Crema de la Crema

In Italy there is a favored after dinner drink called Limoncello. It’s distilled alcohol infused with lemon rind and sweetened up with simple syrup, basically. You can buy it or make your own. I’ve always found limoncello to be a little harsh tasting so when my neighbors poured me a little Crema di Limoncello last summer I was wowed. They bought it at Bev Mo, but when my lemons started ripening with a vengeance I decided to try my hand at making it. I found a recipe online which looked easy but also looked a little sweet – I didn’t want to drink a creamsicle! So I made the milk and sugar as instructed but didn’t add it all at once, tasting as I went, and I ended up using about 25% less sweet milk than called for. The result was delicious, sweet but not too sweet, a little lemony, you can taste the vodka but not overpowering. Serve in shot glasses. Note: classically it’s made with high octane Everclear, but I used Tito’s, a good quality, reasonably priced vodka. Don’t drink the cheap stuff. Just sayin’.

Crema di Limoncello

Makes 1 ½ quarts. Doubles just fine.

5 lemons
½ bottle (750ml bottle) good vodka
3 cups whole milk
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar
½ tsp vanilla

Zest lemons using zester or microplane. Use lemons for juice or some other delicacy. Place the zest and vodka in a covered container in a cool dark place for at least a week. Strain the vodka through a double mesh strainer into another non reactive container.

In a sauce pan warm the milk, sugar and vanilla over medium heat, stirring until dissolved. No boiling! This doesn’t take long. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature, which takes about an hour or so.

Combine the infused vodka with the sweet milk. I didn’t have any curdling but if you do just strain it out. Keep in the freezer, leaving room in the bottle for expansion. Mine freezes solid so take it out a while before you plan to serve. It tastes best very cold. Cheers!

Warm Your Cockles With Soup

Butternut Squash Soup with honey and Sage

I don’t buy cookbooks too often these days, they take up room and I subscribe to cooking magazines! But I was at a museum bookstore open house recently and instantly fell in love with Long Nights and Log Fires, a book packed with winter time recipes. Aah, I couldn’t resist!

So I made a butternut squash soup (it was billed as pumpkin soup but butternut is more accessible) and tweaked it a bit. If you can really blend it well into a puree you really don’t need the cream. But go ahead and add it if you wish. This is delicious and will warm your cockles.

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 small-medium onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
dash red pepper flakes (optional)
2 ¼ lbs butternut squash, seeded, peeled and cut into cubes
2 heaping tablespoons clear honey
3 sprigs sage, plus extra crisp-fried leaves (optional) to serve
3 cups chicken broth
1/3 cup heavy cream (optional)
freshly squeezed lemon juice, to taste
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Gently melt the butter in a large lidded saucepan. Add the onion, carrot and garlic. Stir, cover and cook, over low heat for about 4-5 minutes. Add the squash, honey, and sage, stir, replace the lid and continue to cook very gently for about 10 minutes. Pour in the stock, bring to a boil and cook for a further 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool slightly, then remove the sage and strain the soup, retaining the liquid. Put half the cooked vegetables in a food processor with just enough of the reserved cooking liquid to blend into a smooth puree. (If, like me, you have an excellent blender, just blend veg and liquid into a puree. No straining needed.)

Transfer to a clean saucepan and repeat with the remaining vegetables, adding the puree to the first batch. Bring the soup slowly to a boil, then stir in the cream if using, off heat. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

If desired, fry some sage leaves in a neutral oil like grapeseed until crisp. Use to garnish bowls of soup. Serve with crusty bread.

I added a little heat to the recipe because that’s the way I like it.

I have some upcoming projects I am wanting to try: chiles en nogada – stuffed poblano chiles with walnut sauce. I had it last year in a Mexican restaurant in Santa Fe, NM and just can’t forget about it. So I randomly decided I had to read Like Water for Chocolate, found it in a used book store, and googled “are the recipes in Like Water for Chocolate any good?” and found a great looking recipe in Melissa Guerra’s Latin Kitchen Market blog. I’m going to try it soon. (I saw the movie of Like Water… years ago and finally decided I had to read it. Just so you know, I really disliked Mama Elena.)

For the first time ever, I have a more than decent crop of Meyer lemons. I have been giving lemons away, but I am really wanting to make Crema di Limoncello. Limoncello is a lemon liqueur from Italy. It’s nice but a little harsh tasting for me. Last summer our neighbors served us crema di limoncello (with milk in it) and it was amazing. I found a great looking recipe and I’m going to get some good Vodka (Tito’s – it’s reasonably priced and has been distilled 6 times) and go for it. Wish me luck!

A Day Without Kale is a Day Without Sunshine

I know kale is a big nutritional fad right now, and I’ve been eating it off and on for years. Reluctantly, I might add, because it’s so tough. However, I found a recipe that improves on the texture by freezing the greens before cooking them; it breaks down the cellulose. I wonder if that would work on leathery collard greens? Try it and let me know. I amped up the flavor by switching up some ingredients. It’s a good veg dish, fit for company, with a Mediterranean flavor. Use Tuscan, also called lacinato kale, if available; otherwise use the normal grocery store kale.

Tuscan Kale with Pancetta

3 lb Tuscan kale, washed, stemmed and frozen for at least a few hours
couple shakes red pepper flakes
1 tb olive oil
6 oz pancetta or smoked bacon, cut into lardons (1/4” crosswise strips)
1 ½ cups thinly sliced red onion (about 1 medium)
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 ½ cups low sodium chicken broth
red wine vinegar

Fill an 8 qt pot with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add big pinch of salt and dump in the frozen, straight-from-the-freezer kale. Mostly cover the pan cook on high heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender but not mushy. Drain in a colander (save the cooking water if you like) and press out excess liquid. When cool enough to handle, chop up kale.

Warm up the pot with olive oil over medium high heat and add pancetta, cooking until starting to brown, about 3 minutes. Add the onion, garlic and pinch salt and sweat until tender. Don’t worry about a little color on your aromatics, it will add flavor. Add the broth, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes. Add the kale and black pepper. Cook gently for 7 minutes, adjust seasonings.

Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Offer red-wine vinegar, it really adds great flavor.

I’ve been working on my love-hate relationship with making fresh pasta. I watched Giuliano Hazan, evidently a renowned cookbook author make tortelloni online. I did make a tasty batch so I may try some more.

A stop at Lockeford Meats yesterday inspired me to try my hand at sausage making. They make incredible sausage; the Hawaiian luau is amazing. Just a little sweet, with a hint of pineapple. My mom bought some Italian sausage but it didn’t have any fennel in it!!!! What the heck!? So she and I are going to make Italian sausage soon. I have a pork shoulder in the freezer, a recipe from Top Chef University and she has the grinder and stuffer attachment. I just need to track down the casings. No nasty nitrates/nitrites are added; the sausage will go in the freezer. AND THEN, I am going to make Sunday gravy this fall, with my own sausage in it! Maybe I will make pasta to go with it. Or not. Probably not. Ciao!