Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Macaroni Gratin

Macaroni Gratin http://dailydelicious.blogspot.com/2008/04/macaroni-gratin.html

I love comfort food and this is one of them, crunchy top and cheesy inside, what a lovely dish. It’s so easy to make and after you put it in the oven, everything done. The original recipe is coming from Macaroni Gratin by Keith McNally (on leites culinaria website) from The Balthazar Cookbook by Keith McNally, Riad Nasr, Lee Hanson, but I convert to gram and increase the baking time as my gratin take more time to brown (you may need to adjust it to suit your oven). The gratin is delicious and I think it should be rated A for comforting me.
Macaroni Gratin
Serves 6-8


Base
450 g
elbow macaroni
120 g
lightly smoked slab bacon, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 tablespoons
olive oil
White sauces
60 g
Butter
60 g
all-purpose flour
5 cups
whole milk
40 g
grated Parmesan cheese
80 g
grated Gruyère cheese
1½ teaspoons
salt
½ teaspoon
Pepper
Topping
60 g (or enough to cover the top)
grated Gruyère cheese
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
2. Cook the macaroni according to the directions on the package. Drain, toss with the olive oil, and set aside in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add the bacon to a small skillet and sauté over medium heat until brown but not crisp, about 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels and add to the cooked macaroni.
4. In a medium saucepan, bring the milk just to a foamy boil, then reduce the heat to very low to keep warm.
5. In another saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the foam subsides, remove from the heat. Whisk in the flour and continue stirring until a smooth, pale roux has formed. Return the saucepan to medium heat and, while still whisking steadily, begin ladling the hot milk into the roux, 1 cup at a time, completely incorporating each cup before adding the next. After all the milk has been added, continue to whisk until the sauce thickens and bubbles gently, about 2 minutes. Add the Parmesan, Gruyère, and the salt and pepper, and stir until the cheese has completely melted.
6. Pour the sauce over the macaroni, mix thoroughly, and pour into a buttered 10 X 14-inch gratin dish, sprinkle the Gruyère on top. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden and crunchy.

Glazed Lemon Bread

There is a reason comfort food is called "comfort" food. It's for those days when you hit every red light, when you're on the phone all day trying to fix a situation that should never have become broken in the first place, when every attempt at anything gets thwarted somehow, and all you want to do is crawl back into bed, pull the covers over your head, and go back to dreamland with the ponies, kittens, and rainbows (where hopefully they won't be chasing you in some twisted, scary movie, kitten-turned psycho-kitty, kind of way). This glazed lemon bread, a tea cake really, is perfect for chasing off the grouchy-grumblies. It's light, moist, lemony, with just a touch of honey and cardamom. If the magic that is baking can produce this cake, then anything is possible and tomorrow is a new day.
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Glazed Lemon Bread Recipe

Tip: eggs rise better when they are at room temp. If you are pressed for time and have cold eggs, put them in a bowl of warm water (not hot, warm) for a few minutes before using.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 ounces (1 stick, 8 Tbsp) butter, softened*
  • 1 cup minus 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 2 eggs (room temp)
  • 1 Tbsp lemon zest
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
Glaze
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 Tbsp honey
* Do not soften butter in microwave. Either leave a stick of butter on kitchen counter for an hour, or place between two pieces of wax paper and rollout with a rolling pin to soften.

METHOD

1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 4x8-inch loaf pan.
2 Beat the butter until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and honey, continue to beat until creamy, a few minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition to incorporate. On low speed, slowly beat the milk in. Do not worry if the mixture looks a little curdled. Mix in lemon zest.
3 Sift together the flour, salt, cardamom, baking powder. Add to the wet ingredients, beating until smooth.
4 Place batter in prepared pan and bake for 1 hour at 350°F.
5 While the lemon bread is baking, prepare the glaze. Heat the glaze ingredients - lemon juice, sugar, honey - in a small saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved.
6 Once you have removed the bread from the oven, poke holes all over the top with a thin skewer (this will help the glaze penetrate). Spoon the glaze over it while the bread is still in the pan and is still hot. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan and slicing to serve.
Makes one loaf.

Buttery Apple Torte

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/buttery_apple_torte/ 
This Italian apple torte is easy to make, and delicious. Cooking the apples first helps concentrate the flavor and remove moisture, so the cake doesn't get soggy. The lemon zest, although only a half teaspoon is used, is an essential ingredient - you can really taste it in the apples.
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Buttery Apple Torte Recipe

INGREDIENTS

  • 1/2 cup (4 oz or 125 g) plus 1 Tbsp of unsalted butter
  • 3 Renette or Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut into slices 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick
  • 2/3 cup (3 1/2 oz or 105 g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 whole eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup (8 oz or 250 g) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • Confectioners' sugar (optional)

METHOD

1 Preheat an oven to 375°F (190°C). Generously butter a 9-inch (23 cm) round cake pan with 2 inch (5 cm) sides.
2 In a microwave, melt the butter. Pour 6 Tbsp (3 fl oz or 90 ml) of it into a small bowl or cup and set aside. Add the apple slices and the remaining butter to a large frying pan and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3 In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the whole eggs and egg yolk until blended. Add the 6 Tbsp of melted butter, the vanilla, the granulated sugar, and the lemon zest. Stir in the flour mixture and the apples. Spoon into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.
4 Bake until browned, 30-35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Invert the cake onto a plate and lift off the pan, then invert the cake again onto the rack and let cool completely.
5 (Optional) Just before serving, place confectioners' sugar in a small sieve and dust the top of the cake.
Serves 8.