Cooking from Scratch
We’re planning to try making a version of one of our all-time favorite desserts. It’s one that uses mascarpone cheese (many of you have already guessed the dessert), and we could have just stopped in the store and picked up an appropriately-sized package. But, we didn’t, because we had some inkling of how easy it is to make soft fresh cheeses (like mozzarella, paneer, ricotta, and cream cheese), so we just searched out a recipe and went to town.
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Here’s something that we bet you haven’t noticed before. If you go to the store to buy creamed corn, you really can’t buy any. Sure, you can buy cans of cream style corn, but not creamed corn. Why, you may ask? We’re here to tell you: because that would require cream, which is more expensive than starch and water. Fortunately, making creamed corn is nearly as easy as cooking plain corn, and the following recipe makes fantastic creamed corn. Far, far better than cream style corn that comes in a can.
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No, we’re not Mennonites, but we did find a recipe for these in Eat Drink Delta, by Susan Puckett, and thought we’d try it out. The book isn’t really a recipe book at all; we guess that we’d best describe it as part travelogue, part travel guide, part reviews of establishments, with a few recipes scattered throughout. Whatever it is, it made us want to go explore the back of the roads Mississippi Delta (hint: it’s not south of New Orleans).
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Two weeks ago, we made carrot cake based on a recipe from The New Best Recipe, by the Editors of Cook’s Illustrated. The cake itself was nearly perfect, with just the right amount of spices and carrots. Just what we were looking for in a carrot cake. The frosting, however, left a little something to be desired. It was too sweet, and too heavy. Sure, a heavy and sweet might be exactly what some people look for in a frosting, but not us. Hence, the Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting.
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Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been getting huge carrots in our CSA shares. Each carrot is often over a half pound! That’s one big carrot. You’d think that they’re woody, tough, and kind of flavorless, but, instead, even at this size, they’re sweet and tender. But, we still have the question of what do you do with lots of huge carrots? For a weekend treat, we went with carrot cake.
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We were discussing dinner and having the usual conversation, as in, what we could have that would use up some of our potatoes — we’ve gotten a lot in our CSA shares lately. We thought of making a gratin; that’s always good, it’s pretty easy, and just bakes away in the oven. But, then we thought, let’s have Indian food; that’s pretty easy, we could make up some Chapatis, Basmati rice, and some Aloo Matar and try out a new idea we have for making the sauce a little creamier, more like what you find at Indian restaurants.
Tax Day. For tax day, you are going to need something simple make up, yet something that looks and tastes like it’s from a high-end restaurant. We have the answer. How about individual savory tartlets that take a total of 15 minutes of work? Yep, 15 minutes of your time. Of course they do have to bake, but, while they’re in the oven, you can find that last tax deduction, or, if you’ve already filed, celebrate with an adult beverage of your choice.
Continue reading “Mushroom Pea Tartlets”