recipe | Adventures in Thyme

That which we call Bacon…

January 29, 2014 by Ginger 1 Comment

By any other name would taste as yummy. Bacon – it’s all the rage, but was it ever not? Today we’re actually cooking with its close relative – Pancetta. Typically, bacon and pancetta both come from pork belly and are cured, but bacon is cold-smoked while pancetta remains au natural. The flavors of each are distinct, but can easily be interchanged one for the other.

Let’s be frank tho, who the heck cares?! Once either starts frying in your pan you’ll soon have a crowd in the kitchen sniffing around like bloodhounds. Let’s cut the chatter and rattle some pots and pans with Roasted Brussels Sprout Farfalle with Pancetta.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts Farfalle

You will need:
1 box of Farfalle pasta (also packaged as “bowtie pasta”)
~ 4 Pancetta slices – slivered (if your grocery store’s deli does not have pancetta you can normally find packaged pancetta in the refrigerated section with specialty deli meats and cheeses)
1 lb of Brussels Sprouts (or about 1/2 lb per person) cleaned and sliced into quarters
1/2 sweet onion – sliced (or a shallot if you are not fond of onions)
1 garlic clove – chopped
1 tsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1.5 cups of heavy whipping cream
1 cup of shredded pecorino cheese (or parmesan if you prefer)
1 lemon – zested
salt – to taste

1. Heat your oven to 425 degrees F and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper; in lieu of that you can use an oven safe oiled pan.

2. Put ~ 1 tsp of oil in a fry pan and fry the pancetta slivers. You are accomplishing two things (1) Making the crumbles for the top of the dish AND (2) drawing out the pancetta flavor/oil for the onions and brussel sprouts. Keep stirring the pancetta until they are brown and crispy (but not Bacos!), carefully remove the pancetta but not the oil and layer the crumbles on a paper towel.

3. Into this hot pan (with the pancetta oil) fry the onions until they begin to soften, now add the brussels sprouts and continue to cook 5-8 minutes. The sprouts will turn a vibrant green. Keep stirring. The onions should now be translucent or close to it. Add the garlic and stir a few more minutes. Carefully spoon the mixture onto your prepared oven pan – try not to spoon out any extra grease (but there really shouldn’t be much in there; it should be coating your veggies). Place in your oven and cook about 20 minutes or until the brussels sprouts are tender – they still have “body” but they aren’t crunchy. Also, set aside your fry pan to use for the sauce later.

4. While the sprout mixture cooks in the oven start a pot of water to boil for the farfalle, and cook it. Reserve ~ a cup of pasta water for possible use later.

5. While the farfalle and veggies are cooking, pour the 1.5 cups of heavy cream and cup of pecorino back into the fry pan and bring the temperature up – do not boil this, just a nice slow heat until the cheese is incorporated and the sauce thickens. If it gets too thick use some of the pasta water to thin it out.

6. When the farfalle is al dente pour thru a strainer and add the pasta to the sauce. When the brussels sprouts are tender add this to the sauce and noodles, mix gently.

7. Serve with pancetta crumbles and lemon zest. Enjoy!

Finally, and without further ado: What’s the name of a movie about bacon?

Hamlet of course!

Say Cheese!

January 2, 2014 by Ginger Leave a Comment

Mascarpone and crackers

Happy New Year! Have you made your resolutions? Me too. Let’s throw them out the window and begin 2014 making homemade mascarpone. Yes, it’s fattening, but who the hell cares?! We don’t need no stinkin’ diets! Bring on the curds…

This recipe is marvelously easy, all it takes is 1 quart of half n’half (do not get ultra-pasteurized), tartaric acid and a fine strainer or cheesecloth. You can substitute this acid with lemon juice, but if you have a brewing store in town, definitely make the journey to your local purveyor of booze-making equipment and support your neighborhood retailer. You might find your first new hobby of 2014. If you do go to a brewing store, check out the supplies of netted bags used in brew making, these also work wonderfully to strain curds and they are relatively inexpensive.

To the recipe: In a double boiler, bring the milk slowly to temperature, about 173 degrees F, then turn down the temperature to low. Gently sprinkle a generous 1/4 tsp of the tartaric acid over the milk and stir gently with a whisk – these curds need TLC! You should begin to see the whey (greenish liquid) and the curds separating. As the pot begins to thicken with curds, I remove from the heat and let it sit about 8-10 minutes, then carefully spoon into a prepared strainer and cheesecloth. Once you see that the whey is no longer dripping from the strainer (maybe 15 mins), you can add your salt. Then it’s up to you whether this mascarpone needs herbs and garlic, OR cinnamon and sugar, that my friends, is up to your tastebuds.

Enjoy!

Mascarpone – warming the half and half

Mascarpone – curds

Mascarpone – spooning the curds into cheese cloth

Mascarpone – after straining out the whey

Mascarpone, half and half and whey

The Fudge Factor

December 11, 2013 by Dan Leave a Comment

Chocolate Fudge

Familiar with the old saying, “Families are like fudge, a little sweet with a few nuts”? This is also true about our fudge (and our family BTW, okay TMI, back to the fudge…).

This is an old family recipe, going back at least 50 years, and each Christmas the faded index card comes out and fudge is made, and handed out to friends and family.

So our gift to you, the super secret family recipe. Happy Holidays!

2 Cups Sugar
12-14 Large Marshmallows
2/3 cup evaporated milk (1 small can, not sweetened condensed milk)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can substitute butter scotch, mint chocolate, etc., it takes longer to set up though)
1 cup chopped pecans (you can substitute walnuts)
1/4 pound butter (1 stick)
1 teaspoon Vanilla

Combine sugar, marshmallows and canned milk in a large cast iron or stainless steel skillet. (Do not use non-stick, you will scratch it.) Bring mixture to a boil over medium to medium high heat, stirring constantly with a wire spring whisk. (The spring whisk will stir to the bottom of the pan and keep the mixture from sticking and burning.)_ Boil for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate chips, nuts and butter. Add the vanilla. Beat by hand with a wooden spoon until it is of a spreading consistency (it will be relatively cool by that point, butter scotch and some other flavors won’t get as think and may need to be refrigerated to set up completely.) DO NOT use an electric mixer, you will get a very good chocolate sauce but it will never set up.

Pour the fudge into a greased 8×8 or 9×9 inch square pan. Let set over night. Cut into 3/4 to 1 inch squares and remove from pan.

Pumpkin Goat-Cheesecake

December 4, 2013 by Dan Leave a Comment

Pumpkin Cheesecake

For those willing to broaden their culinary horizon, we present to you a cheesecake made from goat cheese. Indeed, some turn up their noses at the thought of goat cheese, but that earthy tang so often found in goat milk products is not so pronounced when blended into this delicious cheesecake. Oh, and we have gingersnaps, did we mention that?

Here is the recipe we served at Thanksgiving.

Crust

10 oz. gingersnap cookies (I like the ones from World Market)
2-4 T softened butter
2 or 3 T sugar for pan

Filling

3/4 cup sugar
12 ounces mild, soft, white goat cheese (10 oz logs from Costco, 4 oz from the grocery store.)
1 t Vanilla extract
1/2 T cinnamon
1/2 T nutmeg
1/2 t ginger
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups pumpkin
4 egg yolks
6 egg whites

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a 9-10 inch spingform pan and dust with sugar (like you normally would flour a pan for baking).

Process the gingersnaps in a food processor until they are a course powder. Add in the butter and process until well blended. Press the mixture into the bottom of your springform pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool while you finish your filling.

Combine the sugar, cheese, vanilla, flour, pumpkin, spices and egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and blend together until smooth. Set aside.

In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Be sure the bowl and beater are clean and dry or the eggs won’t beat properly.

Gently fold 1/4 to 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into your filling mixture, by hand with a rubber spatula. Add another 1/4 to 1/3 and fold in, then fold in the remaining egg whites. This should make a relatively light batter. Be sure to fold in the egg whites, do not beat or mix.

Pour your filling into your springform pan and place on the center rack of your oven. Bake for approximately an hour or until the batter is mostly set. It will still be a little jiggly in the middle. Remove from the oven and gently run a butter knife around the edge of the cheesecake to loosen it from the edge of the pan.

Cool and serve with whipped cream.

Try it out and let us know how you did, or better yet, if you were able to trick your family into trying something new.