Pączki: a Polish Fat Tuesday Treat

Happy Mardi Gras, everybody!

Despite the fact that I am both Polish and live in a city renowned for it's celebration of Fat Tuesday, I had never heard of pączki until some Northern and Midwestern living friends of mine in an online forum started discussing them a few years ago.  I realized instantly that I needed to have these!  I found some last year at one of the local supermarkets and they were like powdered jelly doughnuts.  Nice, but nothing special. Turns out, true pączki "are *not* large jelly doughnuts, but small, delicate, rose-petal or plum-preserve filled balls of goodness. Possibly Avocat-cream, but that's dangerous territory for a filling. The only possible addition is icing (again, a shimmer of semi-translucent sweetness, not big blobs of white icing) and maybe a few (3-4) tiny squares of candied orange peel.", says my Polish friend Anna, from Ann Arbor, MI.  Even more intriguing!  But where to get them?

My friend Melinda, from Seattle, had the same dilemma and solved it by making them herself. She also volunteered to guest blog them for us, so we could try them ourselves. You may remember her from previous guest posts about Fig Butter and Vegetarian Pigs In A Blanket (Cabbage Rolls).   Hooray Melinda!

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Fat Tuesday always fills me with nostalgia and longing for home. Not because I'm from New Orleans and I'm excited about Mardi Gras, but because I'm from Michigan, and I'm excited about Paczki Day. Paczki (pronounced punch-key) are traditional Polish pastries, something akin to jelly doughnuts. In Michigan, you can find them with a wide variety of fillings, but they traditionally come with red plum jam inside - it's not too sweet, so the whole thing isn't overpowering.

A few weeks ago, I asked my Polish friend, Ania, whether she knew where to find paczki here in Seattle. Her answer was "no, but we should make some". I certainly couldn't turn that down, so I invited her and a few other folks over for the occasion. We found a recipe, and using Google Translate and some help from Ania and her mother, we were set to go.

After confirming that I did, in fact, have to separate 8 eggs, I did so. Can you spot the free-range organic one?

I followed the instructions in the recipe and let the dough rise for a couple of hours while we all hung out and drank beer. After that, I kneaded the dough, adding plenty of flour and completely forgetting to put in the butter. Oops. Then I rolled it out. It's a little darker than you might expect because I used whole wheat pastry flour, on account of being a dirty hippie:

We formed an assembly line. I cut out circles of dough using a glass, Kevin put teaspoonfuls of plum jam in them, and Ania made little dough-and-jam sandwiches and rolled them in her hands to seal the jam inside.

It made a lot of paczki. Or at least, it made more paczki than any of us felt that we had a right to eat.

We let the paczki rise again while we ate dinner. My husband was kind enough to make some spelt kasha with mushrooms so that we didn't also all die of paczki overload. It was a very good idea. After dinner, we made the glaze with powdered sugar, water, and bits of orange peel. We fried the paczki in a cast iron skillet, and that worked perfectly, because it was just the right depth. Here I am frying while Kevin glazes.

It was glorious.

I ate two.

I highly recommend this exercise. The only thing I would do differently is invite more people over, because we still have a bunch of paczki hanging around.

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Chocolate Whiskey Cake

There is a food blog I follow, called Blank Palate and whose author has changed locations from Alabama to Spain, that has lovely, interesting recipes that intrigue me.  I enjoy the blog in general quite a bit, but there is one post, in particular, that haunted me for the longest time.  It was a recipe for Chocolate Whiskey Cake and I couldn't get it out of my mind.  I had to have it. 

I've made it twice now, each time for guests, and the response is always a vigorous "YES!"  Also, depending on the person's caffeine tolerance, it can elicit an occasional "You want me to paint the house now?!?"  Very dark, very dense, decadently chocolate-y but with sweetness tempered (and made more fascinating) by deeper layers of flavor (black pepper, cloves, coffee), it is now one of my favorite cakes.  Make it for people you like very much.


Dark Chocolate Whiskey Cake

3/4 cup plus 3 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup strongly brewed good coffee
1/2 cup whiskey
12 TB unsalted butter, cut into chunks about 1 inch wide
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 ts baking soda
3/4 ts salt
1/4 ts fresh ground black pepper
1/8 ts ground cloves
3 eggs
2 ts vanilla
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 325° F.  Butter a 9 or 10 inch cake pan (or spring form pan) and then dust the pan with 3 TB cocoa powder, knocking out the excess.

Heat the coffee, butter, and 1 cup of cocoa powder on low heat until the butter is melted. Whisk occasionally.  Add sugars and whisk slowly until sugars completely dissolve.  Transfer the mixture to a large bowl to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, black pepper, and cloves in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla.  Starting slowly, drizzle eggs into the cooled chocolate mixture and whisk them in to combine.  Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.  Fold in chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into your pan and bake until a wooden pick comes out mostly clean, about 1 hour and 5 minutes.  Mostly cool before eating.

After a day (should you have any left) keep it stored in the refrigerator, covered in plastic wrap.

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Fig Butter

Melinda, who guest posted about Vegetarian Cabbage Rolls recently, was gifted with a bounty of very ripe figs last week.  What better to do than make jam?  I am particularly happy to hear how her jam making went, since I am still hoping that my half of the fig tree that straddles mine and my neighbor's backyards will some day render me enough fruit (before the birds eat it all) that I too can make jam.  Her thoughts on the addition of ingredients like ginger, cardamom and orange make the whole idea so very seductive to me.  Can't wait 'til my tree produces again.  Thank you, Melinda!

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At work one day, I happened to mention that I like figs a lot. My manager was interested to hear this, because it just so happens that he has a fig tree himself, and nobody in his family likes figs. I was stunned to hear this, as I previously didn't think it was possible to grow figs in the Pacific Northwest or to dislike them.

I forgot about this conversation entirely, until I came to work one day to find a bag full of figs at my desk. They were easily the largest figs I have ever seen- about the size of avocados- and they were green and purple, with a lovely creamy texture on the inside, and a delicate flavor. I ate one with a spoon right there and then, but what was I to do with the other four and a half pounds of them?

The answer, I decided, was jam. After they sat on the counter for a couple of days and turned a little more mushy, I removed their stems and threw them in a pot, peels and all, with a little water, white sugar, lemon juice, ginger and cardamom. I brought them to a boil, simmered them until they congealed a bit, and blended the whole thing up with my hand blender.

It didn't turn out much like jam at all - it had a consistency more like apple butter, which I love, so I was happy with that. Next time, though, I think I'd rather use brown sugar, orange juice and a little orange rind, and more cardamom, with less ginger.  I think that those ingredients would do a better job of highlighting the fig flavor rather than overpowering it. What I made has a very satisfying gingery bite, though, and it would go very well with some smelly cheese or on a burger with caramelized onions.

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Mojo Grilled Pork with Orange-Jicama Salad

 
Commenced new Bodum Fyrkat grill usage (I just like saying that. Fyrkat!  Also, "gril de pique-nique" which is what it said on the box.  Riiight?)  with a recipe for Mojo Grilled Pork with Orange-Jicama Salad from an issue of America's Test Kitchen magazine from Cook's Illustrated called 30 Minute Suppers.  Fun, because it used jicama, an ingredient I have never eaten before.  The article described it as a cross between an apple and a potato.  Good enough for me.  I also added grilled asparagus as a side.

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves. minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup juice and peeled and segmented fruit from 2 oranges
1/4 cup juice from 2 limes
1 TB brown sugar
1/2 jicama, peeled and cut into 2 x 1/4 inch pieces
2 TB cilantro, minced
salt and pepper
8 thin bone-in pork chops, about 4 oz each, 1/2 inch thick  (I used boneless chops)

Heat oil in small pan over medium heat.  Add garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant but not browned, about 30 seconds.  Transfer to bowl and whisk in orange juice, lime juice and brown sugar.  Cool slightly, about 5 minutes.

Combine jicama, orange segments, cilantro and 1/4 cup dressing in a second bowl.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss pork chops with 1/4 cup dressing and season with salt and pepper.  Grill chops over hot fire until lightly charred and tops begin to turn opaque, about 2 minutes.  Flip chops and grill until just cooked through, about 30 seconds.  Transfer to platter, drizzle with remaining dressing, tent with foil and let rest 5 minutes.  Serve with orange-jicama salad.

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Now I will say... this wasn't the best meal I've ever made.  There was something lacking, some element that should have made the ingredients sing, that somehow just didn't.  It was fine and I'm not saying you shouldn't make it.  It was a perfectly appropriate summer meal.  I just thought it funny that with such outstanding flavor personalities like citrus, garlic, cumin and cilantro, it seems that it should have had more... glory.  It was fine though.

Speaking of glory.  I got glory in the form of dessert.

Strawberries dipped in crème fraiche and brown sugar.  Have you ever done that?  It is mind blowingly delicious.  You take these three things, these lovely things on their own, you put them together and suddenly they are so very, very much more.  It would be inadequate for me to tell you that the tangy, almost lemony nature of the crème fraiche joins brilliantly with the crumbly darkness of the brown sugar and turns even a less than perfect strawberry into a symphony.  You just have to try it.

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Banana Bread with Espresso and Rum (aka The Morning After Banana Bread)

I have a really bad habit of buying bananas, not finishing them and refusing to throw them out when they go all spotty and brown.  Kid Cayenne could strangle me.  It's just that I always think I'll bake something with them.  A brown banana is a perfect banana when it comes to quick breads and muffins and all sorts of wonderful things.  Trouble is, I don't get around to it and a week later, when the kitchen is swarming with tiny fruit flies that keep smacking into our faces and I can't deny it any longer, they finally get tossed.  This is a frequently repeated cycle in my house.  Not this time!

Pim, of Chez Pim,  recently adapted a banana bread recipe that has been out in food blog land for a few years via Smitten Kitchen and Simply Recipes. She wanted to jack up the interest level on the already good recipe by adding a shot of espresso and a glug of whiskey.  I thought that was an excellent idea.  I've already had great success with adding espresso to the chocolate muffins, cupcakes and brownies I used to bake for a little coffee house in the French Quarter many years ago.  It adds an extra intensity to the chocolate, makes it more than it was before, makes the chocolate sing.  What could it do to banana bread?  I wanted to find out.

Presumably, Pim calls it Morning After Banana Bread because it also contains the hair of the dog... in her case, a shot of Jameson whiskey.  I used New Orleans rum instead because I had it in the house whereas Jameson, I do not.  I also added a cup of walnut pieces and halves because the idea of a banana bread without walnuts makes me really sad.  Other than that, the recipe is identical to hers.  I will list my version here, but you should really visit Chez Pim's recipe page if you'd like to see her very nice photos of the process.

The result?  It's wonderful.  Fragrant and buttery and richly flavored.  The espresso and rum don't stand out as individual elements, but you do get a sense of them being there.  I've already had 3 slices today.  My belly fat roll is expanding visibly but I can't help myself.  Try it and see if you can.


3-4 very ripe bananas
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon sour cream or yogurt
1/3 cup melted butter
1 shot (about 1T) of espresso (or a scant 1 tablespoon of espresso granules)
2 tablespoons rum or whiskey
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
1 cup walnut halves

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas until creamy.  Add the egg and yogurt and whisk to blend.  Next add the melted butter, espresso and rum.  Mix in.

Add the sugar, baking soda and salt and stir to completely incorporate.

Sift the flour into the bowl and stir with  spoon (gently and slowly) until you can no longer see white spots of flour.  Add walnuts and lightly fold into the batter.

Butter and flour a 9” loaf pan or line it with a piece of parchment.   Pour the batter into the mold and then shake it or knock it lightly on the counter to remove air pockets and get the batter to settle.   Bake on a cookie sheet for 1 hour or until a toothpick or wooden skewer comes out clean.

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La Boulangerie, Magazine Street

It's been a little too long since my last post but in my defense, my camera is causing me major fits and is on it's last little camera leg, making it hard to document anything.  I haven't been eating anything very interesting lately either.  All I've really been up to is worrying about subground drainage, incredibly expensive plumbing repairs and the horrible, mysterious smell that seems to be coming from one of the AC vents in my house.  Woe is the fledgling homeowner.

That said, I did pick up lunch today at one of my favorite spots in New Orleans, La Boulangerie on Magazine Street.  I've been going here for hm... it must be 10 years now.  They are wonderful.   In addition to having (hands down)  the best croissants, chocolate muffins (there's a proper French name for those that escapes me at the moment...), pastries and fresh baked breads in town, they offer a really fab lunch.  Several types of sandwiches, small pizzas, quiche and soups are available.  I tend to go with the sandwiches.  They are simple with nice ingredients, cheap (less than $6) and generously portioned.  I like that they are not overworked, just a really good, simple sandwich.  My favorite is the ham, swiss, butter and pickle on crusty French baguette sandwich.  Its crumbs are littering my keyboard as I type.  Delicious.  The butter and pickle really, really make the sandwich.

Follow that up with a gorgeous fruit tart and I'm in heaven.  This one is raspberry but they are all excellent and not too sweet.  Exactly the way I like them.

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Muffin Fail: Meyer Lemon and Candied Ginger Muffins

Years ago, before Katrina, I was the operations manager for a bed and breakfast, day spa and coffee house in the French Quarter.  One of the skills I developed in that job was the ability to bake really exquisite muffins and scones.  Sadly, I seem to have lost the knack.  

Inspired by Bouillie's post, last week, about what to do with her freeze instigated citrus harvest and subsequent Meyer lemon baking spree, I thought I'd make some Meyer lemon and candied ginger muffins.  I used to make a lemon ginger muffin at VooBrew that was out of this world, but no longer have the recipe.  Hunting around on the internet got me a few to try and I guess I just picked the wrong one because the muffins I baked this morning are a real dud.  Too floury, not enough lemon, not enough ginger.  Even drizzling them with a glaze made of Meyer lemon juice and sugar didn't liven them up enough to make them worth sharing the recipe or making again.  *sigh*  Oh well.

I did learn a nice trick for improvising paper muffin tin liners.  Cut parchment paper into 4 inch squares and press down into the muffin tin with a small cup (in my case, the rice measuring cup from my rice cooker was the perfect size).  Instant rustic muffin papers!

Still have plenty of Meyer lemons left to try other (hopefully more successful) recipes with.  Stay tuned.

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Espresso, Panettone and My Soapbox

I am just back from La Divina on Magazine Street, where the Society of New Orleans Baristas (S.N.O.B) were preparing for the South Central Regional Barista Competition coming up in January in Austin, TX by offering free, beautifully pulled espressos to one and all.    I got a chance to talk to Drew Cambre (a New Orleans barista) and Kirk Knipmeyer (of Coffee Roasters of New Orleans) about S.N.O.B. and their endeavor to better the coffee scene in New Orleans.  Their goal, they say, is to improve the quality of coffee and espresso everywhere in New Orleans, so that you can be sure to get an excellent cup no matter where in the city you go.

As I sipped a stunningly lovely shot of espresso, pulled on a Cimbali machine by talented barista Anderson, I learned more about S.N.O.B. and the Barista Competition.

S.N.O.B. is an independent collective of baristas from many local New Orleans coffee houses who share a passion for the art of coffee and are "preaching the gospel of espresso".  They meet weekly at Dee's Coffee on Baronne.  Baristas from the city's best coffee spots are represented including Dee's, Z'otz (on Oak St), La Divina (with locations on Magazine Uptown and on St. Peter in the French Quarter) and Tout de Suite Cafe in Old Algiers.  2010 will be the first time that more than one barista from the entire state of Louisiana will compete in the South Central Regional Barista Competition.  This is strange, considering that New Orleans is the largest coffee port in the nation, with 14 warehouses, more than 5.5 million feet of storage space and six roasting facilities in a 20 mile radius.  S.N.O.B. is hopeful that if they can get enough baristas from Louisiana to compete, the next competition will be held in New Orleans.

S.N.O.B. believes that New Orleans should demand more from their local coffee houses and I have to wholeheartedly agree.  The coffee culture in New Orleans is far from where it could or should be.  Drew says that the key is to communicate our expectations to the baristas and management at our favorite haunts.  Don't accept sub par espresso.  Do something about it!  Tell your barista when your espresso is bitter or doesn't have the beautifully caramel colored head of foamy crema that it should.  Speak up when you are served coffee that lacks depth and flavor or has been sitting past its prime. If you aren't sure whether you are getting quality brew or not, just visit any of the excellent establishments listed in this post for an example of what you are missing.  Then, go back to your favorite coffee house and let them know what is lacking.  Tell them that you expect better.  Tell them that the bar is higher than what you are getting.  We expect good ingredients, prepared properly.  This is not too much to ask!  Communicating these expectations is crucial and even more valuable than simply avoiding the establishments that can't meet them.  It tells them that their customers care and what they can do to improve.  Complacency is an epidemic in our beloved city, affecting everything from coffee and cuisine to politics and crime.  Only we, the average, every day citizen, can do anything about it.

Phew!

Now that I've got that off my chest, I've also got to say that if you are looking for excellent coffee beans for brewing at home, La Divina is a great spot to get it.  I've been getting my espresso beans and their Windsor Court roast (they use it for their French presses) from them for quite a while and couldn't be more pleased.  They also have panettone, a Milanese Christmas bread, from Flamigni, one of Italy's top panettone makers.  These small, rustic cakes are housed in charming cartons designed to be hung on the Christmas tree and then eaten on Christmas Day with coffee or tea.  I sampled some while I was there and had to get one for my own tree.

Now, I just have to convince myself to wait til Christmas to open it!

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Nectar and Orchid

Working from home can be lonely and isolating but has definite culinary advantages. I can cook myself a decent lunch or get a head start on dinner. I can go out to eat without worrying about making it back in less than an hour (or harder still, 30 minutes). And... I can take a snowball break.

Plum Street Snoball is close and quite good. While not a match for Hansen's Sno-Bliz (my favorite), it does have reasonably fine and fluffy snow and a good Nectar Cream syrup, my latest snowball flavor of choice. I've spent the last 10 years always sticking with my favorite combination: cherry and coconut. This summer, I've decided to branch out and have started trying the cream flavors. Nectar Cream is at the top of the list and is difficult to describe. I had it first at Hansen's as part of a Sundae which consisted of layers of ice and syrup topped with canned cream (I had no idea there was such a thing and if there was, that I'd want to eat it, but it really does work beautifully), crushed pineapple and a cherry. Super sweet but an absolutely craveable winner for me. I'd love to know what Nectar Cream is composed of. There are notes of something like nectarine, maybe a bit of a cherry and then something else that I can't seem to identify. It's fantastic.

This time, at Plum Street Snoball, I paired Nectar Cream with Orchid Cream because the name was so irresistible. The staff described it to me as a French Vanilla which was a bit of a disappointment, but sounded fine at the moment. I should have known better. There isn't much to be said for fake vanilla. It was far too cloying and not at all to my taste.

Next time, I'm heading back to Hansen's to get a taste of their tart flavors. Will report back.

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For the Love of La Divina

I've been in love with La Divina Gelateria for a good while now. It's no exaggeration to say that in the year or two immediately following Katrina, La Divina is what kept me from going 100% ape and demanding that we get the hell out of here NOW. OK, I did demand that a few times but I was in pain and was acting out. I didn't mean anything by it. Kid Cayenne held me down. La Divina gave me hope. We'd visit every Saturday or Sunday afternoon, just about all year long. I'd revel in whatever the newest seasonal flavors were. Kid Cayenne would stick with her favorite, Creme Brulee. I started to believe that if La Divina (with it's fresh, minimal, lovely interior, it's determination to use only truly quality ingredients and not take the easy way out, it's unsinkable, darling staff and owners) could exist in our dark, post-apocalyptic city, then some how, some way everything would be OK again eventually. And it was.

My affection grew miles deeper when, after a trip to San Francisco where I had the divine Salted Caramel ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery, I begged Carmelo to please consider doing a gelato version. I knew they would do it well and I was having major cravings for it. He said he'd think about it. A few weeks later, I got an email saying that they had made it and to come try it out. Needless to say, their version was exceptional. I later learned that they had been planning it for a while, but I like to pretend it was all my idea. Makes me feel all fancy and such.

What can I say about La Divina's gelato? It's heaven. Truly. Totally artisanal, they make it entirely from scratch. It is delicate, refined, frosty and never icy, just the right amount of stretchy. The flavors are well balanced with a wonderful mix of seasonal and year round favorites. It's perfect. I've never been to Italy but when I have a spoonful of Grapefruit Campari melting on my tongue, I can imagine that I am there. Also to be adored are the perfectly made espresso drinks, my favorite being the mochas because, dear reader, they use Valrhona chocolate. Valrhona is queen of chocolates, very high quality and among the best in the world. This is a serious mocha. Deep, perfectly bittersweet, exquisite. *sigh* I am having a tiny fit thinking about it and might have to go over tonight and have one.

When Kid Cayenne and I were about to move to our new house, I lamented that we would be a little far from my beloved gelateria. A little far being 3.5 miles away as opposed to 1.5. Not to worry. Almost simultaneously timed, we bought our house and La Divina opened a Maple Street location. 1 mile, y'all. 1 tiny little mile away from our new home. I visited earlier this week, and while the new location is much smaller and not as well equipped, it's still got all the important things: decadently good gelatos and mighty fine coffees. One of these days, I'll get around to telling you about the salads and paninis...

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