cheesecake. Sometimes it's used instead of butter or Parmesan cheese when making risotto. I use it to make homemade ice cream.

So here's the simple recipe:

CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY DECADENCE

(per serving)
1 slice chocolate cake
2 -3 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
6-8 raspberries
2-3 tablespoons raspberry jam

Directions:

Place a slice of chocolate cake on a dish. Lather with mascarpone cheese. Place the raspberries on top of the cheese. Heat the jam for about 5-10 seconds in the microwave. Drizzle the hot jam over the berries and cheese. Savor.

* * * * *

You can learn more about me, Avery, by clicking this link.

Chat with me on Facebook and Twitter.

And if you haven't done so, sign up for my mailing list

so you can learn about upcoming events, releases, and contests!

ALSO...DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY ALTER EGO
DARYL WOOD GERBER?

"Like" Daryl's page on Facebook and "follow" Daryl on Twitter.
She doesn't say all the same things I do.
And pretty soon she'll have some fun news to share!

You'll hear that first in Avery's newsletter!

Say cheese!

***********

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Mysteries of Pittsburgh: How to Make a BBQ Chipped Ham Sandwich by Cleo Coyle

Pssst... Want to play confuse the deli guy? Okay, here's what you do. Walk up to your grocery store’s cold-cuts counter and ask for a pound of Chipped Ham. Unless a member of the deli’s staff is from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, chances are he won’t have a clue what you’re talking about.

Chipped Chopped Ham is unique to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as my husband and I discovered after moving to New York City decades ago--and watching deli guys blink in total confusion whenever we tried to order a sandwich with it.

The whole thing began with a chain of regional stores called Isaly's, a name you might remember as the original producer of the famous Klondike ice cream bar.

Little known fact:

An Islay's advertisement

actually bragged...

"Boston has its Baked Beans. Philly has its Cheesesteaks. Pittsburgh, Ohio, West Virginia and surrounds? We have Isaly’s Original Chipped Chopped Ham."

A Note from Cleo

Cleo Coyle, cheap eats

enthusiast, is author of

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

With retro food as popular as ever, I thought it might be time to take a chance and decode the mystery of chipped ham for a wider foodie public. And so...

For this post, I am going to show you how to create that special sandwich from "someplace special" (what we Pittsburghers call our Three Rivers city).

The BBQ Chipped Ham Sandwich was one of the most popular lunches served in Pittsburgh's school cafeterias when my husband and I were growing up. It was the retro sandwich of our youth. It was also delicious, easy, and cheap. In fact, cheap is the point!

The "chipping" of deli ham is a great way to make a less expensive brand of ham more tasty. There’s a good reason why it does, too, just keep reading...

👇

To download this recipe in a free PDF
that you can print, save, or share,
click here or on the image below...

Click here for
the free PDF.

Cleo Coyle's Pittsburgh-Style

BBQ Chipped Ham Sandwich

Makes 4 Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 pound of "Chipped Ham"
(Below, you'll learn how to order this at any deli.)

½ cup (8 tablespoons) ketchup

¼ cup (4 tablespoons) BBQ sauce

4 soft hamburger buns

(optional garnish) Relish, sweet or dill

Directions:

Step 1: Order the Ham - Although the original "chip chopped" ham was made with pressed ham, you can order up any ham at your deli for this sandwich. Note: Even if you usually order the more expensive black forest or baked Virginia ham, don't be afraid to try the less expensive or "on sale" hams for this sandwich. Here's how to do it...

Simply tell your deli person to shave the ham razor thin. Tell him (or her) not to be afraid to allow the ham to break up into pieces. The deli person is actually "chipping" the meat against the commercial meat slicer blade. Here’s what it should look like...

By shaving (chipping) the meat very thin, the ham is more tender and has more flavor than if it were sliced more thickly. In Western PA, Northern West Virginia, and Eastern Ohio (aka the Ohio Valley), this slicing process is known as "Pittsburgh Style."

Step 2: Make the Frizzle Fry - When you get the chipped ham home, you’re ready to create your “frizzle fry” sandwich. (Okay, from here on, it's stupidly easy. But if you never made a hot dog before, I suppose you'd need directions, right? So here goes...)

A. Heat the Chipped Ham: Place a large skillet over medium heat. Break the ham up into the pan and stir until heated through.

B. Make your Quickie Sauce: Mix the ketchup and (your favorite) BBQ sauce in a small bowl and add to the skillet. (Some people add a little mustard at this stage. We don't, but it's an option, depending on your taste.)

Quick tip: The new "Simply Heinz" ketchup is quite good. I just discovered it, and I'm hooked. No corn syrup. Huzzah! You can really taste the difference. I also like Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce, but you can use any BBQ sauce for this recipe.

C. Combine Ham and Sauce: Stir and cook for a few more minutes. The chipped ham should be evenly coated with the ketchup-BBQ sauce. The ham should be steaming and sticky.

D. Pile it high: Divide the ham up onto the four hamburger buns.

Garnish: My husband eats this simple sandwich with no other garnish. Many people in Pittsburgh, however, enjoy adding sweet relish. I really enjoy it with relish—but I prefer dill relish. So add what you like and…

👇

To download this recipe in a free PDF
that you can print, save or share, click here.

Click here for
the free PDF.

* * * *

The sandwich in this blog post was mentioned in
Cleo Coyle's culinary mystery Once Upon a Grind

* * * *

A fairy tale murder
in Central Park...

Join coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi as she solves
the crime against "Sleeping Beauty," opens
secret doors (uptown and down), and investigates
a cold case that's been unsolved since the Cold War.
*

Amazon * B&N

IndieBound * BAM

Once Upon a Grind
by Cleo Coyle

Fresh Pick! ~ Fresh Fiction

Top Pick! ~ RT Book Reviews

“A Best Book of the Year Pick”
~ Kings River Life Magazine