cucumber salad and spicy cornbread.

Dear friends, it's summer. Or, more accurately, and with apologies to any of you not on an academic schedule, it's my summer. The field exam is well in the rearview mirror, classes have ended, grades are in, and I have a season of research and writing in front of me. [No, this isn't a picture of my reading list. Those are cucumbers. I can tell the difference - must mean that I've learned something!]


It's also a new cooking season, one that coincides perfectly with two new additions to my cookbook shelf: Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty (a gift from the thoughtful C.) and Super Natural Every Day, by Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbooks. Both are gorgeous and inspiring, and I've been settling down with them as pleasure reading. Total cookbook-love-at-first-sight. Especially as more produce slowly makes its appearance on the farmers' market tables, these will definitely keep me happy and busy all summer.

First up, a cucumber-ginger salad to accompany J.'s feast of lemon-thyme salmon and couscous with chives and peas, topped off with M.'s decadent chocolate layer cake. (We're a well-fed bunch.) This salad was fantastic: light, zingy, and refreshing. Plus, you know how I feel about any opportunity to slice fruits/veggies paper-thin.


I also made this cornbread from smittenkitchen. I'd never made cornbread before - so easy! And so tasty! I searched high and low for the aleppo pepper recommended and couldn't find it, so I substituted a little bit of paprika, cayenne, and red pepper flakes. (The next day, I saw aleppo pepper at Williams-Sonoma - go figure - so eventually I'll invest and give this another shot.)



Cucumber-Ginger Salad
adapted slightly from Plenty

Dressing
3 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. canola oil [*or sunflower oil, which I didn't have on hand]

Salad
1 small red onion, sliced paper-thin
1 1/2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and sliced 1/8" thick
1 tsp. Maldon (or kosher) salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely sliced
4-6 small cucumbers (~1 1/4 lb.; Kirby cucumbers worked beautifully), peeled in stripes
1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
3 tbsp. chopped parsley

Make dressing: whisk together all ingredients in medium bowl. Add sliced red onion, combine well, and set aside for about an hour.


Place ginger, salt, and garlic in mortar and pound well with pestle (fun!) until crushed but not yet paste-like. Add to bowl with onion and dressing; stir well.


Cut cucumbers into thin - but not paper-thin, about 1/8" - slices. (If your cucumbers are larger, you might want to halve them as well.) Add cucumber to bowl, along with sesame seeds and parsley. Stir and let sit for 10 mins.


Stir again before serving, tipping out a little bit of the extra liquid.



Spicy Cornbread
Adapted slightly from smittenkitchen (original from Red Rooster Harlem)

1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. yellow medium-ground cornmeal
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. paprika [*I tried sweet Hungarian paprika - yum!]
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 c. sour cream
1/3 c. buttermilk
2 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat oven to 400F; butter non-stick loaf pan.

Whisk together dry ingredients (through salt) in large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together wet ingredients.


Stir wet into dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake 25-30 mins., until toothpick in center comes out clean.

ginger pear upside-down cake.

I bookmarked this recipe so long ago that I can't remember how I got to it; originally from the Macrina Bakery & Café Cookbook, this cake is delicious.

Darkly sweet from the molasses and brown sugar, it's rich without being cloying - the perfect complement to the cinnamon and pears on top. I had just one problem with this recipe: overflow. The instructions said that the pan would be full, which it definitely was. About 15 minutes into baking, I started to smell burnt molasses and raced into the kitchen to find cake batter spilling over into my oven. Oops. I slid a baking sheet onto the lower rack, opened my windows, and followed my practiced routine of standing on the arm of my chair and fanning vigorously with the Illustrated Blake in front of my smoke detector. Next time, I'll just leave out some of the batter to save my oven and to avoid chipping away at this to get it out of the pan:


I also managed, while I was peeling the ginger, to flip it out of my hands - it ricocheted off the wall and shot under the oven. (Not to worry, I didn't try to retrieve and reuse it.) This was a very eventful baking experience, but I'm already looking forward to having this cake again!

Ginger Pear Upside-Down Cake
originally from Macrina Bakery & Café Cookbook, via Seattlest, via who-knows-where, adapted slightly

Topping:
2 tbsp. butter, room temp.
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
4 med. ripe pears, peeled, cored, and cut into sixths

Batter:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 tbsp. peeled, grated ginger
3 large eggs
2/3 c. molasses
3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. buttermilk


1. Preheat oven to 325F. Butter a 9" springform pan and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

2. Make topping: combine 2 tbsp. butter, 1/3 c. brown sugar, and cinnamon in small saucepan. Cook over med. heat for about a minute, then pour into springform pan and spread evenly over parchment. Arrange pears in circles as tightly as possible. (I cut a few extras in half and used them to fill in the center.)

3. Make batter: cut butter into pieces and cream with brown sugar on med. speed for 3-5 mins. Add grated ginger and beat 1 min. more, then scrape down sides. Add eggs one at a time, beating on low speed until combined. Slowly pour in molasses and beat until fully incorporated.

4. In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to batter in increments, beginning and ending with flour. Do not overmix. Scrape down bowl and stir gently with rubber spatula, then pour carefully into prepared pan.

5. Bake for 1 h 45 mins., until knife comes out clean. Let cool for 10 mins. on wire rack, then cover top with upside-down plate, release sides, and flip cake onto plate. Lift away base, peel off parchment, and let cool for 30 mins. Serve warm or at room temp.

dark chocolate tart with gingersnap crust.

I've been looking forward to sharing this one: a decadently, perfectly chocolate tart in a subtle gingersnap crust. After eyeing it longingly on smitten kitchen for weeks, I made it to bring to a southern-cooking feast orchestrated by L., fabulously talented herself in the art of the pie/tart. Even when it doesn't come at the end of a meal that includes fried catfish, butter beans, okra, and hush puppies (!), this is a tart to serve in small slices. The filling falls somewhere between flourless chocolate cake and a brownie, with just a hint of chocolate mousse: rich, dense, and close-your-eyes-to-savor-it chocolatey.

Without a doubt, I'll be making this again. However, I'm looking forward to tweaking the crust a little bit. (The filling is wonderful as it.) I think it might still work with less butter, since the moistness of the crust almost overwhelmed its gingery taste AND, more importantly, the tart was sitting in a small pool of melted butter on its baking sheet when I took it out of the oven. I'm also wondering about mixing chopped crystallized ginger right into the crust, rather than sprinkling it on the top of the cooked tart as the original recipe in Bon Appetit suggests. I'll report back; in the meantime, this one is too good not to share!

Dark Chocolate Tart with Gingersnap Crust
Bon Appetit by way of smitten kitchen

Crust:
8 oz. gingersnap cookies, coarsely broken (*I used Trader Joe's Ultimate Ginger Cookies - yum.)
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Filling:
12 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1/4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. flour
1/8 tsp. freshly-ground black pepper
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 325F.

2. Finely grind the ginger cookies in a food processor (yields 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 c.). Then add melted butter and process until moistened.



3. Press crumb mixture onto bottom and up sides of 9-in. tart pan with removable bottom. (*Using a hint from smitten kitchen, I used one of my measuring cups to pack in the mixture so that it formed a wonderfully straight and uniform crust. So handy! My measuring cups are All-Clad, so they have a flat bottom and straight sides; if you have rounded measuring cups, I assume that a water glass would also do the trick.) Place pan on rimmed baking sheet. (*Important! See note about melted butter above! Imagine melted butter all over your oven! Ick!)



4. Combine finely chopped chocolate and heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Whisk over low heat until chocolate is just melted and smooth. Remove pan from heat.

5. Whisk egg yolks, egg, sugar, flour, pepper, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl to blend.

6. Very gradually whisk (*slightly cooled) chocolate mixture into egg mixture until smooth and blended.

7. Pour chocolate filling into crust.



8. Bake until filling puffs at the edges and center is softly set, about 30 mins. Transfer to rack. Cool in pan 20 mins., then gently remove pan's sides and cool tart completely.



Note: this can be made 1 day ahead. Cover the cooled tart and refrigerate it, then bring it back to room temp. before serving.

ginger cookies.

I adore Ina Garten - her show, her kitchen, her explanation of techniques, her recipes, her general love of food. She is my favorite stop for cookbook pleasure-reading as well as the one I turn to for recipes that will inevitably turn out well. So when a fabulous foodie friend made her own gingersnap recipe for my birthday celebration last month, I was inspired to try the recipe below. These are different from gingersnaps because they're chewy, and they're also full of crystallized ginger for an intense flavor. As Ina herself loves to say, how bad could that be?

Ultimate Ginger Cookie
from Barefoot Contessa at Home

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves (*I used 3/4 tsp., which was sufficiently clove-y)
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 c. dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/3 c. unsulfured molasses
1 egg, room temp.
1 1/4 c. chopped crystallized ginger (6 oz.) (*Coarse or fine pieces both work; your choice)
Small bowl of granulated sugar (for coating the cookies)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and salt; combine well.

3. In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar, oil, and molasses on medium speed for 5 minutes. (*You could probably make this with a handheld mixer, but it's a very wet, heavy dough that even makes my beloved KitchenAid mixer work hard.) Turn mixer to low speed, add egg, and beat for 1 minute. Scrape the bowl, beat 1 more minute.

4. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, then mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. (*It might seem like the dough will be too dry - not to worry. Once the dry ingredients are mixed in thoroughly, the dough will hold together beautifully.) Add the crystallized ginger and mix until combined. (*As you can see here, the dough isn't all that pretty. But it will be delicious.)


5. Scoop out the dough and roll with your hands into a ball. (*Ina says a 1 3/4-in. ball. Mine looked about the size of overgrown golf balls, if that helps.) Flatten lightly into a disc with your fingers, then press both sides of the cookie in the bowl of granulated sugar before placing it on the sheet pan. (*These cookies don't spread very much, but because they don't make that many, you don't need to crowd them. I fit between 9 and 12 per sheet.)

6. Bake exactly 13 minutes. (*I rotate the pans halfway through for even browning.) They'll be just a bit crackled on top and browned on the bottom; they might feel too soft, but they'll harden as they cool. Cool on the sheets for a minute or two, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.


[Makes 16 cookies according to Ina, though I've managed 22 with 1 batch and 18 with another. 18 seems to work well; many more and I think you lose the wonderful chewiness of the larger cookie.]