The Easter Menu

cheese ball

New member
I've pretty much decided what's on the menu for Sunday. Since I'm
doing everything from scratch by myself (and hoping that the farmer's
Market in Irvine cooperates Saturday morning), it's a fairly modest
menu for 11 people (plus two gummers and one toddler, who won't be
plated, erm, served at table).

I'm sticking my neck out and attempting the recipe our own dear Ranee
posted yesterday for homemade croissants. I thought this sounded like
fun and I can do them a day ahead and let them proof in the
refrigerator overnight. Since I have gone on record as admitting to
being a mediocre baker at best, I will either be raining curses or
blessings on her head on Sunday :)

Maddingly, I went to 2 major markets today and couldn't find cooked,
crushed carrots for the carrot cake, which I plan on making tomorrow.
Anyone have an idea for that? My initial thought is to cook a batch of
carrots and puree them. I'll make one more stab at the market(s)
tomorrow, as I'll be going by both Gelson's and Pavillions.

The menu:

mini Brie popovers
smoked salmon barquettes

Honeybaked ham
croissants
deviled eggs
Scalloped Potatoes with 4 Cheeses
Roasted Asparagus Bundles
Panzanella
sauteed pineapple rings with cinnamon

carrot cake

That's all, folks!

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd

--

To reply, remove "spambot" and replace it with "cox"
 
Terry Pulliam Burd wrote:



I have always used grated raw carrots in the batter, never heard of
cooked & pureed for carrot cake.
--
JL
 
On Thu, 21 Apr 2011 19:13:04 -0700, Terry Pulliam Burd wrote:


I don't think I'd be able to find them if I went to every market in
town!


Not that I would ever use such an ingredient, but that sounds like the
most obvious solution.

I'll be having a smoked pork butt for Easter. And a napkin.

-sw
 
On Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:45:50 -0700, "Julie Bove"
arranged random neurons and said:

And that's how I'm going to roll tomorrow. Happen to have a backlog of
carrots in the fridge.

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd

--

To reply, remove "spambot" and replace it with "cox"
 
"Terry Pulliam Burd" ha scritto nel messaggio

I've never heard of precooked smushed carrots! OTH, my carrot cake uses
grated raw carrots, too. Go ahead and boil them and rice or smash them.
 
Squeaks wrote:



Criminy, that's ENOUGH! My own Easter menu is much more modest, since I'm
cooking just for Lin and myself:

BRUNCH
hot-smoked salmon
lemon-dill-garlic omelette
Tuscan kale salad with bacon dressing
multigrain toast
Irish breakfast tea (for me)
coffee (for Lin)


DINNER
asparagus with homemade tarragon mayonnaise
baby carrots[1]
grilled lamb chops
new potatoes
haricots verts (or fava beans, depending on Saturday's farmers' market)
zinfandel

panna cotta with passionfruit sauce and strawberries
Dolce

If the spirit moves me, I might also make some kind of soup to go with
dinner. And there will probably be some kind of salad too, but I haven't
made concrete plans for that.


Bob
[1] I mean REAL baby carrots, not those whittled-down old carrots preferred
by clueless drooling degenerates in upstate New York.
 
"Bob Terwilliger" ha scritto nel messaggio

A traditional buttery sorrel soup would be seasonal and delicious with that
menu, IMO. I could eat your whole menu except the potatoes and the sweets.
 
Goomba wrote:


This is from an old issue of Cook's Illustrated:

Classic Panna Cotta

Serve panna cotta very cold with strawberry or raspberry sauce or lightly
sweetened berries. Though traditionally unmolded, panna cotta may be chilled
and served in wine glasses and sauced on top. I you would like to make the
panna cotta a day ahead, decrease the gelatin to 2 5/8 teaspoons (2 1/2
teaspoons plus 1/8 teaspoon), and chill the filled wine glasses or ramekins
for 18 to 24 hours.

1 cup whole milk
2 3/4 teaspoons gelatin
3 cups heavy cream
1 piece vanilla bean, 2 inches long, slit lengthwise with paring knife (or
substitute 2 teaspoons extract)
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch salt

1. Pour milk into medium saucepan; sprinkle surface evenly with gelatin and
let stand 10 minutes to hydrate gelatin. Meanwhile, turn contents of two ice
cube trays (about 32 cubes) into large bowl; add 4 cups cold water. Measure
cream into large measuring cup or pitcher. With paring knife, scrape vanilla
seeds into cream; place pod in cream along with seeds and set mixture aside.
Set eight wine glasses or 4-ounce ramekins on baking sheet.

2. Heat milk and gelatin mixture over high heat, stirring constantly, until
gelatin is dissolved and mixture registers 135 degrees on instant-read
thermometer, about 1 1/2 minutes. Off heat, add sugar and salt; stir until
dissolved, about 1 minute.

3. Stirring constantly, slowly pour cream with vanilla into saucepan
containing milk, then transfer mixture to medium bowl and set bowl over ice
water bath. Stir frequently until thickened to the consistency of eggnog and
mixture registers 50 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 10
minutes. Strain mixture into large measuring cup or pitcher, then distribute
evenly among wine glasses or ramekins. Cover baking sheet with plastic wrap,
making sure that plastic does not mar surface of cream; refrigerate until
just set (mixture should wobble when shaken gently), 4 hours.

4. Serve panna cotta in wine glasses or unmold panna cotta from ramekins and
serve immediately.


To make the passionfruit sauce I plan to slightly thicken passionfruit syrup
(the Torani stuff) with a cornstarch slurry, then mix it with thawed
passionfruit pulp. The strawberries will be thinly sliced and arranged
decoratively on top and around the unmolded panna cotta.


Bob
 
Giusi wrote:



I don't think I can find sorrel locally, but I'll take a look; stranger
things have happened. In the past I've made spring pea soup with lettuce and
mint at Easter, and last year I made a very nice minestrone. Because of my
rut-avoiding behavior, I won't be making either of those, at least not for
Easter. I've been trying to find stinging nettles to make nettle broth, but
I don't think I'll be able to get them until Tuesday.

Your mention of sorrel makes me think of other sour ingredients, though. I
believe rhubarb is available locally, and we've got chicken-apple sausages
in the refrigerator; I could make a soup using rhubarb, green apples,
chicken-apple sausages, onions, and celery. Maybe thickened with pur?ed
chicken livers? I'll have to give that some thought. Thanks!

Bob
 
On Apr 21, 9:20?pm, Sqwertz wrote:

It's important to have some kind of pork on Easter to prove that
you're not one of those Christ-killing Jews. :)

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

--Bryan
 
Goomba wrote:


I prefer to unmold because I think it's prettier, but I don't always do
that. I don't serve in wine glasses because I think it's a bit awkward to
spoon a dessert out of a wine glass, but sometimes I serve in the ramekins
with a sauce on top. For my 2008 birthday dinner I made a coffee-cardamom
panna cotta and chilled it in martini glasses with a pistachio gel?e on top.

Bob
 
On Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:06:44 +0200, "Giusi"
wrote:


Canned carrots pulsed with a blender/processor or just mashed with a
fork is simple enough to figure by anyone with two functioning brain
cells... with typical carrot cake spice one could simply use canned
yams. But this fercocktah carrot cake crap just smacks of someone who
hasn't a clue about anything kitchen... proves the entire menu is a
sham, a keyboard kook mockery... there are only a zillion carrot cake
recipes on line, none call for other than grated RAW carrots.
 
On 4/21/2011 10:18 PM, M. JL Esq. wrote:

My DD always uses baby or toddler strained carrots in her carrot cake
recipe from the old Silver Palate cookbook with very good results. As
you have lots of carrots, cook them and then puree them. It will work
as well and not cost as much as the baby food.

Rusty in MD
 
> Honeybaked ham

Sounds great except the asparagus and carrot cake. But I'm
sure they're wonderful if you like that sort of thing. ;-)

Pretty much what we're having. I'm going to my aunt's.
She's got a ham (unfortunately not Honeybaked, but she got
it free, so we'll make do). I'm making my

Spring Dove Breads.

I believe I posted the recipe here before but I'll
post it again. I'm also making green beans with bacon - a
recipe I recently got out of our newspaper. It's actually
called

"Slow-Cooked Mess o' Green Beans"
- a downhome, comfort food thing spiced up a tad with Spanish
smoked paprika. And I'm making

Eggs Dikker en Thijs

- like deviled eggs but with curry powder. I think I've also
posted this before. And last, but not least, for dessert an

angel food cake with strawberry icing.

SPRING DOVE BREADS

1/2 c. butter
6 T. whipping cream
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. cardamom
1 pkg. dry yeast
1/4 c. warm water
3 eggs
~4 c. flour
24 raisins
12 whole blanched almonds, lightly toasted
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 T. water

Melt butter. Add to cream, sugar, salt, and cardamom. Let cool to
lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 5 minutes to soften.
Add cooled butter mixture, eggs, and 2 c. flour. Mix well. Gradually
add remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead 10 minutes, adding
additional flour as needed to prevent sticking. Place in greased bowl,
turning to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
Punch down, divide into 12 equal portions. For each dove, pinch off
a 3/4" ball for head. Roll remaining dough into a 9" long tapered rope
that measures about 1/2" in diameter at one end and 1" in diameter at the
other end. Tie and overhand knot at the thin end. For dove tails, make
several slashes in the wide end to resemble tail feathers. Shape head
into smooth tear-shaped drop and settle head into knot cavity. Press
down lightly to secure. (I sometimes put a little dab of water to make
sure it sticks.) Make small slashes at sides of head and insert raisins
for eyes. (I cut really large raisins in half.) At front of head make
a small slash and insert wide end of almond for beak. Cover doves and
let rise in warm place until puffy, about 45 minutes. Before baking
push raisins and almonds back into heads to secure. Brush rolls all
over with egg glaze. Bake at 375F 12-15 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.

STUFFED EGGS DIKKER EN THIJS

9 hard-boiled large eggs
3 T. shallot mayonnaise
2 T. softened unsalted butter
1 lg. shallot, sliced
1/2 t. kerrie djawa (Indonesian curry powder) or more, to taste
1/4 t. turmeric
1/4 t. salt or more, to taste
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
fresh parsley

Halve eggs lengthwise and remove yolks from 8 of them. In food processor
blend yolks, one whole egg, mayonnaise, butter, shallot, curry powder,
turmeric, and salt until mixture is smooth. Add more curry powder and
salt if necessary. Blend until well combined. Transfer to pastry bag
fitted with decorative tip and pipe into whites. Arrange on platter.
Press 1 orange section gently into each stuffed egg and garnish each egg
with a small sprig of parsley. Makes 16. (Note: I always at least
double, sometimes triple, this recipe. Also I don?t put one whole egg
out of each 9 eggs in the blender. I may put one or 2 eggs if there
are a couple that don?t peel nicely and are pitted looking. In any case
it?s not really necessary as there is plenty of filling without doing
that.
Also, since I have nowhere to buy ?shallot mayonnaise? and am not about
to make it, I just use good old Miracle Whip. I also don?t bother with
the unsalted butter which I rarely have around. And I don?t have much
use for kerrie djawa so I just use a good Indian curry powder like
Maharaja, and I put a lot more in than it calls for.)


SLOW-COOKED MESS O' GREEN BEANS

4 slices bacon, cut in ?" pieces
1 lg. onion, halved and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 t. smoked paprika
1 1/2 lb. green beans, ends trimmed, halved, cut longer beans in thirds
1/4 c. water

In Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat, stirring often, until starting
to get crisp, 5-7 minutes. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Spoon
off all but 3 T. drippings (my bacon was lean so I added 1 T. olive oil).
Add onion, garlic, a pinch salt, and few grinds pepper. Cook, stirring
often, until wilted, 4-5 minutes. Stir in paprika; then beans, water,
and 1/2 t. salt. Stir well, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30-40
minutes, until very tender. Stir in bacon and another T. water, if pan
seems dry. Cover and cook 5 more minutes to blend flavors. Season to
taste with additional salt and pepper. Makes 4-6 servings. (From
Miriam Rubin. This is my modern interpretation of old-fashioned slow-cooked
beans. It?s quicker, the beans retain more integrity, and there?s a secret
ingredient - smoked paprika. Don?t substitute regular paprika.
I used local bacon from Mike and Donna Eisenstat of Toboggan Hill Farm.
They sell their delicious pork and bacon at farmers markets in Waynesburg
and Washington. Miriam Rubin)

Kate

--
Kate Connally
?If I were as old as I feel, I?d be dead already.?
Goldfish: ?The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.?
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?
mailto:[email protected]
 
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