le sauce

LS baking academy: custards (& flans)

A custard is simply a liquid that has been combined with eggs or part of the egg...and then cooked until set or thickened. --From James Peterson's "Cooking"

I love James Peterson for breaking things down so simply. Now if only he or someone else (you?) could explain the difference between crème caramel and caramel flan to me, I would sleep so much better at night. No matter--at the moment, I just want to learn to do this right, by any name. Today, the le sauce baking academy tackles whatever it is that's described above.

First up, a savoury custard (surprise). This is a baking academy, and I'm interested in learning about temperature and cooking time, so although the recipe below originally calls for steaming the caramel on the stove, I chose to bake it and pay attention to how long it takes for caramel to set at a moderate 350F degrees. The recipe calls for this custard to be "lightly set", different than my family's caramel flan which is creamy but semi-firm. The latter is also served cool whereas this softer custard is served warm.

cherry tomato sambol/salsa

I've gone on a lot (again) this year about tomatoes and I have a special tomato recipe coming up in a couple of days. But I never say much about cherry or grape tomatoes, which you've probably been snacking on for weeks, right? If by now you're sick of simply popping them in your mouth, you don't have to go to turn to oven-drying them just yet. They are perfect for a fresh salsa, or my dad's version of a salsa: the shallot and cherry tomato sambol you see below. He adds lime juice and salt to pull a little of the tomato juices into the marinade. After thinly slicing the tomatoes, and mincing shallots, he adds freshly ground dried chilies from which he meticulously discards all the seeds (I can promise you I wouldn't be as detailed). A little bit of TLC and this sambol went from a side dish to the star of the meal--nobody could get enough of it. I won't blame you if you think this is weird, because I'd never really thought of having cherry tomatoes on rice before, but trust me and everyone at my table that night, it makes perfect, mouth-watering sense.  

 

swimming in heirlooms

The other week my parents dropped off a crate of heirloom tomatoes, all from their garden. I'm not exaggerating. It was a quantity that made me immediately think:

1. What?! What are we going to do with all of these tomatoes? It's too much!
2. .....      (I blanked after that. Being close to that many heirloom tomatoes has a staggering effect on me. Then...)
3. Oh my god. We have so many heirloom tomatoes. We're going to put them on everything.

And so we did. On sandwiches, on pasta, on our fingertips as we ate them straight from a pool of oil and salt, and eventually on tomatoes, slices piled recklessly onto flatbread. So of course, within 6 days, we were out of tomatoes and knee-deep in panic and regret. 

I suspect another shipment is on the way, and though it may be smaller, they'll last longer. It's almost time to ration them, after all. How many days of tomato season do we have left, exactly? Someone ought to be keeping track, for my sake.

LS baking academy: biscuits & scones

(sun-dried tomato, comté and tarragon scones, to be specific)

You know I welcome the chance to turn a sweet recipe savoury, but with the recipes I make for the le sauce baking academy, it's not always that easy. When I chose to focus on biscuits and scones, I knew I had my chance. I came across a scone recipe on Chocolate and Zucchini, and though that version with cheese and dried pears sounded lovely, I opted to tweak it to one that I'd find even more satisfying. It may not be a scone you eat at breakfast, but then again, why not? I have, twice this week. It's not overly complex--the sun-dried tomatoes are minced so you never trip over a chewy piece, and the tarragon adds an essence more than a strong flavour. Comté is, well, comté, it is bold. But that's what you want in a cheesy scone. 

 

And though this was my first time making scones, I can already see why everyone regards them as easy. No machinery, no real kneading, you sort of just coax the dough together. In the end, you have that familiar biscuit/scone texture: dense yet layered with an outside only slightly crisp. The fact that I felt I could play around with the recipe my first time out is indicative of how un-intimidating this is. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to hear from those of you who make scones every weekend!

This is, after all, the le sauce baking academy where those of us who can't, rely on those of you who do. Please leave tips about and links to your scone or biscuit pursuits in the comments on this post, and I'll be back on October 5 with a follow-up post and recipe based on that learning and more scone exploration. Thanks! 

Sun-dried Tomato, Comté and Tarragon Scones 
(Adapted from More from ACE Bakery via Chocolate and Zucchini)

180 g (1 1/3 c) all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
Pinch of ground cayenne pepper (or better yet, piment d'Espelette)
3/4 tsp kosher salt
75 g (6 tbs) unsalted butter, diced
85 g (1 c) coarsely grated comté (or another aged firm cheese like gouda or Parmesan)
20 g (2 tbs) minced, dry sun-dried tomatoes, or if packed in oil, drained, squeezed of any oil and blotted until dry
1 tbs finely chopped fresh tarragon (or basil, chives or dill)
100 ml (7 tbs) light (15%) cream
1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tbs fresh water

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cayenne pepper and salt. Add the butter and rub it into the dry ingredients with the tips of your fingers or a wire pastry blender, until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Add the cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and tarragon, and blend with a fork.

Add the cream and mix it in gently with the fork until the dough comes together -- add a tad more cream or ice-cold water if the dough is too dry. Turn the dough out on a lightly floured work surface, gather into a ball, and roll out into a 2-cm-thick (3/4-inch) circle. Cut out circles of dough using a 6-cm (2 1/2-inch) cookie cutter or juice glass and transfer onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about an inch of space between each. Gather the rest of the dough into a ball and repeat the rolling and cutting steps until you've used up all the dough.

Use a pastry brush or the back of a teaspoon to brush the top of the rounds with the egg yolk mixture. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until puffy and golden, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the baking. Let cool on a rack for a few minutes and serve. The scones will keep for a few days at room temperature, wrapped tightly in foil. Reheat for five minutes in a warm oven before serving.

Makes 9 pieces.

homemade ketchup

About this recipe, I will say two things right off the bat. First, it's delicious. Second, it doesn't exactly taste like the ketchup you've probably grown to know and love. It's a recipe from the Jamie Oliver site, and I remember my mother making it before (albeit with red tomatoes and possibly canned ones) and it tasting more like the ketchup I'm familiar with. What I made, with garden-fresh yellow heirloom tomatoes, tastes like a grown up ketchup or a very tangy, savoury tomato sauce.  And it's not the tomatoes that I think accounted for a different result than I'd expected...

It was a lot of basil and less spices than I'd expected. I think I am missing a fennel seed flavour and would like to try including those, and perhaps thyme or marjoram in my next batch. For there will be a next batch, since this is still ketchup and I live with someone who puts ketchup on almost everything (no, really). It's still the perfect sauce to dip potato wedges into. And if you're familiar with the semi-famous hot sauce served and sold at The Old York Bar and Grill in Toronto, this tastes a lot like it without the heat. So you know I'm adding scotch bonnet chilies to the next batch too.

tomatoes!

I just posted my new favourite sandwich, an open-faced tomato gratinée on fried toasts, which I love and which I hope you have made three times already. But since we're in the heart of tomato season, I rounded up my favourite tomato recipes for you, for when you get tired of that sandwich. (If it's possible to get tired of something fried, cripsy, cheesy and slathered in mayonnaise, that is.)

This is still the best summer tomato sauce I've ever had. Since I was taught this recipe, I've made this "pickled" tomato sauce with fried basil whenever truly ripe roma tomatoes are around. It's ridiculously simple too and may be the only tomato sauce you make that doesn't need to simmer away for hours.

For simple and raw, a classic panzanella and this tomato and fennel salad are perfect for dinner. The panzanella makes great use of that wonderful tomato nectar and the fennel adds texture and flavour to balance this salad that's little more than the two star ingredients.

If you want something with a little more depth, this salad infuses quinoa with puréed basil for my spin on the Caprese. And warm red peppers and tomatoes with Sichuan pepper becomes a meal automatically, since you really must have it with bread to mop up the sweet and spicy sauce.

tomato gratinée on fried toasts with serrano mayo

I wouldn't normally mess with perfection, and who would argue that you could improve on an ripe, late-August, heirloom tomato? In fact, these are still virtually raw, and it's the flaky Panko, Parmesan and herb topping that takes the brunt of a few moments under the broiler. I was just looking for another way to celebrate this fruit. Raw, halved, sprinkled with extra-virgin olive oil and Maldon salt is another version of perfection, as is the famous butter, mayonnaise, summer tomato sandwich that's made it's way across the internet for years. This is just that sandwich...but better, because,

it starts with frying bread. 

Bread that is buttered on both sides, generously, gets golden and lightly crispy in a hot pan, then hangs around--preferably on a grated surface so it doesn't get soggy while you carry on with the two other small tasks. A serrano chili has heat but also the flavour I wanted to spike my mayonnaise with (store-bought this time, but feel free to make your own). You can use a milder chili or even a drop of chili oil for a different but, I'm sure, delicious take. And change up the herbs if you'd like too--I used parsley and chives. But the Panko and Parmesan topping is the best combo for the topping, I think. The cheese is classic and the uncrushed Panko stays light though gently crisped, which is a nice bookend to the fried toasts on the other side of this open-faced sandwich. It's new favourite for this summer. Let me know if it becomes yours too.

grilled portuguese bread and tomatoes

I had my first fresh tomatoes since the fall this week, and they were surprisingly good. They were romas, which is a safer bet than trying to bite into some others, and I'm sure they were imported. But somewhere, tomatoes are ripening to a summer-like state and I forgot just how much excitement that brings me every year.

However, I was even more excited about the bread I enjoyed with those tomatoes. Whenever I'm at Swan, a diner I used to live a few blocks from on the west side of Toronto, I order the "grilled bread with tomatoes." It's essentially bruschetta, since the bread is served with diced tomatoes that have been marinading in oil with garlic and basil. But rather than piling them onto thin, small slices of crusty, sometimes crisp or dense bread, the tomatoes are on the side and to me, the bread is the star. It's a Portuguese bread that's airy to the point of being pillowy on the inside. I was told it's a round loaf with a hole in the centre, which would explain the almost triangular shape of each, very thick slice (I imagine the loaf is slightly thinner toward the middle, like a donut.) I much prefer this bread with bruschetta and I'll need to get my hands on some before I buy my first really ripe tomatoes of the season. Sadly, I still have a little time. 

that special time of year. for you, anyway.

I really am happy for all of you that can start planting your tomato seedings right now. I am. I'm not bitter or jealous. Maybe I'm envious, but in a good way. I mean, I know I have a good life, even though I can't even entertain the idea of growing my own tomatoes. Even if I moved, like actually sold my home and bought one with a garden that finally got some sunlight, it would still have to be in a neighbourhood where gangs of raccoons and squirrels didn't feel entitled to eat one single bite out of every just-blossomed fruit, then toss it aside and make a home in hanging pots. I've almost forgotten exactly how much I spent on containers, organic soil, seedlings and chicken wire for protective cages in previous vain attempts. But back to all of you. Good luck with your tomato plants. I'll go buy my expensive, heirloom varieties at the market and do my part to support the farmers. Ok then.

meat-free sloppy joe

I had to satisfy that craving for mushroom bolognese over the weekend. It hit the spot and, as usual, I had some sauce left over. Why did it never occur to me before to use any extras for sloppy joes? I hadn't had one in decades (decades!) and they're just as good as I remembered. Lunch yesterday was a heaping cup of bolognese on a soft kaiser with spicy pickled vegetables on the side. My craving for mushroom bolognese is settled but I'm already craving another sloppy joe sandwich. You're witnessing the start of a delicious, vicious cycle.