Bûche de Noël

Finally had the courage to make a Bûche de Noël. So happy with how it turned out, we almost didn’t let anyone eat it. The sponge and the cream filling are so light and delicious. Really makes it the most wonderful time of the year. 

The recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction is great, easy to follow and includes a very helpful video.

Caramelized Tomato Tarte Tatin

Savory, sweet, late summer delicious. I have yet to find a Melissa Clark recipe that I didn’t love, so when I saw this in NYT Cooking, I had to make it. I still hold that anyone who tells you that you can caramelize onions in 15-20 minutes has a sadistic streak. I went with a few more olives, a few more tomatoes and a little more thyme in my version. Easy, delicious, weeknight way to wind down the summer.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 14-ounce package all-butter puff pastry
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 red onions, halved and thinly sliced
• ¼ cup plus a pinch of sugar
• ½ teaspoon sherry vinegar
• ¼ cup chopped pitted Kalamata olives
• 1 ½ pints (about 1 pound) cherry or grape tomatoes; a mix of colors is nice
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
•  Kosher salt, to taste
•  Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Unfold puff pastry sheet and cut into a 10-inch round; chill, covered, until ready to use.
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and a pinch of sugar and cook, stirring, until onions are golden and caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons water and let cook off, scraping brown bits from bottom of pan. Transfer onions to a bowl.
3. In a clean, ovenproof 9-inch skillet, combine 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons water. Cook over medium heat, swirling pan gently (do not stir) until sugar melts and turns amber, 5 to 10 minutes. Add vinegar and swirl gently.
4. Sprinkle olives over caramel. Scatter tomatoes over olives, then sprinkle onions on. Season with thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Top with puff pastry round, tucking edges into pan. Cut several long vents in top of pastry.
5. Bake tart until crust is puffed and golden, about 30 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, then run a knife around pastry to loosen it from pan, and flip tart out onto a serving platter. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Pescado a la Veracruzana

If I see this dish on a menu, I have to order it, that’s just how it is. Fortunately, it’s really easy to make at home. This particular version came with the added benefit of a huge supply of newly roasted, hot, hatch chiles. The hot ones are no joke this year — get ready to sweat a little — but they add the perfect heat to this sauce. We served it with elotes and cilantro-lime rice.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 4 6oz tilapia or other white fish fillets, seasoned with salt and pepper on both sides
• Salt and pepper
• 1 yellow onion
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 14oz cans of diced tomatoes (Mexican seasoned work really well)
• 1 hot Hatch chile, roasted (sub Anaheim chile if can’t find Hatch)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• ⅔ cup pitted olives, halved (pimento-stuffed Spanish olives work well)
• ⅓ cup capers, drained

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat until it starts to shimmer. Sauté the fish until it’s opaque and just cooked through, 2-3 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fish. Transfer to a glass baking dish where they fit snugly.
3. In the same pan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion and garlic and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, Hatch Chile, bay leaf, oregano, olives and capers and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes until the flavors combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour the sauce over the fish in the baking dish and bake in the oven until fish is heated through, about 5 minutes.
5. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Adapted from Marcela Valladolid’s recipe on The Food Network

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Further adventures in egregious diet violation: this simple loaf cake from Helen Goh and Yotam Ottolenghi’s book, Sweet, strikes the perfect balance between sweet tooth satisfaction and ultra-lemony zing not to mention glazey goodness. With coffee or espresso, it makes you happy to greet the morning. With a cup of earl gray tea, it glides you contentedly through the afternoon. I have a theory that the loaf actually explodes if you don’t finish it within 24 hours of pulling it from the oven. Fortunately, I’ve never even come close to putting that to the test.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ¹/₂ cup sour cream
• 5 tablespoons  unsalted butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (1 tablespoon)
• 1 ¹/₃ cups  all-purpose flour
• 1 ¹/₄ teaspoons baking powder
• ¹/₄ teaspoon salt
• ³/₄ cup  confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat the oven to 325° F. Grease an 8 ½ x 4 ⅓” loaf pan with butter. If you use a metal pan, also line with parchment.
2. Whisk eggs and granulated sugar in an electric mixer on medium-high for about 2 minutes, until pale and frothy. Add the cream and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until the mixture has combined. 
3. In the meantime, melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stir in the poppy seeds and lemon zest, and set aside.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl, then use a rubber spatula to fold this into the egg mixture before folding in the butter, poppy seeds, and zest.
5. Spoon the mixture into the loaf pan so that it rises three-quarters of the way up the sides. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Resist the urge to open the oven and check on it until the timer goes off.
6. To make the glaze, whisk the confectioners’ sugar with the lemon juice in a bowl. 
7. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven, spreading it over the top so that it sinks in and creates a nice coating. Cool for 30 minutes before removing from the pan.