Salad Days: Butter Crunch Salad

I know I know – it’s getting cold outside and we’re supposed to be turning to hearty soups and stews in the kitchen. And I love root vegetables – really I do – so the abundance of all those gnarly misshapen potatoes, turnips, parsnips and yams makes me want to whip out the roasting pan and turn up the oven.

But all that hunkering down needs to be balanced, and there’s no better way than with a salad that’s filled with all things green. Really bright and dazzling, with a lemony dressing that highlights every leaf and shimmers. When I want to feel light-filled, and well, light, after too much hibernation food, this salad is what I crave.

Butter Crunch Salad
serves six

For salad:
1 head butter (Boston) lettuce, washed and torn into bite sized pieces
1 fennel bulb, trimmed, cored and sliced
2-3 celery stalks, leaves included, diced
1 Granny Smith apple
1 cup sunflower sprouts
1 ripe avocado (optional)*


For dressing:
2 tbsp Champagne vinegar
2 tbsp Meyer lemon juice, divided
Grated lemon zest from two Meyer lemons (use regular lemons if Meyer isn't available)
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp grainy mustard
½ tsp salt
Lots of freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup olive oil

*Part of the beauty of this salad is its "super crunch".  To maintain that consistency, skip the avocado.
1. Make dressing first. Whisk to combine vinegar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, lemon zest, honey, mustard, salt and pepper. Slowly add oil until combined. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl combine lettuce, fennel and celery. Halve, core and dice apple and place in a small bowl; toss with remaining lemon juice. Peel and dice avocado and gently toss with apple and juice. Place in bowl with lettuce. Roughly chop the sunflower sprouts and add to the lettuce.

Be sure to include the celery leaves

Tart Granny Smith apples add both crunch and zestiness to the salad

Hydroponic sunflower sprouts - you can't get any fresher

3. Whisk the dressing one last time, pour over the salad, toss gently and enjoy. Your stomach will be happy and you can spring for dessert - or a second helping of roasted potatoes - guilt-free.

Fruitful Baking: Delicious Tarte Tatin

I’ve never been much of a baker. It’s the exacting science of it that puts me off. Measuring precisely. Step by step sequences of events that can’t be altered. Cold equipment and room temperature eggs (or is it room temperature equipment and cold eggs?). You see what I mean. I haven’t started yet and already I’m sure I’m going to miss a beat. When it comes to the kitchen, I’m more jazz than classical – more improvisation, less following the score note by note. Give me syncopation over exact execution every time.

But I do love pie. And I do love Julia Child. So when we decided to make a dinner in honour of Julia Child’s birthday last year (inspired by a menu in Bon Appetit magazine), I thought we’d substitute the proposed dessert, Reine de Saba, for something I’d never tried before: the ultimate French dessert, tarte tatin. E voila – a new recipe entered my speed dial repertoire and a baker was born.

Since then I’ve made this tarte tatin many times, and every time it’s delighted me with just how easy baking can be. With fall apples filling the farmers’ market tables and in cold storage, it’s a perfect time to try this one yourself. C’est ci bon!

Julia’s Tarte Tatin
from Julia's Kitchen Wisdom
serves six

Here’s my version of Julia’s pie dough, which can be used for the tarte or for any sweet or savoury pie you wish to make. You will need about half of this recipe for the tarte. If you have a favourite pie dough recipe, by all means use it.  The great thing about dough is that it can be frozen so you can have some at the ready whenever you're in the mood for a sweet treat.  Also be sure to allow enough time for the dough to rest; while some recipes will call for a mere 30 minutes, I like to let the dough rest, as Julia suggests, for a couple of hours.

For the Tarte Tatin:

6-8 Jonagold apples, cored, peeled and halved (any good baking apples will work well here)
The juice and zest of 1 lemon
1½ cups sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Heavy oveproof 9-inch skillet for cooking and baking
Optional: whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, as accompaniment

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F, with the rack in the lower middle position.

2. Slice the halved apples into 4 lengthwise wedges each, and toss in a large bowl with the lemon juice and zest and ½ cup of the sugar. Drain the apples after macerating 20 minutes.

3. In the skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Stir in the remaining 1 cup sugar and cook until the syrup bubbles and turns golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat and arrange a layer of apple slices in a circular pattern on the caramel in the skillet, then arrange the remaining apples neatly on top.

Everything's better with butter!

4. Return the pan to moderately high heat and cook for about 25 minutes, covering the pan after 10 minutes. Every few minutes press down on the apples and baste them with the juices. When the juices are thick and syrupy, remove the pan from the heat.  Watch and smell at this step - because of the high amount of sugar, your syrup can go from thick and buttery to burnt in seconds.

5. On a lightly floured surface, roll the chilled dough into a circle, ⅛-inch thick and 1-inch larger than the top of the pan. Drape the dough over the apples, pressing the edge of the dough between the apples and the inside of the pan. Cut 4 small steam holes on the top of the dough. Bake until the pastry has browned and crisped, about 20 minutes.

6. Let the tarte rest for 10 minutes. Here’s the tricky part! Unmold the tart onto a serving dish (so the pastry is on the bottom). I haven’t quite mastered this to be honest. Rich bought me an Emile Henri tarte tatin baking dish that I’ve tried out once, with only slightly better success. This is a case where practice makes perfect, and I am very happy to keep practicing!  Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, as desired.

A bit messy but no one will mind

Bon appétit!

Apple of My Eye

Ah, autumn.  Love the crispy air, the crunchy apples, the cinammon and crimson leaves.  Feels like it's time to turn up the oven and bake bake bake.

I went to the Green Barn Market at the Wychwood Arts Barn this weekend, as I do every Saturday morning.  The veggies on display are getting sparse - no more heirloom tomatoes, scarcely any parsnips, but still lots of kale, carrots, potatoes, onions, pears, the season's last gerbera daisies and ..... apples.  Northern Spy, Russet, Jonagold, Honey Crisp, Ambrosia, Cortland, Empire....an abundance of apples, all with spots and blemishes and deep orchard goodness.  These aren't your supermarket beauties.  They have heft and weight and skins so taut that the juice flies when you take that first big bite.  Yum. A perfect eating - and baking - buffet.

Of course some of those pretty pinks had to come home with me.



First on the list was my by-now old stand-by - Tarte Tatin.  The apples were so huge that I ended making a regular sized one and a "mini". Experiment time - I've tried feeezing the already cooked and baked tatins.  We'll see what a thaw and reheat does.

Then on to "Apple of Her Eye" Apple Pie, from the New Basics.  My copy is so worn that it's held together with a large rubber band, but I refuse to buy a new copy.  It would take too long to transpose the notes and scribbles beside each recipe tried (don't double the curry for the Curried Zucchini Soup!).  I've chosen Northern Spies - good eating, and excellent baking.  My "Julia" dough is at the ready. 


Now it's just a matter of the therapeutic peeling, dicing and seasoning. 

Roxanne Potvin is rocking in the background (when i put you back together, with my iron and my solder...).  A little bit of cardamom instead of all cinammon.  A bit of tweaking with the tender and forgiving dough. A bit of dough deco, although whether they look like the leaves they're supposed to be or just blobs, I'm not sure.  A bit of a chill and then well wrapped for a deep dive in the freezer. 



So how long do these things bake for when they come out of the freezer rock solid?

Apple of Her Eye Pie
adapted from The New Basics cookbook, by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins

Pastry - use Julia Child's fab All-Purpose Pie Dough - Pâte Brisée Fine recipe (see My Life in France post from September 20!)

Filling
8 tart apples (I used Northern Spies, but Granny Smiths will do in an out-of-season pinch. I found that 6 Spies was enough)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons ( ½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping*
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch ground cinammon

1. Prepare Julia's dough. Divide dough into two slightly uneven halves. Wrap both halves, and chill in refrigerator for two hours or overnight (can be frozen for one month as well)

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

3. Prepare the filling: Core, halve and peel the apples. Cut them into one inch chunks. Toss with lemon juice as you are chopping to prevent apples from turning brown. Combine chopped apples and melted butter in a large bowl. Add the remaining filling ingredients, and toss until the apples are evenly coated.

4. Roll the smaller portion of chilled dough out on a lightly floured surface to form a 12-inch circle. Transfer to a 10-inch pie plate, and press into the bottom and sides of the plate. Trim the dough, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Reserve excess dough.

5. Roll the larger portion of dough out to form a slightly larger circle.

6. Fill the pie plate with the apple mixture, mounding it slightly. Brush the edge of the bottom crust with water. Then transfer the top crust over the apples, tucking it slightly inside the rim. Trim off any excess, allowing a 1-inch overhang. Seal the edges of the crust together with a fork and crimp decoratively. Trim away any excess dough.

7. Prepare the topping: Mix together the sugar and cinnamon. Prick the top crust with a fork in several places, and cut a small vent in the centre. Brush the top lightly with water and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. If you like, cut out shapes, such as leaves or apples, from the dough trimmings and decorate the top crust with them.

8. Bake until the filling is bubbling and the top is golden, 1 ¼ hours.

8 portions

*Because I froze the pie, I didn't do the topping.  When I bake the pie,I think I will use super crunchy big flake sugar instead.