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The Best Cheesecake… Ever!!

12 Comments

July 30, 2020

I apologize!

This isn’t an Italian recipe.

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I’ve had a taste for cheesecake for months now.  A few weeks ago, I bought cream cheese and sour cream in anticipation of making cheesecake.

Well, yesterday was the day.

I pulled out a recipe that I stumbled upon more than twenty years ago.

It was from a coffee shop in Santa Fe, The Three Cities of Spain, that closed in the mid 1970s!  Apparently, the coffee shop was quite an interesting place!

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I can’t tell you much more about the recipe, though now that I’ve looked, I’ve found a number of versions on the web.

What I can tell you is that if you like cheesecake, MAKE THIS CAKE NOW!

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 The Best Cheesecake... Ever!!
The very short and simple ingredient list belies the deliciousness of this cheesecake. Make it the day before you want to serve it so that it has time to chill and set.
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine American
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 60 minutes
Passive Time 10 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Crust
Filling
Topping
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine American
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 60 minutes
Passive Time 10 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Crust
Filling
Topping
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Instructions
Crust
  1. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 1/2 inch (24 centimeter) springform pan.
  2. Combine all crust ingredients. Press into the bottom and about one inch up the sides of the buttered springform pan.
Filling
  1. Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy, preferably using the paddle of a planetary mixer. Scrape the bowl several times to be sure the cream cheese is well blended.
  2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating very well after each addition, and scraping down the bowl.
  3. Add the sugar and blend. Add the vanilla. Turn the mixer to high and beat until very light and fluffy, approximately one minute.
  4. Pour the filling into the prepared springform pan. The filling should come over the top of the graham cracker crust.
  5. Bake 350°F for 40-45 minutes or until the cake is jiggly in the center but set about three inches in from the edge.
  6. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to rest for five minutes. Do not turn the oven off.
  7. Prepare the topping.
Topping
  1. Blend all ingredients thoroughly.
  2. After the cake has been out of the oven for five minutes, put the topping on the firm part of the cake, around the edges, then carefully spread it evenly over the entire top of the cake.
  3. Return the cheesecake to the oven for 10 minutes.
  4. About 10 minutes after removing the cake from the oven, run a knife around the side to loosen the crust but do not unmold the cake. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature then cover loosely and refrigerate at least six hours.
  5. About three hours before serving, remove the cake from the refrigerator. Remove the side of the springform pan. Allow the cake to come to room temperature before serving.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2020 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Thanksgiving Gravy

4 Comments

November 7, 2019

I’m not much of a turkey person.

If it were up to me, I’d probably never make turkey, except for the fact that turkey is a GREAT excuse to make killer stuffing and gravy.

OK, OK, those of you who know me know that I’m enough of a traditionalist that I’d probably still make turkey on Thanksgiving, with or without stuffing and gravy, because it’s, well, traditional.

Turkey aside, though, I absolutely LOVE stuffing and I LOVE gravy.

After Thanksgiving, I carefully hide the leftover stuffing in the fridge and keep it all for myself.  There usually isn’t much leftover so I get maybe two days of snacking on cold stuffing.  And it has to be cold, not warm, with a bit of added salt because the taste of salt is dulled by the coldness of the stuffing.

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As for the gravy, when I was a kid, I liked gravy so much that I would stir enough into my mashed potatoes that they became runny and spread out over my plate!  I don’t do that anymore but I still love gravy.

I love gravy so much that I roast poultry specifically to make gravy then discard the poultry because I’ve browned it to a fare-thee-well to get a really flavorful gravy.  But I only do that once a year—on Thanksgiving—hence the name Thanksgiving gravy.

When I was growing up, my parents hosted Thanksgiving dinner.  My Aunt Margie and Uncle Joe hosted Christmas Eve dinner.

On Thanksgiving, while my mother and Aunt Margie were getting everything ready to bring to the table (everything included a full Italian meal with sausage, meatballs, lasagna, etcetera alongside a full traditional American Thanksgiving meal!) my Aunt Mamie would make gravy from the pan drippings.

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From my current vantage point, however, there is a very limited amount of gravy that can be made that way, otherwise it doesn’t have enough meaty goodness.  Though I have to say that Aunt Mamie did a great job of making gravy.  Hers was the one that I most often stirred into my mashed potatoes.

The search for lots of meaty-tasting gravy is what got me started on the path of roasting poultry a few days in advance simply to make a brown stock to use as the base for my gravy.

I guess, in reality, my gravy is more of a variation on French brown sauce (Sauce Espagnole) with added pan drippings than traditional American-style gravy but it packs the flavor that I expect from good gravy.

If there’s any leftover gravy, I warm it with some cream and sautéed mushrooms and then gently reheat leftover turkey in the sauce.

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 Thanksgiving Gravy
Roasting poultry to make a flavorful stock creates a gravy with an extra punch of flavor. Turkey wings and necks are ideal but chicken and Cornish hen work very well, too. Whatever poultry you use, cut it into lots of pieces to create more surface area for browning. I use a lot of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and I put all the rinds in a container in the freezer. I use one whenever I make stock or broth, as I do for the stock for this gravy. It is not necessary to peel the onions and garlic.
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Course Savory Sauces and Marinades
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 11 hours
Passive Time 12 hours
Servings
cups
Ingredients
Brown Stock
Gravy
Course Savory Sauces and Marinades
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 11 hours
Passive Time 12 hours
Servings
cups
Ingredients
Brown Stock
Gravy
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
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Instructions
Brown Stock
  1. Cut the turkey or other poultry into chunks. Put the cut-up turkey into a heavy roasting pan. Mix with ¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil. Season generously with garlic powder and salt.
  2. Roast the turkey at 425°F until dark brown, turning often, 1½ to 2 hours.
  3. Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed stock pot, large enough to hold all the ingredients, sauté the carrots and celery in ¼ cup of extra-virgin olive oil over high heat.
  5. As the carrots and celery begin to brown, add the onions and garlic.
  6. Continue cooking, adjusting heat to medium if necessary, to create nicely browned vegetables and fond without burning.
  7. When the vegetables are brown, add 1/2 cup of red wine and 1 cup of water to stop the cooking and set the pot aside until the turkey is ready.
  8. When the turkey is brown, add it and any pan drippings to the stockpot with the vegetables.
  9. Using some of the water, deglaze roasting pan and add the liquid to the stockpot. All these brown bits are important for flavor.
  10. Add the bay leaf, rosemary, sage, parsley, whole cloves, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind, if using, black pepper, and enough water to cover generously. Bring to a simmer and simmer, partially covered for six hours, stirring occasionally.
  11. Strain and refrigerate the stock. The stock may be made up to three days in advance.
Gravy
  1. Skim the fat from the top of the stock. Heat the fat to cook off any water. Measure ¾ cup of melted fat and reserve. Add butter, if necessary, to make ¾ cup.
  2. Gently boil the skimmed stock to reduce it to about six cups, if necessary.
  3. Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, gently brown the flour in the fat from the stock.
  5. Add the six cups of hot stock, approximately ¾ cup at a time, stirring well after each addition, to avoid lumps.
  7. After all the stock has been added, bring to a simmer. Add the wine. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste. (The drippings from the turkey can be fairly salty so the gravy should be under-salted until the final adjustment of seasoning.)
  8. Simmer gently till thick, approximately 2 hours, stirring frequently. Set aside, covered, until the turkey is ready.
  9. After removing the turkey from the oven, deglaze the roasting pan with water. Skim the fat from the deglazing liquid. Pour the defatted drippings into gravy and simmer briefly to achieve the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2019 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Bread Pudding

8 Comments

July 3, 2019

It’s a Sunday morning in June.  I’m on the East Coast; Fire Island, New York to be exact.  I’m one-third of the way through a three-week stay on this slip of land south of Long Island.  To the north of Fire Island is the Great South Bay, which separates it from Long Island.  To the south is the Atlantic Ocean.

The Cherry Grove dock. It’s about 4 1/2 miles across the Great South Bay to Sayville on Long Island.

Whenever I’m here, I seem to channel my childhood as far as cooking goes.  I find myself turning (though not exclusively, mind you) to the foods I grew up eating and loving.  A few days ago for dinner I made Italian (OK, Italian-American) sausage with peppers and onions.

A view of downtown Cherry Grove.

Today I’m making my mother’s long-simmered Southern Italian Ragu (or Sugo or Tomato Sauce…or, because I’m in New York, Sunday Gravy).  Growing up, we NEVER called Tomato Sauce of any sort “Gravy!”  It was usually just “Sauce,” which we all knew meant mom’s or Aunt Margie’s or Aunt Mamie’s or some other Italian-American woman’s slow-cooked meat-and-tomato-based sauce for pasta.  And we NEVER EVER used the word “Sunday” as a modifier for “Sauce!”

A tortoise greeted me on a walk from Cherry Grove to The Pines one morning.

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Sauce was Sauce, it was sacrosanct.  It wasn’t better or different or more elaborate because it was being made on Sunday.  If by some chance it were to be made on Thursday (which it usually wasn’t) it would still be made the same way.  To be sure, there was some variability in the meats that were used.  In my family’s version there were always big pieces of pork, preferably bone-in.  There could also be sausage (preferably hot), meatballs, and occasionally (and just for the cook) one chicken thigh (to “sweeten the sauce” as my mother would say).  Other than that, and the occasional appearance (or not) of an additional aromatic, like a small amount of minced onion or a hot pepper, the rest of the process was invariable.

Though there are some larger houses, many of the houses in Cherry Grove are small cottages.

I’m making Sauce today because, well, it’s Sunday and I’m on the East Coast, and because I LOVE it.  If I could, I’d find an AM radio and tune it to a station playing Polkas (Is that even possible?).  Aunt Mamie always did that on Sunday (despite being of Italian descent).  It’s one of those experiences from childhood that has had an outsized impact on me for some reason.  The memory is quite simple:  summertime, doors open , Aunt Mamie cooking, and her big green box radio sitting on a white enamel-topped free-standing kitchen cabinet near the door to her porch blaring out polka tunes.

The Tiki Bar can be a happening place during 2-4-1 happy hour!

Many of my fondest memories are in the summer with the doors open, what can I say?  It’s not like Aunt Mamie didn’t tune to polkas in the winter but that’s not what comes to mind!

One of the many boardwalks that make navigating Cherry Grove possible.

I’m also making Bread Pudding today.  One of those comfort-food desserts that I really enjoy.  I know I’ve mentioned this a time or three, but all of my favorite foods are carbohydrates.  All of my favorite desserts are based on moderately complex carbohydrates (flour and rice, usually) without lots of extra fat (like butter) and without being overly sweet.  Bread Pudding and Rice Pudding are near the top of the list.

Getting ready for the Fourth of July, a “house cat” is decked out with patriotic sunglasses.

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Neither would be considered fit for company but I’m foisting the bread pudding on our dinner guests today with the option of some heavy cream poured on top.  I can always do a run to the store for gelato if I have a last-minute change of heart.  And, it would be a “run.”  There are no cars on this part of the island.  There are some motorized carts that ply the boardwalks that crisscross the community, providing the only means of navigating the town.  The carts are mostly used by contractors, businesses, trash pickup, the fire department, and the EMS.  Although a few residents use small carts or electric scooters to get around, the rest of us walk and use wagons to cart things that are too heavy to carry.

Looking south toward the Atlantic Ocean with deer in the distance.

It’s a pretty idyllic place to spend part of the summer.

A view toward the dock and Great South Bay from the Tiki Bar.

It can also be an exciting and unpredictable place.  Sunday afternoon an intense storm hit Long Island and Fire Island.  Trees and power lines were downed.  The storm put an end to internet service for more than forty-eight hours.  That’s the reason that this blog is getting posted a few days later than planned.

Part of the Cherry Grove Fire Department, an all-volunteer force.

Meanwhile, I’m eagerly anticipating the arrival of the next urge to cook something from my childhood!

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 Bread Pudding
If the raisins or currants are not absolutely fresh and soft, cover them with hot water to plump up before adding them to the mixture. It is best if the bread is a few days old so that it has lost some of its moisture.
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 80 minutes
Passive Time 60 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine American
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 80 minutes
Passive Time 60 minutes
Servings
people
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
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Instructions
  1. Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.
  2. Add milk and rum to the egg mixture and whisk to combine.
  3. Butter a three-quart ovenproof covered dish.
  4. Toss the bread cubes and raisins if using. Put the bread into the buttered dish. Pour milk and egg mixture on top.
  5. Grate nutmeg over the top. Dot lightly with butter.
  6. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature 30-60 minutes.
  7. Bake at 350°F, covered, for approximately 60 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes, or until brown on top.
  8. Serve warm or at room temperature. Pour a little heavy cream on top if desired.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2019 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Cherry Jam

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August 1, 2018

Every year during late summer when I was in grade school we would pick elderberries.  The “we” was myself, my cousin Donna Medile and our mutual friend Ricky Slivosky. Ricky’s dad, Joe, would take us on this adventure.

We’d go to various places in Stackhouse Park, aka the “woods” near our neighborhood.  If you look at the map on the website link, you’ll see Fayette Street.  It’s the street I lived on.  It basically goes right into one of the walking paths into the “woods.”  We never called it Stackhouse Park though everyone knew the name.

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Joe Slivosky would take the elderberries to one of his relatives who would turn them into pies and jam.  I can’t say that I actually cared much for either but I loved picking the berries.  I also liked the idea that something we picked from the wild could be turned into something we ate.

Ever since then, the idea of preserving fruit, preferably fruit that I picked, by turning it into jams, jellies, preserves or by soaking it in alcohol, has fascinated me.

Pitted sour cherries ready to be turned into jam

Santa Fe had a bumper crop of stone fruit in 2012.  Peaches and apricots were everywhere.  I made peach nectar, peach preserves, apricot preserves, apricot and lavender preserves, and apricot preserves with bourbon and brown sugar all from fruit I picked from friends’ trees.  We are just finishing up the bounty of what I canned that year.

Two years ago, I made orange jam and lemon jam from citrus trees outside our house in Palm Springs.

Although guava jelly is my absolute favorite in the jam-jelly-preserve category I find it impossible to get really good guava jelly.  Years ago, I would bring guava jelly back from Guyana where it was made by a friend of my college roommate’s father.  It contained only guava juice, sugar, and lime juice and it tasted just like guava.  Nothing I’ve had since compares to it.

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Cherry jam is actually my second favorite, though, honestly, there isn’t anything in the jam-jelly-preserve category that I don’t like except traditional British orange marmalade, which I find too bitter.

I was really excited when Rich DePippo’s cherry trees produced enough cherries for the birds, the squirrels, and us this year.

If you’re intimidated by the idea of canning, then don’t can the jam.  Make a batch of it, which will be about six cups total.  It’s really a breeze to make.  When the jam is done, put it in nice jars and refrigerate.  It’ll keep for a few months with no problem.  You can also gift some of it to your friends, who will be amazed that you made it yourself.

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 Cherry Jam
This recipe uses one box of traditional fruit pectin. If you make a lot of jam, you may want to buy pectin in a multi-use container. Follow the instructions on the container for the amount that equals one box of pectin. Pie cherries or sour cherries make the best jam.
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Course Canning and Preserving, Food Preservation
Cuisine American
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 6 hours
Servings
cups
Ingredients
Course Canning and Preserving, Food Preservation
Cuisine American
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Passive Time 6 hours
Servings
cups
Ingredients
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
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Instructions
  1. Put six clean, 1 cup jam jars into a large pot of water. Bring to a boil and reduce to low to keep the jars and the water hot.
  2. Put six new lids in a small saucepan of water. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low and keep warm.
  3. Pit the cherries.
  4. Put the cherries in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. There should still be bits of fruit visible.
  5. Measure four cups of chopped cherries.
  6. Combine the chopped cherries and pectin in an 8 quart saucepan.
  7. Over high heat, bring the cherry mixture to a full, rolling boil; one that cannot be stirred down.
  8. Add the sugar all at once.
  9. Stir and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil as quickly as possible. Boil for one minute.
  10. Remove the jam from the heat.
  11. Skim off any foam.
  12. Remove the jars from the hot water. Turn the heat to high and bring the water to a boil.
  13. Ladle the jam into the hot jars filling to ¼ inch from the top.
  14. Put a lid and a band on each jar. Tighten until you just meet resistance. The lid must be loose enough to allow air to escape (but not allow water to enter) otherwise the jar will explode when being processed.
  15. When all the jars are full, lower them into the boiling water.
  16. Return the water to a boil and boil 10 minutes at sea level. If you are above 1000 feet in elevation, increase the processing time by the amount noted below.
  17. Remove the jars from the boiling water and tighten the lids. Do not overtighten or you may break the seal.
  18. Allow the jars to cool completely.
  19. When cool, the lids should all be concave or, if pressed, should stay concave. If the lids pop up in the center, refrigerate that jar as the seal is not adequate to protect the contents.
  20. Add the following time to the original 10-minute processing time based on altitude: 1000-3000 feet above sea level: 5 minutes; 3001-6000 feet above sea level: 10 minutes; 6001-8000 feet above sea level: 15 minutes; 8001-10,000 feet above sea level: 20 minutes
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Barbecued Chicken Thighs

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July 25, 2018

For someone who tries to eat lower on the food chain, I sure love using my smoker.

Granted, I could smoke things like cheese and even some vegetables but meat is where the smoker really shines!

I’ve smoked pork shoulders, ribs, and turkey breasts, and I continue to expand my repertory, but I really enjoy smoking chicken thighs.

Smoking is often an all-day affair.  Sometimes it’s an all-night affair if one is smoking large enough pieces of meat.  So far, I’ve limited myself to smoking things that can go into the smoker at a reasonable time of the day.  I’m not one of those guys who wants to sit beside his smoker through the night with a cooler of beer at his side!

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Chicken thighs cook in a relatively short period of time so they’re great when you want to limit attending to the smoker to just a few hours before dinnertime.

My smoker has an adjustment for the heat output but not temperature, per se. If the wind or external temperature change, the internal smoker temperature changes, too. Some day I’ll get a smoker with an actual thermostat but so far this one has served me well.

If you get a smoker with an automatic thermostat there would be almost no need to attend to the chicken thighs.  While I have a nice smoker, it doesn’t have a thermostat.  It has a control that puts out an adjustable but then constant amount of heat based on the setting similar to the way car heaters used to work before cars had real thermostats.  If the outdoor temperature or wind changes, the temperature inside the smoker will change due to the constant heat output.

Before I had a smoker, I used my gas grill to smoke.  It has a separate burner just for creating smoke from wood chips.  It has three other burners to actually cook the food plus a rotisserie burner.  Under many circumstances, the burner for the wood chips puts out enough heat to keep the grill at the proper smoking temperature.  When the weather turns cold, like the time I smoked a turkey on Thanksgiving, a little heat from one of the other burners is needed…just not a burner that’s actually under the food.

I sometimes use my gas grill to smoke things, including a whole turkey once.

This recipe makes use of two of my previously published recipes, my barbecue rub and my barbecue sauce.

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If you don’t have a smoker (and I realize that most people don’t) you really can do these on a grill with indirect heat, either gas or charcoal.

Put on oven thermometer on the grate where you intend to put the chicken.  There should not be any heat coming from under that grate.  Heat up the opposite side of the grill using either gas or charcoal.  With a little experimentation, you’ll be able to keep the side of the grill, where the chicken will go, at the proper smoking temperature.  If your grill doesn’t have a separate place for wood chips, add some wood chips, soaked in water for 30 minutes, to the hot part of the grill from time to time.

Happy smoking!!! (Oh, and don’t forget the beer!)

Print Recipe
 Barbecued Chicken Thighs
These chicken thighs are moist and fall-apart tender. See the Notes section for links to my recipes for barbecue rub and barbecue sauce. Professional kitchens often weigh liquids, hence the 4000 grams of water. 4000 grams would essentially be the same as 4 liters. The advantage of weighing the water, though, is that you can add ice to cool the brine down while still being exact about the quantity of water. This recipe scales easily.
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Course Mains, Poultry
Cuisine American
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Passive Time 2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Mains, Poultry
Cuisine American
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 4 hours
Passive Time 2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Dissolve the salt in the water.
  2. Refrigerate the brine until cold. If you are weighing the water, you can add ice cubes to cool the brine quickly.
  3. Add the chicken thighs and weigh them down with a plate or a zipper lock bag full of water. Brine for two hours in the refrigerator.
  4. Remove the chicken thighs and pat them dry.
  5. Lay the chicken thighs skin-side down.
  6. Sprinkle liberally with garlic powder.
  7. Sprinkle with oregano.
  8. Sprinkle with barbecue rub.
  9. Wrap the skin around thigh, trying to enclose the meat as much as possible. Tie with twine.
  11. Rub the thighs generously with barbecue rub.
  13. Smoke at 225°F for 4 hours.
  14. Fifteen minutes before thighs are done, brush with barbecue sauce. Continue cooking for 15 more minutes.
Recipe Notes

Here is where you will find my recipe for barbecue rub and my recipe for barbecue sauce.

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Maraschino Cherry Cake

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July 18, 2018

In  September 2012, at a wine paring dinner at The Compound Restaurant in Santa Fe during the holy days of Santa Fe Wine and Chile Fiesta, a group of us hatched an idea to start a dinner group.

After a lot of discussion and email exchanges, we decided to name the group Santa Fe Ate, both for what we do and for the (play on the words regarding the) number of people in the group.

From the “Things You Can Cook in a Wood-Burning Oven” dinner: Roasted Cauliflower with whipped Goat Cheese, Ricotta, and Olive Oil Dip and Cannellini alla Toscana

We had our first dinner in January 2013 and we’ve been going strong ever since.  We meet about once every three months, rotating houses.  At each dinner we decide the theme for the next dinner.  This may not be the best time to make such a consequential decision given the amount of alcohol typically consumed.  For example, one of our themes was French Indo-China 1920s to 1930s!

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Frank and Doug don’t really cook so their group assignment is always to come up with a signature cocktail and appropriate wine pairings for each course.  They have leeway to be creative in finding or creating a cocktail, which they have to do for even for cultures where drinking alcohol is not really common.  If the theme of the dinner relates to a wine producing region, the wines are generally from that region to the extent feasible.

From the French Indo-China 1920s to 1930s dinner: Cambodian Fish Amok (Fish and Coconut Milk Curry Baked in Banana Leaves)

The other six of us do successive rounds of emails refining the list of dishes to be prepared and organizing them into courses.  Our task is to be as authentic to the theme as possible.

French Indo-China 1920s to 1930s was probably our most narrow theme.  Others have included, for example, Summer in Provence, Winter in Friuli, Along the Silk Road, Persia (not Iran but Persia), Comfort Food, and Things You Can Cook in a Wood-Burning Oven (for which the entire meal was cooked in our outdoor wood-burning oven).

The only meal we’ve had which strayed from the basic plan was Timballo.  Timballo is a (typically large) pastry-encased and baked dish of layered pasta, hardboiled eggs, cheese, meatballs, and other meats, all moistened with tomato sauce.  Each of the cooks was assigned one or more components of the timballo to make at home.  We got together to assemble and bake the final dish.  This was a multi-hour process, even with all the prep work done in advance.

Unmolding the timballo

To help pass the time, Frank and Doug devised a blind wine-tasting in which we had to try to identify the varietal and provenance of each wine.  I believe the eight of us tasted six bottles of wine.  After we finished those, we opened some more.  This was the dinner at which we decided the theme of French Indo-China 1920s to 1930s.  You may notice a correlation between alcohol intake and unusual dinner themes!

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Earlier this year, our theme was Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, first edition, published in 1950.  Every dish had to come from the cookbook with no changes, substitutions or updating unless absolutely necessary.  One of the appetizers was anchovies rolled around cornichons!

Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, 1950, First Edition

The food was actually surprisingly good.  I suspect part of that was related to how each of us selected our dish or dishes (Becky, who did appetizers selected three!).  The wines were, undoubtedly, fabulous.  In the United States, if you were drinking wine in the 1950s you were likely drinking French wine, and good French wine, at that!  On that night, so were we!

I made a Maraschino Cherry Cake with Almond Crème Filling and Maraschino Boiled Frosting.  Though if I were making the cake again, I would probably substitute my recipe for Italian Pastry Cream for Betty’s Crème Filling, I really wouldn’t make any other changes.

Here’s the recipe directly from the first edition of the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook with a few minor adaptions of the technique by me.  For you bakers out there, I’m providing the original sea-level measurements as published in the cookbook.  Since I baked this at nearly 8000 feet in elevation, I followed Betty’s recommendations for adjusting for high altitude.

Getting ready to make Maraschino Cherry Cake
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 Maraschino Cherry Cake
You can divide the work for this cake over several days. The filling can be made up to three days in advance and refrigerated, tightly covered. Stir in the toasted almonds just before using. The cake layers can be made a day in advance, wrapped tightly and refrigerated. The frosting should be made when you’re ready to frost the cake. The original recipe called for “rich milk” in the almond crème filling. Remember, this recipe was published before the advent of homogenized milk. Half-and-half is a good substitute. Except in professional recipes, it is rare to see egg whites measured in volume but it is a very good idea as the white, much more than the yolk, varies with the size of the egg.
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Course Desserts and Sweets, Sweet Sauces, Frostings, and Fillings
Cuisine American
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 1/2 hours
Passive Time 6 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Maraschino Cherry Cake
Almond Crème Filling
Maraschino Cherry Cooked Frosting
Course Desserts and Sweets, Sweet Sauces, Frostings, and Fillings
Cuisine American
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 1/2 hours
Passive Time 6 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Maraschino Cherry Cake
Almond Crème Filling
Maraschino Cherry Cooked Frosting
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Instructions
Maraschino Cherry Cake
  1. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Reserve.
  2. Combine milk and Maraschino cherry liquid. Reserve.
  3. Cream butter.
  4. Cream in sugar until fluffy.
  5. Add dry ingredients in four additions, alternating with milk-juice mixture in three additions. Mix lightly, but well, after each addition.
  6. Stir in nuts and Maraschino cherries.
  7. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.
  8. Fold beaten egg whites into batter, using about ¼ of the egg whites first to loosen the batter.
  9. Pour into two greased and floured 9” cake pans.
  10. Bake 350°F approximately 30-35 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
  11. Cool the pans on a rack approximately 10 minutes.
  12. Remove layers from pans and cool completely.
Almond Crème Filling
  1. Combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt and half-and-half in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
  2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
  3. Slowly pour about half of the boiling half-and-half mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, to temper the yolks.
  4. Put the saucepan with the remaining half-and-half mixture back on the heat.
  5. Pour the tempered yolks back into the saucepan, whisking constantly.
  6. Bring the mixture to a boil. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.
  7. Remove from the heat and stir in the almond and vanilla extracts.
  8. Pour the pastry cream into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, putting the wrap directly on the pastry cream to avoid a skin.
  9. Refrigerate until cold.
  10. Stir in chopped almonds just before using.
  11. Just before making the frosting, put one cake layer on a serving platter. Top with Almond Crème Filling.
  12. Top with second layer.
Maraschino Cherry Cooked Frosting
  1. Combine the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and Maraschino cherry liquid in a double boiler.
  2. Cook over boiling water, beating constantly with an electric mixer until a spreadable consistency, approximately 5-7 minutes. The top of the double boiler should not touch the boiling water in the bottom.
  4. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts.
  5. Immediately frost sides and top of cake.
  6. Decorate the top with whole Maraschino cherries
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Zia Ida’s Lemon Bars

14 Comments

July 4, 2018

Happy Fourth of July!!!

I’m posting this recipe today because it is one of the three desserts that I typically serve on the Fourth of July.  The other two are Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars and Nick Maglieri’s Supernatural Brownies.

Our front gate ready for the Fourth of July, 2017

The first year that these three became our traditional dessert course, one of our guests, after tasting them, commandeered the platter and started serving the other guests.  He introduced the dessert as “Sex on a platter!”

That was the moment when I knew I could not make changes to the dessert course without proof that the changes would actually be an improvement rather than just different.

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The three desserts make a winning combination.

Guests arriving by van from the parking area

This year, we are not throwing our usual Fourth of July party.  Instead, we are spending two weeks on Fire Island.

For the last five and a half years, my husband, Frank, has been working in Alamogordo, New Mexico, a four-hour drive from our home in Santa Fe.  With rare exceptions, we’ve only seen each other on weekends during this time.  The trip to Fire Island is a celebration of his last day of work in Alamogordo which was this past Friday.

Fourth of July guests

Even when not part of the Fourth of July dessert trifecta, these lemon bars get great reviews but I have to apologize a bit to Zia Ida.

Zia Ida is my husband’s Aunt Ida.  Zia is the Italian word for aunt.

Zia Ida, far left, my father-in-law, and their aunt, Zia Fidalma, from Tuscany

I still consider these to be her lemon bars even though I’ve tweaked her recipe.  I added the lemon zest as her original recipe only called for the juice.  I think the zest adds layers of lemon flavor as the essential oils are way more lemony than the juice.  I also like to add coconut, though it wasn’t part of the original recipe and can certainly be left out.  Since I like my lemon bars tart, I increased the lemon juice from the original 5 tablespoons.

These lemon bars are not fussy to make.  I’ve seen fussy recipes that include steps like precooking the filling and diddling with the crust.  I don’t think either of those steps would improve the flavor and they’d definitely increase the work involved.

More Fourth of July guests

If you have a favorite recipe for some sort of dessert bar, I’d love to see it.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Zia Ida’s Lemon Bars.

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 Zia Ida's Lemon Bars
The coconut is optional. If you like your lemon bars less tart, use 5 tablespoons of lemon juice. After zesting the lemons for the crust and the lemon topping, squeeze the juice and strain well. You may need juice from an additional lemon.
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Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine American
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Passive Time 12 hours
Servings
bars
Ingredients
Crust
Topping
Course Desserts and Sweets
Cuisine American
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Passive Time 12 hours
Servings
bars
Ingredients
Crust
Topping
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Instructions
Crust
  1. Butter a 9" x 13" pan.
  2. Line the buttered pan with buttered parchment, allowing the parchment to overhang the sides of the pan a few inches in all directions.
  3. Pulse flour, sugar and zest in food processor until combined.
  5. Add cold butter, cut in small cubes. Briefly pulse until mixture forms coarse crumbs.
  6. Press the crust mixture into the prepared pan.
  8. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes until lightly brown.
Topping
  1. As soon as the crust is out of the oven, make the topping.
  2. Whisk the eggs to combine.
  3. Whisk in sugar, salt and lemon zest until light yellow.
  5. Whisk in flour and baking powder.
  7. Add strained lemon juice and mix well.
  8. Pour over the warm crust.
  9. Sprinkle with coconut, if using.
  10. Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.
  11. Cool on a rack to room temperature.
  12. Cover the baking pan and refrigerate overnight or until cold and firm.
  13. Using the edges of the parchment, remove the cooled pastry from the pan.
  14. Cut into squares. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Gary’s Barbecue Rub

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June 15, 2018

As summer approaches, my thoughts of cooking turn to the outside.  Luckily, at 8000 feet, it’s not a problem to use the stove or the oven inside, even for extended periods of time, as the outdoor temperature is usually quite moderate and the house doesn’t really heat up.

Even so, summer instigates a more leisurely style of cooking for me.

I like using my smoker, or grill, or wood-burning oven.

My smoker  has an adjustment for the heat output but not temperature, per se. If the wind or external temperature change, the internal smoker temperature changes, too.

There is no doubt that I have more of an Italian palate: more savory, less sweet.  In contrast, an American palate generally accepts much more sweetness in an array of foods.

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Once, when my husband’s Great Uncle Duilio (born and raised in Italy but then residing in Argentina) was visiting, we made an American breakfast of pancakes and bacon.  He totally got into using maple syrup on the pancakes, and loved the bacon, but couldn’t understand the concept of allowing the sweet syrup to touch his bacon.  It just wasn’t right.

By European standards, American barbecue is sweet.  Even when we, as Americans, think it isn’t.

My wood-burning oven can also run on natural gas. It is great for pizza.

I guess I’ve developed an appreciation for a sweeter, more American approach to certain foods…barbecue, baked beans, bacon with maple syrup, and so forth.  Definitely, though, I still prefer foods less sweet than many of my friends would find acceptable.

Today’s recipe is quite simple.  It’s a barbecue rub.  I developed it and have successfully used it on chicken, turkey, pork and beef.

In an upcoming post, I will describe my method for preparing skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs with both barbecue rub and barbecue sauce.

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My DCS grill has a wood chip container with its own flame for precisely controlled smoking, whether low temperature or high temperature

If you’re at all interested and, like me, want to be able to replicate you cooking over and over again, you need to develop your own barbecue rub rather than relying on a pre-mixed, store-bought version.  This recipe is as good a starting point as I can think of.  Honestly, it only takes a few minutes to mix enough for a summer of barbecuing!

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 Gary's Barbecue Rub
If you can’t find dried New Mexican chile molido, substitute a mixture of cayenne and paprika, half and half or to taste. Chile molido is pure ground dried red chile. There are no additional herbs or spices. It is NOT chili powder!! There aren’t really any pictures for this recipe. All they would show is measuring out dry ingredients. Enjoy the simplicity.
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Course Spice Mixtures and Rubs
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Servings
cups
Ingredients
Course Spice Mixtures and Rubs
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Servings
cups
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Combine chile, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and celery seed in a jar.
  2. Grind black pepper in a coffee grinder.
  3. Add oregano to black pepper and grind again.
  4. Add pepper-oregano mixture to the contents of the jar.
  5. Pulverize the brown sugar in the coffee grinder.
  6. Add the brown sugar to the other ingredients. Mix well.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Smoky Baked Beans

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June 1, 2018

In my first year of medical school (I know that only because of the apartment that I was living in at the time) my parents and my Aunt Ann came to visit for a weekend.  I’ve talked about Aunt Ann in previous blog posts, like this one that includes her recipe for Pineapple Cream Cheese Pie.  She was married to my father’s brother, Jano.

As often happened with my mother, the conversations frequently veered to food.  On this occasion, for some reason, my Aunt Mary’s baked beans.

Aunt Mary was really my mother’s Aunt Mary by marriage.  She was my Great Aunt Mary.  Actually, by the time I knew her, she wasn’t really my aunt, great or otherwise, because she and my mother’s Uncle Derp had gotten divorced.  Nonetheless, we all still called her Aunt Mary.  Well, really, due to some bizarre twist, we called her Aunt Mary Derp if we were referring to her in a conversation and it wasn’t otherwise clear which of the several Aunt Marys in the family was the one we meant.  Why we appended the name of her ex-husband to hers rather than using her last name, I’ll never know!!

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In any case, my parents both talked about Aunt Mary’s baked beans.  They recalled that she baked them overnight.  My mother came up with a reasonable facsimile of what went into the beans.

We tried to do the initial boiling of the beans in a slow cooker while we went out for the day.  That was a failure.  On the low setting, the beans were still hard after hours and hours of cooking.  That got remedied by a quick boil on the stove.

My smoker has an adjustment for the heat output but not temperature, per se. If the wind or external temperature change, the internal smoker temperature changes, too.

We took the par-boiled beans and mixed them with all the other ingredients and put them in the oven overnight.  That was failure number two, but one we couldn’t recover from.  The long cooking period created a burnt taste in the beans given the high sugar content.  The beans hadn’t actually dried out but they must have gotten hot enough to start caramelizing the sugar.  The road from caramel to burnt isn’t long.  Unless one doesn’t get more than six hours sleep, we discovered that it wasn’t ideal to bake the beans overnight!

Eventually, I figured it out.  The recipe for my version of Aunt Mary’s Baked Beans now sits proudly on the hard drive of my computer along with two recipes of my own development.  I also have this great hack for doctoring canned baked beans that I learned from my cousin Shirley (it always generates requests for the recipe that I artfully dodge) but that isn’t actually written down anywhere.

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Today, we’re going to focus on my recipe for baked beans cooked in a smoker.  I’ll also share a trick for making these in the oven if you don’t have a smoker.

When I make these, I put them on the bottom rack of my smoker, uncovered, with meat on the racks above.  Meat juices drip into the beans making them extra tasty!  The high humidity in the smoker keeps the uncovered beans from drying out.

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 Smoky Baked Beans
Adding salt to the bean-soaking liquid is optional. It seasons them and also decreases the cooking time. I find it especially useful where I live as water boils at less than 198°F and beans take much longer to cook. If you don’t have a smoker, add 1 teaspoon of Liquid Smoke seasoning and cook the beans in the oven with a cover. As a reality check, if you’re paying close attention to the photos, you’ll notice that these are “adult” lima beans not baby lima beans. There must have been a run on baby lima beans when I went shopping for the ingredients for this recipe as none of the markets had them.
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Course Beans, Nuts and Legumes, Sides
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Passive Time 12 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Beans, Nuts and Legumes, Sides
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 8 hours
Passive Time 12 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Wash and pick over the beans.
  2. Dissolve 1 ½ tablespoons salt, if using, in 2 quarts of water. Add the beans.
  3. Soak the beans for about 12 hours in the refrigerator.
  4. Drain and rinse the beans.
  5. Coarsely chop the red Bell pepper.
  6. In a blender jar, combine the Bell pepper with some of the 6 cups of water.
  7. Puree the Bell pepper.
  8. Add the chipotle pepper, if using, and puree again. Reserve the pepper puree.
  9. Sauté the bacon until golden.
  10. Add the onion and sauté until soft.
  11. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant.
  12. Add the drained beans, pepper puree, remaining water, and bay leaves.
  13. Gently boil, partially covered until almost tender (1 to 2 hours). Add water from time to time if needed. The beans should be just barely covered with liquid at the end.
  14. Combine the ketchup, white wine, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt and black pepper.
  15. Stir the ketchup mixture into the cooked beans.
  16. Return to a simmer on the stovetop then bake (uncovered if using a smoker or covered if using the oven) at 225°F for six hours, stirring once or twice.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by Villa Sentieri, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Recipes

Mom’s Lentil Soup

4 Comments

January 26, 2018

My father liked soup.  Actually, my father really, really liked soup.  Every few weeks my mother would make beef noodle soup as it was one of my dad’s favorites.  Beef noodle is the soup we had most often.  Goulash was the “stew” we had most often.  In fact, I don’t remember my mother ever making an American-style beef stew.

The first American-style beef stew that I ever made was from a recipe that my sister started using after she got married.  It was definitely not one of our family recipes, though it was good.

After the beef noodle soup that my mother made on a regular basis, other soups were just occasional affairs, though soups of various types appeared often on our table.

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Italian “Wedding” Soup was a favorite but not something that we had more than a three or four times a year.  Everyone in the family really loved Wedding Soup but, honestly, it’s a lot of work.  It’s coming to the blog next month but today we have my Mom’s Lentil Soup.

My parents in 1981

Let’s face it, lentil soup isn’t something people swoon over.  At best it is good comfort food.  That’s exactly what this is for me.

It’s also easy to make.  A few minutes of chopping and some stirring off-and-on are rewarded with a really good pot of soup.

My mother’s lentil soup was unusual in that she put enough black pepper into it to create a distinct bite.  The first time I tasted it, as an adolescent, I was surprised by how peppery it was but I loved it.   Whether or not you add that much black pepper is entirely your choice but, in my mind, it’s the black pepper that sets my mother’s lentil soup apart from the pack.

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Consistent with my mom’s low-and-slow philosophy, this soup is cooked longer that would be typical, for the average American cook at least.  Despite the long cooking, the lentils remain intact though soft.  They don’t really fall apart the way that dry beans might.

This soup freezes well so a big batch shouldn’t be a problem.

While a ham bone makes great lentil soup, it’s not something that most households have on a regular basis but a handful of baked ham or a few ounces of bacon make an awfully tasty soup.

If you have a favorite family recipe and a bit of a story to tell, please email me at santafecook@villasentieri.com and we can discuss including it in the blog. I am expanding the scope of my blog to include traditional recipes from around the country and around the world. If you haven’t seen Bertha’s Flan or Melinda’s Drunken Prunes, take a look.  They will give you an idea of what I’m looking for.

 

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 Mom's Lentil Soup
When my mother made this soup, she added enough black pepper to give it a distinct bite. The addition of a bay leaf is my only modification of the original recipe.
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Course Soups and Stews
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
Course Soups and Stews
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 1/2 hours
Servings
people
Ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Wash and pick over the lentils then drain.
  2. Shred the carrot on the tear-drop side of a box grater.
  3. Put all the ingredients in a large stock pot.
  4. Cover and bring to a boil.
  5. Reduce heat and simmer partially covered for 2 to 2½ hours.
  6. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
  7. The soup should be thick and the lentils soft but intact.
Recipe Notes

Copyright © 2018 by VillaSentieri.com. All rights reserved.

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