Bounty

Yesterday, my day was spent in food.  

Reading about food.

Planning what food to make.

Shopping for food.

Making food.

Eating food.  

Writing about food.  

I can't imagine a better day.

In the morning, after perusing cookbooks and blogs, Steve and I went to the New Haven farmer's market for the first time this year.  We purchased:

fresh baby lettuces, bagged, from the Yale Sustainable Food Project garden on Edwards 

large, pale brown eggs 

tiny, bright red radishes with green leaves

potatoes, still a little bit dirty 

all from George Hall Farm in Simsbury

thick-cut, smoked bacon from Four Mile River Farm in Old Lyme

a pretzel from SoNo Baking Company in Norwalk

Then, we came home and cooked.  For dinner we ate

anchovy gougeres from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food

Villa Wolf Gewurztraminer

baby lettuces salad with olive oil and lemon vinaigrette, avocado, and roasted beets

grilled rack of capretto, from Dom's home in Sheffield, MA, and our favorite place to buy meat, Moon in the Pond Farm

baked potatoes with olive oil, cream, and parmigiano

Palmiers, recipe below

Afterwards, we felt full, and lucky.

Palmiers

Recipe from Sur La Table baking workshop I took in March

2-3 c granulated sugar

1 batch quickest puff pastry--see recipe below (or 2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed and unfolded into a rectangle)

Roll dough out using sugar as you would with flour.  Press about 1/2 cup sugar into dough using a rolling pin, turn over, and do the same on the other side.

Fold both outer edges of doug in toward the middle from top to bottom.  Then fold the rectangle of dough in half, from left to right.  Finally, fold bottom edge up to the top one.  Set aside any remaining sugar on a small plate.  Press the dough lightly, then chill for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Slice the folded dough every 1/3 inch and dip the cut sides into the sugar before placing on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Leave 2 inches of space around each cookie.  

Bake for 10 minutes on each side, until they are well carmelized.  The color should be deep amber, not brown.  Cool pastries for a few minutes until crisp and serve warm.  

Quickest Puff Pastry

2 1/2 sticks cold, unsalted butter

1/2 c cold tap water

1 tsp salt

2 c unbleached all-purpose flour

Cut 2 sticks butter into 1/2 inch dice and refrigerate. 

Measure the water and stir in the salt to dissolve.  Set aside.

Coarsely dice the remaining 4 T butter.  Place flour in the work bowl of a food processor and 4 T of butter.  Pulse until the butter is absorbed--it should be ground finely, with no pieces of butter showing. 

Add the chilled butter and pulse a couple of times to distribute.  Shape dough into a rectangle and place between 2 pieces of plastic wrap.  Press dough with a rolling pin to flatten, then roll back and forth several times with a rolling pin to make a 12x18 inch rectangle.  

Peel away top layer of plastic wrap and turn dough over onto the floured work surface.  Peel away the second layer of plastic wrap and fold the dough in thirds the short way, to make a 4x18 inch rectangle.  Then roll the dough up from one of the 4-inch ends.  Make sure to roll the end under the dough.  Press the roll of dough out into a square, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour, or until firm.  

Use dough within 2 to 3 days.  Or freeze up to one month and defrost in refrigerator overnight before using.  

*Adapted from "How to Bake" by Nick Malgieri, and included in our recipes from a baking workshop I took at Sur La Table in March with Chef Meg Buchsbaum.