Flashback Friday - Pear and Fig Turnovers with Bourbon Caramel

Sometimes a good restaurant meal inspires good home-cooking. Perhaps not replicating the entire meal, but just one course. Or borrowing the flavors from the appetizer or dessert to create a completely different dish, as in these crisp turnovers filled with a combination of pears and figs and jazzed up with bourbon caramel sauce.

--Kathy

This post was originally published on January 17, 2012.
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Pear and Fig Turnovers with Bourbon Caramel

We spent a couple of the last remaining hours of 2011 having a lovely dinner at B&O American Brasserie. Among the five courses we consumed were two that really inspired me to try a variation at home, one of which was a brown butter pear cake paired with figs and bacon.

The cake itself was just a rather plain yellow cake; the pear actually appeared to be within the jam-like accompaniment of caramelized dried figs sprinkled with bits of bacon. I thought the fig/pear/caramel combination was delicious and made a mental note to try it at home, with or without the bacon.

After a bit of thinking, I decided figsnpears would work nicely as a filling for tartlets, hand pies, or turnovers. Because I was already making a fairly complicated dinner the same night, I decided to forego the bacon, although it would have been a tasty addition.

Commercial puff pastry is always a breeze to use - just thaw, fill, and bake. The puffy little pies were terrific hot out of the oven and drizzled with a bit of the caramel sauce, but equally as good at room temperature with a scoop of butter pecan ice cream and more caramel.

Pear and Fig Turnovers with Bourbon Caramel

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
8 dried figs, quartered, stems removed
1 cup water
2 medium pears, skinned and diced
1 tablespoon butter
Bourbon Caramel Sauce
1 egg, beaten

In a small saucepan, bring figs and water to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 20 - 25 minutes, or until figs are tender, adding more water as necessary. Remove from heat and drain figs. Set aside.

Melt butter in a medium sauté pan. Add pears and cook over medium heat until tender. Add 2 tablespoons of the bourbon caramel sauce, stir in reserved figs, and cook an additional five minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Unfold one puff pastry sheet and use a rolling pin to flatten the seams and stretch the dough out a bit. Cut dough into six squares. Place a tablespoon of fig and pear filling in the center of each square (if some of the squares are rectangles, stretch the dough accordingly). Fold dough to form a triangle and seal edges with the tines of a fork. Place pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush each with the beaten egg. Repeat with second pastry sheet.

Bake for 18 minutes. Serve with little ramekins of caramel sauce for dipping.

Bourbon Caramel Sauce

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons bourbon

Place sugar and water in a saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until sugar has dissolved. Turn heat to high and bring sugar mixture to a boil. Cook without stirring until the syrup turns a medium amber and starts to smoke (but is not burning!). Remove pan from heat and add butter and cream. Stir in bourbon and vanilla. Pour into a clean glass pint jar and allow to cool. Store in the refrigerator.

Reheat caramel by placing a couple of spoonfuls into a microwave-safe ramekin and microwaving for 5-second increments until caramel is hot and bubbly. Remove carefully, as it will be very hot.

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Vietnamese Noodles and Pork

I mentioned the blog The Woks of Life a few weeks ago. I am so in love with their food photography - it makes everything look absolutely mouth-watering. So of course I want to try every recipe. The latest one I tried was for a Vietnamese noodle salad with pork, bún thịt nướng. I've eaten this dish in Vietnamese restaurants, and what was most striking to me about it was that the pork had a lovely caramelized sweetness to it. The Woks' recipe didn't include sugar in the pork marinade, so I added some. It really makes a difference.

Nuoc cham doesn't always involve garlic, and the three cloves indicated in the original recipe seemed excessive, so I put it in the meat marinade instead. Which actually makes more sense. And it gets cooked eventually, so that makes for less garlic-breath.

Vietnamese Noodle Salad with Pork (adapted from The Woks of Life)

For the nuoc cham:
1 lime, juiced
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
¼ cup fish sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons Sriracha
½ cup cold water

For the pork chops:
3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons sugar
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
½ teaspoon sesame oil
½ tablespoon cornstarch
4 boneless pork chops
Vegetable oil

To serve:
6 oz. dried rice vermicelli noodles, prepared according to package directions
1 small cucumber, julienned
1 medium carrot, julienned
A large handful of snow peas, blanched and cut into lengthwise strips
½ cup cilantro, mint, and thai basil leaves, roughly torn

To make nuoc cham: Combine all the sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

To make pork chops: In a zip top bag, make the pork chop marinade by adding the soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, garlic, sesame oil, cornstarch, and wine. Marinate the pork chops for at least 20 minutes.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Sear the pork chops on both sides until cooked through. Set the pork chops aside to rest.

To serve: Add the noodles, cucumber, carrot, and snow peas to a bowl. Top with the pork chops and herbs, and serve with the nuoc cham.



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Flashback Friday - Kitchen of India

Kitchen of India has pretty good food. The service, however, has always been casual at best. Haven't been in a while, so perhaps that has improved?

--Kathy

This post was originally published on October 19, 2011.
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Kitchen of India

Most Indian restaurants in the area serve extremely rich, cream-laden food that we find ourselves craving only once or twice a year. After a disappointing meal with abysmal service at India Palace in Cockeysville, and a worse one at Café Spice when it was still in Towson, we pretty much swore off dining in Indian restaurants altogether. For a few years, we got our Indian fix via delivery from the little joint just south of Northern Parkway that started out as Yeti, morphed into B'More and is now Mikie's. But this week we ventured out to try Kitchen of India, at my brother's suggestion.

Located on Joppa Road near Perring Parkway, Kitchen of India is in the space once occupied by the Nepali/Indian Mount Everest. The new restaurant features pretty much all of the typical dishes, but also has a few Bangladeshi offerings. And goat, which I can't say I've seen on any menus here in Baltimore before. It seemed like a good choice for a rainy Wednesday night dinner.

After perusing the menu, we decided we wanted to sample their tandoori dishes, and rather than ordering the "mixed tandoori platter" appetizer, I requested the "tandoori mixed grill" entrée which offered chicken tikka, shrimp, fish, seekh kabab, & tandoori chicken. I even made sure to order it by number in case the waitress didn't understand. Unfortunately, I also said, "we'd like it served first, as an appetizer." Apparently all she heard was "tandoori appetizer" and that's what we got - a meagre selection of dry chicken pieces, a few chunks of nicely spiced seekh kabab, and a few dry shrimp among a plethora of lightly cooked green bell pepper and onion. Feh.

My brother went for his usual chicken tikka masala, his gauge for restaurant quality much like Mr Minx's usual kung pao chicken order in a Chinese restaurant. In other words - if they like this particular dish, they're likely to enjoy others, should they venture to try something completely different.

That's a pretty good way to describe Kitchen of India's tikka masala - completely different. Used to a rich tomato-tinged cream sauce, we were all pleasantly surprised to receive a dish of chicken chunks sauced in what tasted, to me, suspiciously of pumpkin. Regardless of what comprised the sauce, the flavors were quite nice, with a bit of heat.

Mr Minx tried the goat curry and received a dish of tender chunks of goat meat bathed in a sauce redolent of cloves.

I'm a big okra fan so couldn't pass up the bhindi masala, a dry fry of okra with browned onions. It had a rich, buttery flavor and was smashing with basmati rice.

With our meal we had cups of tea - what must have been the world's strongest chai. It was practically espresso. The black tea flavor was much more prominent than were the spices, and while rich with cream, the drink needed several sugars to cut the tannin. When we were finished eating, the waitress removed Mr Minx's half-full cup by mistake, leaving my brother's empty one behind. I suggested he ask for a fresh cup, but he demurred. I secretly think he was relieved he didn't have to finish the first one.

So...Kitchen of India is a mixed bag. The goat, okra, and chicken entrées were all quite good, as was the accompanying basmati rice and the naan we ordered. The service was a little shaky though. Not only did the order get mixed up and the tea removed early, but also the check was placed on the table while my brother was still eating. But...what we ate was interesting enough that we'd go back for more.

Kitchen of India
1842 E Joppa Rd
Parkville, MD 21234
www.kitchenofindiaus.com
(410) 663-6880

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Chocolate Melt®

For the entire month of March, I gave up dairy, wheat, and sugar. It wasn't as difficult as I expected, but I did have to make some substitutions for things. Since I couldn't have butter, I relied more heavily on olive and coconut oil. Neither quite satisfied my "butter tooth," though.

A few months later, I was approached by a rep for Melt® Organic, asking if I would be interested in trying their products and/or visiting their booth at the Fancy Food Show. I can never guarantee if I'll make a visit to a booth at the show, because there is so much to see, but I was curious about Melt®. In a few days I received a package of buttery sticks, Melt® Organic Probiotic Spread, and their new Chocolate Melt®.

Chocolate butter! Well, not really butter. But chocolate!

Melt® contains what the company calls a "Perfect Blend" of beneficial oils - primarily virgin coconut oil blended with flaxseed, hi-oleic sunflower, palm fruit, and canola oils. It's got a mildly coconutty flavor that is great if you like coconut. The stuff that comes in tubs is spreadable right out of the fridge, like whipped butter, and is perfect for toast, bagels, and the like.

The Chocolate Melt® is Perfect Blend + organic cocoa and wildflower honey (but not really enough to make it obviously sweet). I thought it tasted pretty good on toast, especially with a sprinkling of unsweetened coconut flakes. No, it will not ever be a substitute for your favorite chocolate hazelnut spread because it doesn't have a ton of sugar (only 1 gram per serving), but it does feel a bit indulgent.

One of the true tests of any butter substitute is in how it bakes. I whipped up a batch of brownies using a recipe from the Fat Witch cookbook, with Chocolate Melt® in place of butter. I honestly couldn't tell the difference. The coconut flavor disappeared in all the chocolate goodness, and the brownies had the same fudgelike texture that just about all Fat Witch brownies have (as opposed to being gooey or cakey). You'd better believe that they got scarfed up pretty quickly in our house!

Double Chocolate Melt Brownies (adapted from Fat Witch)

1/2 cup Chocolate Melt®
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Large pinch salt
3 large eggs
¾ cup flour

Grease a 9-inch square pan and preheat oven to 350°F.

Place the Chocolate Melt® and all but 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover with plastic and place in microwave. Cook in 30-second bursts, stirring between each, until chocolate is melted, 1 - 1 1/2 minutes. Remove bowl and stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour until no traces of it remain, then stir in the reserved chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out with a few crumbs on it. Allow to cool before cutting into 12 pieces.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

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