Author: Michael

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Fresh-Fruit Pizza with Lemon Curd

Fresh-Fruit with Lemon Curd
The lemon curd not only holds the fruit in place, it serves as an exquisite anchor for all the flavors. You may have never imagined such a pizza. Now you’ll never forget it. It’s best served the day it’s made.

Ingredients
1 (18-ounce) sugar cookie dough (see below)
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam, melted
3/4 cup Lemon Curd (see below)
2 cups fresh raspberries
2 cups blackberries 1 cup sliced strawberries
1 plum, sliced 2 teaspoons sugar
(I used rasberrys and a few backberrys)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Press dough into a 12-inch pizza pan coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Preheat broiler.
Spread jam over crust.
Spread Lemon Curd over jam; arrange raspberries, blackberries, strawberry slices, and plum slices on top.
Sprinkle sugar over fruit; broil 3 minutes.
Yield
12 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)Nutritional Information
CALORIES 261(30% from fat); FAT 8.6g (sat 2.3g,mono 2.8g,poly 3g); IRON 1.4mg; CHOLESTEROL 37mg; CALCIUM 19mg; CARBOHYDRATE 43.1g; SODIUM 173mg; PROTEIN 2.5g; FIBER 3.1g

 

Lemon Curd
For a lime-curd variation, substitute lime rind and juice for the lemon rind and juice.
Ingredients
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
2 large eggs
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 large lemons)
2 tablespoons butter or stick margarine
Preparation
Combine the first 3 ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a whisk. Cook until sugar dissolves and mixture is light in color (about 3 minutes). Stir in lemon juice and butter; cook for 5 minutes or until mixture thinly coats the back of a spoon, stirring constantly with a whisk. Cool. Cover and chill (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
Note: Lemon Curd can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can easily double the recipe and freeze half of it in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag. Thaw in the refrigerator, and use within 1 week of thawing.
Yield
1 1/3 cups (serving size: 1 tablespoon)
Nutritional Information
CALORIES 47(31% from fat); FAT 1.6g (sat 0.8g,mono 0.5g,poly 0.1g); CHOLESTEROL 24mg; CALCIUM 4mg; CARBOHYDRATE 7.9g; SODIUM 18mg; PROTEIN 0.7g; IRON 0.1mg
Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies
There are untold numbers of sugar cookie recipes circulating throughout the Midwest. As students of this sweet know, lard makes for a particularly toothsome cookie, with a texture at once crisp and sandy. For a cookie that is crisp but also chewy, vegetable shortening is best.
Servings: Makes about 32 cookies.

Ingredients
1/2 cup lard or vegetable shortening, melted and cooled

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup sugar plus additional for coating the cookies
1 large egg1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
Preparation
In a large bowl stir together the lard or shortening, the butter, 1 cup of the sugar, the egg, and the vanilla.
Into the bowl sift together the flour, the baking soda, and the salt and stir the mixture until it forms a dough.
Chill the dough, covered, for at least 2 hours or overnight.
(If you just want to make cookies and not the fruit pizza)
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Roll rounded tablespoons of the dough into balls, roll the balls in the additional sugar, coating them completely, and arrange them 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheets.
Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass dipped in the sugar (the edges will crack slightly) and bake the cookies in batches in the middle of the oven for 8 to 12 minutes, or until they are pale golden.
Transfer the cookies to racks and let them cool.
The cookies keep in an airtight container for 1 week.
Posted on » by Michael » Theme:

Seafood Bread

“Julia and Jacques – Cooking at Home”
(Our home computer is busted so unfortunately no pictures this time.)
1 large crusty, country bread, 10-12″ round or oval loaf With a serrated bread knife, slice off the top crust of the bread loaf and remove it as you would a lid. Scoop out the soft bread inside leaving 1/2″ around sides and bottom. Use all of the filling to make 2 to 3 cups of medium fine bread crumbs.
(I scooped as much of the bread out as I could and used about ½ the breadcrumbs)

For the Herb Butter:
3 or 4 garlic cloves, peeled
2/3 cup fresh dill sprigs, loosely packed
1//4 cup slivered almonds6 oz.unsalted butter at room temp
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 TBS dry white wine (2 Tb, if using liqueur)
1 TBS Pernod or Ricard (optional) (I omitted this)
(I used about 1/3 of the herb butter, I froze the rest in logs and I have used it in many applications)

For the filling:
5 oz tuna5 oz haddock (I used Cod)
5 oz salmon
7 oz squid (I used scallops)
Cut all of the above in 1″ chunks
1/4 pound wild mushrooms or cultivated mushrooms, roughly chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup of dry white wine

Making the herb butter:
Put the garlic, dill and almonds in the food processor, pulse until finelychopped.
Add the soft butter, S & P, wine and liqueur if using. Process until smooth.

Filling the loaf:
Season the seafood with S & P, and toss.
Spread 1/2 the herb butter in the bread, covering bottom and sides.
Add 1/2 the fish mixture.
Cover with all of the mushroom mixture.Add the remaining 1/2 of the fish mixture.
Spread the remaining butter evenly over the filling.
Cover the filling with a thick layer of bread crumbs, pressing with hands to hold together.
Drizzle 1/4 C of white wine all over the crumbs to moisten.
Put on baking sheet and bake in pre-heated 400 oven for approx. 1 – 1 ½ hours or until top is browned.Let sit 10 minutes before cutting.
Using sharp, sturdy knife, cut into wedges, chunks or slices to serve.