Category — Recipes

Beer and pretzels go together like peas and carrots. Both beer and pretzels play starring roles in this dessert.

The dish starts with a chocolate stout cake. It’s the same cake recipe I used in my Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwich. The cake is extremely moist. The chocolate is a background flavor to the maltiness and bitterness of the stout beer. The cake is soaked in cherry Lambic Ale to add even more moisture and beer flavor. After soaking it’s covered in stout ganache then filled with a pretzel infused caramel.

Opposite the cake is a sweet and salty pretzel ice cream. It’s sitting on top of some crushed pretzels and topped with black Hawaiian lava salt.

Finally, I used the leftover cherry Lambic that I didn’t use to soak the cake (or drink) to create a thin gel of beer which I then cut into pretzel shapes. Some stewed cherries add an extra cherry element, because the fruit pairs fantastically with beer, pretzels, and chocolate.

Want the recipe for this beer and pretzel dessert? I’m more than happy to share. Simply click the link below and sign up for the Garrett’s Table monthly newsletter. I’ll include the recipe in my next mailing (5/1/2010). Each newsletter contains updates from Garrett’s Table as well as subscriber only content. Signing up is easy and you can unsubscribe at any time.

These stunning photographs were taken by Mike Boehmer.

Mike is a Chicago-based photographer and a regular contributor to The Windy Pixel. Please visit www.mikeboehmer.com for more fantastic photography!

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Limoncello is a a traditional Italian “digestivo,” or after dinner cordial, that is believed to help in digesting the meal. Whether it has medical merits or not, limoncello is certainly a refreshing end to a rich and filling meal. It’s made by infusing alcohol (usually grain alcohol) with lemon zest for a month or longer. Fresh lemon juice and simple syrup are added to the infused alcohol to make a delightfully sweet and full bodied liqueur.

Limoncello is very easy to make if you can be properly patient. Here’s the process.

Limoncello:

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”

This ubiquitous idiom is certainly wise advice but contains a fatal flaw: it presumes that lemons are bad

Sure, lemons are sour and not very pleasant eaten on their own. But few other fruits have the versatility of the lemon. It can be made into a drink and used as a seasoning. It can be featured as a major flavoring in both savory and sweet dishes. Lemons can be zested, juiced, puréed, candied, preserved, frozen, roasted, grilled, dried, and caramelized.

Like all citrus fruits, lemons are indigenous to Asia. The lemon is thought to come from India or Southeast Asia, where it was, and still is, commonly used as an antiseptic in addition to a food item. Lemons reached Europe in the first century AD and were very successful, botanically and culturally, in Italy and Spain. Lemon seeds traveled with Colombus to the Americas in the late 15th century and by the early 19th century lemon trees were commonplace in Florida and California.

Lemons are good sources of Vitamin C, calcium, and potassium. They come in many shapes and sizes, the best tasting of which is probably the Meyer lemon. These lemons (thought to be a hybrid of a lemon and an orange) have a thin, golden yellow skin. Meyer lemons are noticeably sweeter, making them great for sorbets and desserts.

Meyer lemons are typified by a thin, golden skin and sweeter juice

To experience the sweeter side of lemons, try this candied lemon zest. Use it as a breakfast condiment, or on top of yogurt or chocolate pudding. The uses are only limited by your imagination.

Candied Lemon Zest:

• 5 lemons
• Granulated sugar, as needed
• Pinch salt

Carefully peel the zest from the lemons in long strips. Be careful to only remove the yellow zest and not any white pith. Trim the strips of any remaining pith. Slice the strips of zest into fine julienne.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the zest for 30 seconds. Drain, then repeat the process twice more with fresh, boiling water.

Juice the lemons then weigh the juice. Add an equal weight of sugar and a pinch of salt. Heat the juice mixture over low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the blanched zest then simmer for up to 1 hour. Cool and hold the candied zest in the lemon syrup. This candied zest will hold indefinitely in the refrigerator.

Keep reading Garrett’s Table this week as we will explore a classic Italian lemon apertif.

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Mustard seeds come from a variety of mustard plants in the family Brassicaceae. Mustard seeds have appeared in Indian cuisine for thousands of years. Mustard seed was a very valuable and sought-after seed when the spice trade ruled the world. The seed is mentioned in the Bible, the Torah, and the Q’oran. The Jewish texts compare the knowable universe to the size of a mustard seed, putting in perspective our insignificance and teaching humility.

Mustard plants grow extremely well in temperate regions, and a great amount of the world’s mustard seeds are grown in Cananda and the United States. Along with rapeseed, mustard seeds have some of the highest oil content (almost 50%) and are often used to process and extract vegetable oil.

We Americans are most familiar with process condiment mustard. The most popular and commonly purchased mustard are the neon yellow varieties. These lack true mustard flavor and are dyed with large amounts of turmeric, which gives the mustard a bitter and flat flavor. Dijon mustards combine the intense, horseradish-like bite of mustard with (usually) white wine. German style mustards tend to be a little more rustic, and the seeds are often partially ground or not ground at all. These wholegrain mustards are my personal favorite.

Mustard made at home is delightfully intense, with a “sinus-cleansing” effect like that of wasabi. Here’s a recipe for homemade mustard:

Fresh Mustard:

• 1/4 c. mustard seeds
• Lukewarm water, as needed
• 2 Tb. white wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 Tb. honey

Cover the dry mustard seeds in lukewarm water. Soak for one hour then drain well. Place the mustard seeds in a small bowl and add lukewarm water to the top level of the mustard seeds. Add the vinegar (the acid will prevent the mustard seeds from becoming increasingly hotter). Soak for 1 hour longer.

Transfer the soaked seeds, with soaking liquid, to a food processor or blender. Add the salt and honey. The honey will help to diminish the natural bitterness of mustard seeds while adding a nice bit of sweetness. Grind the mustard to a rough paste. You may add more water or vinegar to achieve your preferred mustard consistency. Store well covered in the refrigerator.

Keep reading Garrett’s Table in the coming days for a recipe that combines both mustard seeds and mustard greens.

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We eat vegetables almost exclusively in savory dishes. Many vegetables, however, are naturally sweet and have intense aromas which work exceedingly well in desserts. I wanted to create a dessert featuring vegetables and I started by brainstorming which vegetables could work well in a dessert.

The first vegetable was an easy choice: Carrots. Carrots are one of the sweetest vegetables on Earth and they pair well with baking spices like clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice and with sweeteners like honey and molasses. We add carrots to stocks for an added sweetness and carrot cake is a staple of bakeries around the country.

Beets might seem like an odd dessert flavor but they are quite sweet. Afterall, a great portion of granulated sugar is processed and refined from sugar beets. One of my favorite side dishes is roasted beets with honey and dill. Used with restraint, the unique flavor of beets can work well in a dessert.

The final vegetable in this dessert is celery. Celery is almost more of an aromatic than it is a vegetable. It has a delightfully musty and sweet aroma. Celery is also nothing new to dessert at Garrett’s Table. With a bit of added sugar, celery can add a refreshing, aromatic flare to any dessert, along with a crunchy texture.

Ok so what the heck is the dessert??? A very soft thyme spongecake is filled with a beet and honey caramel. The caramel is quite thick at room temperature but, when baked in the center of the cake, it becomes very liquid and flows out of the cake when cut.

Next to the thyme and beet caramel cake is a spiced carrot and cream cheese sorbet. The sorbet is frozen into the shape of a carrot (a technique I’ve used previously in a Tiramisu Créme Brulée) and it is resting on some ground, candied walnuts.

A sweetened celery puree adds brightness and acidity which help to cut through the richness of the spongecake. Dollops of honey-fluff, fresh thyme leaves, and diced celery are the finishing elements of this unique dessert.

So go ahead…enjoy your vegetables!

I’m more than happy to share my secrets and my recipes. If you would like the recipe for this vegetable dessert, simply sign up for the Garrett’s Table e-mail newsletter. Signing up couldn’t be easier. Click the button below and enter your e-mail address and you’ll start receiving Garrett’s Table updates along with subscriber-only recipes and content. I’ll include the recipe for this vegetable dessert, with instructions on how to make your own sorbet mold, in my next mailing (April 1, 2010). All e-mail addresses are confidential and you can unsubscribe at any time.

These stunning photographs were taken by Mike Boehmer.

Mike is a Chicago-based photographer and a regular contributor to The Windy Pixel. Please visit www.mikeboehmer.com for more fantastic photography!

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