Dina's Concord Grape Tart

I spent the Jewish New Year with Dina and her family. Dina, living up to her usual standard, created an impressive and delicious Concord Grape Tart. The recipe comes courtesy of Martha Stewart... but the decorative flourishes are all Dina.

Ingredients
Makes one 9-inch pie
• All-purpose flour, for work surface
• 7 1/2 to 8 cups Concord grapes, rinsed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 1/2 to 5 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 large egg

Directions
1. On a lightly floured work surface, roll 1 piece of pate brisee into a 15-inch round. With a dry pastry brush, sweep off the excess flour; fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate, pressing it into the edges. Trim to a 1-inch overhang all around. Crimp edge as desired. Cover with plastic wrap; chill pie shell until firm, about 30 minutes. Repeat process for rolling out dough. Using a 4-inch grape leaf cookie cutter, cut out 4 leaves from dough. Transfer to a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
2. Remove skins from grapes by pinching the ends of each grape, reserving both the pulp and skins separately, discarding any accumulated liquid.
3. Place pulp in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook until the seeds separate from the pulp and the pulp breaks down, about 6 minutes. Strain mixture through a sieve into the bowl with the reserved skins; discard solids. Let cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove grape mixture from refrigerator. Stir in sugar and cornstarch. Pour into prepared pie shell. Beat egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush edge of pie shell with egg mixture, reserving any remaining mixture. Transfer pie to oven; bake 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and continue baking until filling jiggles when shaken, about 30 minutes. Transfer pie to a wire cooling rack; let cool overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Remove reserved grape leaves from refrigerator and brush with remaining egg and water mixture. Bake until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack; let cool.
6. Before serving, place grape leaves on top of filling.

Homemade Ricotta

It first occurred to me to make fresh ricotta when I was approached to teach a class at Williams-Sonoma. I was going to demonstrate how to make fresh mozzarella (which I learned at Restaurant Nora). To give the class a theme, we decided on “Homemade Cheeses.” I had never made ricotta before, but I was a quick learner.

Since then, I’ve revised my theme to “The Ultimate Homemade Lasagne.” With the exception of the parmesan, I can make everything from scratch: pasta, Bolognese, ricotta and mozzarella. I can even use the tomatoes and basil from my garden! It’s truly rewarding to do it! The satisfaction of making a meal entirely from scratch, but also how deliciously amazing lasagna can be… the ultimate homemade is really a different beast.

Ricotta is the simplest recipe of the whole process. And it doesn’t require any special ingredients: just milk, cream, salt and lemon.

Combine ½ gallon of whole milk with 1 pint of cream and 1 tablespoon of salt in a large pot, stainless steel pot. Bring it to a simmer over medium heat.

While the milk is heating, squeeze enough lemon juice to yield ½ cup. Line a colander with cheese cloth or coffee filters.

When milk starts to simmer, stir in lemon juice. Stir just enough to combine. The more you stir, the smaller the curds (which is a bad thing). Let sit for 20 minutes to let the curds separate from the whey. They whey will be a translucent, white liquid.

Scoop out the curds into the colander and let drain for about 1 hour, or until the curds are dry. Keeps for about three days. Yield: 3 cups.

Serving suggestions:

• Mix with basil and serve with crackers as an hors d’œuvres
• Use as a filling for raviolis or cannelloni’s
• Use as a filling for cannolis
• Make a sweet ricotta tart

CROSTATA di RICOTTA

Crust
1 cup sifted all purpose flour, plus extra for “dusting”
6 tbs. butter, room temp
2 egg yolks
4 tbs. sugar
4 tsp. Marsala
1/2 tsp. freshly grated lemon peel
1/4 tsp. salt

Ricotta filling

2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. freshly grated orange peel
2 egg yolks
3 tbs. raisins, rinsed and drained
2 tbs. slivered, blanched almonds or pine nuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Make the crust: In a large mixing bowl make a well in the flour. Drop in the butter, egg yolks, sugar, Marsala, lemon peel and salt. Mix the ingredients together, but don't overwork the dough. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is about 1” around wider than the pan, and about 1/8" thick.

4. Lightly butter the sides and bottom of a 9 1/2" false bottom pan. Carefully, press the pastry into the bottom of the pan and around the sides. Be careful not to stretch it. Trim excess.

5. Combine cheese with sugar, flour, salt, vanilla, grated orange peel and egg yolks; beat until they are thoroughly mixed. Stir in the raisins. Spoon the filling into the pastry shell and smooth with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the top with slivered almonds or pine nuts. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 1/2 hour, or until the crust is golden and the filling firm. Remove from oven and let the pie cool before serving. Garnish with fresh strawberries, if you like.

Misnomer Cupcakes

I recently confessed that I’m a salt-head. I’ll take a salty snack over a sweet snack any day of the week. Every once in a while, I crave a sweet or I’ll peruse a dessert menu. There’s little rhyme or reason to what I like, but it’s never nutty and it’s usually pie or cake. No overly sweet confections for me. Except when it comes to cupcakes.

Whole Foods came out with a line of sweets, “Two Bites.” Two bite cupcakes, two bite brownies… you get the idea. For me, the chocolate cupcakes were the perfect little treat: just enough sweet to finish off a meal. The cake was moist and light with a creamy, chocolate butter-cream frosting. For a while, I was buying a 12-pack a week. But then they ran into production issues and the cupcakes were consistently stale. Sadly, I had to give them up.

Kick-Ass Cupcakes recently opened in Davis Square, and soon received a “Best of Boston” award and Boston’s Best from the Improper Bostonian. I tried desperately to avoid the place, knowing full well that if I found a suitable replacement for the Whole Foods cupcakes, I was in big trouble.
Last week, temptation got the best of me, and I went in. They have an astonishing variety of cupcakes… traditional variations of vanilla and chocolate cake and/or icing, mojito cupcakes (soaked with rum and mint), lemon, cinnamon, and a rotating list of specialty flavors. They also have twice-bake cupcakes dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with m&m’s – a variation on biscotti?

For the first round, I opted for the vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. The frosting, supposedly butter-cream, was too dense and too rich, and the chocolate too dark. The ratio of frosting to cake was good, but since I didn’t like the frosting, it didn’t matter. To shake it up in round two, I opted for the chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. The frosting was indeed buttercream, but the texture was grainy and I couldn’t taste the vanilla nor the butter. The cake was dry and crumbly. By this point, my head and stomach hurt from all the sugar. Perhaps the mojito cupcake would have been better – a better textured cake from the rum soak, and a refreshing minty icing. My guess is that the twice baked cupcakes were the batch that accidently got overcooked. I will never know. At $2.75 for a modestly sized cupcake (read: small), it’s not worth the experimentation.

Baking for Non-Bakers

Culinarians and Business-People are divided into two categories: cooks and bakers. Cooks are free-form and whimsical in their approach – a little of this, a pinch of that. Precision is not necessary, and often balked at. Bakers, on the other hand, are very structured. Recipes must be followed precisely to get the desired result. An extra pinch of salt could ruin a dessert, whereas with a savory dish, it could further enhance.

I am a cook! The exclamation point comes as a result of the only time I was fired from a job: as a pastry chef. Despite this setback, throughout my career, I’ve needed to make desserts – when at Chez Henri and the pastry chef was on vacation, the task fell on me. Or as a private chef, I always made my own desserts. I’ve learned to get by, and by home-cook standards, I’m pretty good. By professional standards, well… I’m a cook not a baker.

I have a few desserts that always impress. Their simple preparations don’t require the same level of precision as many other desserts. Surprisingly, one of my favorites comes courtesy of Thomas Keller. To be sure, he is not known for his simplicity. Each dish, each dessert, has several different components. The trick, for me, has been to determine where the line of diminishing returns is.

Thomas Keller, of French Laundry fame, dolls up the French classic, “Ile Flottante” by filling them with chocolate mousse. Ile Flottant, or floating islands in English, are poached meringues “swimming in a sea” of crème anglaise. He elevates it further by serving them with chocolate tuiles, mint oil and a chocolate shaving salad seasoned with sea salt. I opt against the tuiles and the chocolate salad. Instead of mint oil, I sprinkle freshly julienned mint for both the color contrast and flavor. I take my own liberties by adding Tahitian vanilla to the meringue which gives the dessert an expansive, yet melt-in-your-mouth feeling, almost like cotton candy.

Floating Islands Filled with Chocolate Mousse

5 egg whites (save yolks for crème anglaise)
1 cup sugar
½ Tahitian Vanilla Bean

3 egg yolks
4 tablespoons sugar
1 cup half-n-half
½ Tahitian vanilla bean

3 ounces dark chocolate, melted
¾ cup heavy cream

Berries and Mint for Garnish

1. Make meringue: Combine egg whites and 1 cup sugar in a mixing bowl. Set over simmering water and whisk until sugar dissolves and the mixture is about 110 degrees (slightly warmer than body temperature). Remove from heat and whisk with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside ½ cup.

2. Brush 6 ramekins with oil. Fill each ramekin with the remaining meringue. Put in a baking pan with high sides. Fill the baking pan with water to come up half way on the ramekins. Cover with foil.

3. Bake meringues for 30 minutes at 300F. Remove ramekins from water bath, and let set in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

4. Meanwhile, make the crème anglaise: Heat half-n-half over medium heat with the vanilla bean. Whisk the egg yolk and the sugar. When small bubbles form around the edges of the pot, slowly drizzle the half-n-half into the yolks while whisking vigorously. Return the entire mix to the pot and continue cooking over medium heat, while stirring constantly, until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat instantly and let cool.

5. Make the chocolate mousse: Whip the cream until stiff peaks with an electric mixer. One third at a time, fold the cream into the chocolate. When completely combined, fold the reserved meringue into the chocolate mix.

6. Hollow out the inside of the cooked meringues with a spoon, making sure to keep the exterior intact. Fill the cavity with the chocolate mousse. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

7. To serve, invert the floating islands onto a plate. Spoon crème anglaise around. Garnish with mint and berries.