6 posts tagged “cheese”

I Love Fig Season.

Jul 2, 2008
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Okay, I take back most of the nasty things I've said about summer, because figs have arrived at my local farmer's market this past weekend. I did a happy little boogie and dragged my poor mother over to the booth so I could examine them closely, and I ended up leaving with a basket of black and green figs in hand and considerably happier than I'd been walking in.

(And that's already pretty happy, since I love our local Saturday morning farmer's market.)

Of course, the poor figs have been languishing in my mini-fridge since then while I indecisively thumbed through my file of fig recipes. Due to problems with the big fridge, the college mini-fridge has once again become my main refrigerator-- Which means I don't have crème fraîche, and I lost the Salem blue cheese that I ordinarily love to broil figs with in the toaster oven, and so on, and so on...

And then, thanks to my recent obsession with Serious Eats, I found just what I was looking for on the site's new ~~source for food porn~~ feature, Photograzing.

Oh, yes. That's JUST what I needed for inspiration.

.. These herbed frommage blanc fritters are definitely next on the list to make, once I have a fridge with enough room for all my beloved types of cheese.

Fig & Prosciutto Pizza

1 12-14" pizza stone or tin
cornmeal for scattering

1 TJ's garlic and herb fresh pizza dough

White sauce:

1/4 cup olive oil, divided
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2-3 tbsp fresh shredded Parmesan
1 tsp balsamic vinegar, preferably white

Toppings:

1 pint black figs, de-stemmed and sliced thin
2-3 oz. prosciutto
4 handfuls quattro formaggio cheese mix
1 handful fresh shredded Parmesan

Preheat oven to 500 deg F with your pizza stone / metal pizza tin inside. Let the dough rest and rise for about 20 minutes while the oven's getting warm.

While things are heating, make the sauce: Put the four cloves garlic and one tbsp of the oil into a small blender, mortar and pestle, or other hand-chopper and go to town 'til it forms a small, thick amount of paste. Drizzle in more oil and add in your desired amount of Parmesan: Repeat. Drizzle in the last tablespoon and the balsamic vinegar and stir until combined -- This will make enough to thinly paint your pizza dough. Scale up as you feel necessary, but the cheese will more than make up for any perceived dryness.

Carefully remove the pan / stone from the hot oven with heat-protectors of choice: Scatter lightly with cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking too much. Stretch the dough out roughly 12" with your fingertips and do your best to center it on the hot round: It WILL stick the moment you put it down, with the dough starting to cook. This is good, it'll prevent the dough from slipping away while you put the toppings on. Roll or pat the dough out further, taking care not to burn yourself.

Paint with the white sauce, and sprinkle with about a handful of the quattro formaggio. Lie down strips of prosciutto, cut to your desired size. (I went for long, thin strips, draped around in a spiral.) Sprinkle with another handful and a half of cheese. Top evenly with the thin-sliced figs, and sprinkle evenly with the desired amount of the remaining quattro formaggio and Parmesan.

Pop it in the oven and reduce to 450 F. Check it after ten minutes, and every 2-3 minutes thereafter: My thin-crust pie was perfect after 15 minutes. Enjoy!

I loved how the sweet of the figs paired with the salty of the prosciutto, and the savory of the cheese and garlic 'sauce.' I have to remember to make this one again the next time I get my hands on a pint of figs -- though how can you go wrong with figs + thin slices of cured ham + cheese?

And in case you don't want or happen to have access to pre-made quattro formaggio, here's the proportions:

1 cup (4 oz) shaved provolone cheese
1 cup (4 oz) mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup (2 oz) shaved Asiago cheese
1/4 cup (1 oz) freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

Fresh Tomato Tart with Cornmeal-Thyme Crust

Sep 18, 2007
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One really, really good thing about taking part in a weekly food challenge?
...Well, aside from guaranteeing that I'm going to eat at least one home-cooked meal a week, or getting motivated to cook more frequently...

I love that I'm near always looking for new things to do, and taking inspiration from existing recipes. After all, I took one look at the Epicurious recipe for a fresh fig tart with rosemary cornmeal crust, and then wondered how it would taste with something less sweet.

The answer? Pretty darned good.
Now, if only I could improve my "photography skills."

Fresh Tomato Tart with Cornmeal-Thyme Crust
Yield: About 3-4 servings

Crust:

Filling:

crème fraîche

Glaze: (opt)

Pulse together flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Add butter and thyme and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with some small (roughly pea-size) butter lumps. Drizzle evenly with 2 tablespoons ice water and pulse until just incorporated.
Gently squeeze a small handful: If it doesn't hold together, add more water, ½ tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition and continuing to test.

Press dough evenly onto bottom and up sides of tart pan(s) with floured fingers. Smooth dough with a small spatula or the back of a spoon (floured if necessary), and roll a rolling pin over top of pan to trim dough flush with the edge (if necessary). Prick the crust bottom with a fork. Chill until it's firm, about 30 minutes or so.

While waiting on the crust to chill, prep your tomatoes: To avoid a soggy mess later on, you'll want to rid the tomatoes of some of their water. Clear a space on your counter and put down a double layer of absorbent paper towels. Slice the tomatoes into eighths or so, making very fine, thin wedges: Place the tomatoes in a single layer on the paper towels and sprinkle them with about 1 tsp (+/- accordingly) fine-grain sea salt. Cover the tomatoes with another layer of paper towels, press gently. Let them sit until you're ready to use them.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake crust in middle of oven until center and edges are golden, 20 to 30 minutes.

Whisk together sour cream, mascarpone, sugar, and salt in a bowl until well combined and slightly stiff. (I found that while the mascarpone and the creme fraiche were fairly stand-up on their own, they liquefied slightly when combined -- probably the addition of the salt and sugar.) Refrigerate until ready to use.

Let the crust cool to room temperature before filling: Heat balsamic, honey and thyme (if desired) in a small saucepan over moderately low heat, whisking about 4 minutes, then cool glaze slightly. Take care not to breathe in over the pan, as the scent can be a little overwhelming for the sinuses, but the results are stunning.

Remove tart shell(s) from the pan(s) and spread mascarpone cream in shell. Pat dry the tomato slices and arrange decoratively over cream. Drizzle with honey-balsamic glaze and serve.

The tart is really ridiculously good on its own -- I honestly think mascarpone and creme fraiche are now my favorite mixture of flavors ever, and even better than sweet cream ice cream -- but a drizzled teaspoon or so of the balsamic glaze makes it to die for. Wow.

Home Grown

May 12, 2007
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I have things cooking in my head again: I'm in a making mood, probably partly at fault from my recent (compulsive knitting / dye experiments / interest in spinning / gardening).

Every once in a while, I forget that I honestly love to cook.
Starting a vegetable garden has reminded me, though. I don't have anything save ten (count 'em, ten!!) tomato blossoms at the moment (one of which has clearly pollinated and is in process of changing from flower to fruit), but I'm already gleefully bouncing on my toes and waiting for the moments the first round, green fruits begin to show: My Cherokee Purple heirloom plant is new and still getting used to its pot, so its main purpose at the moment is to just get up and grow.

I honestly cannot wait for that heirloom to blossom and produce tomatoes. Cannot wait. I want to try them and come up with even more weird-color food, since if I'm honest, I enjoy cooking more when the colors don't match the expected. I am utterly in love with blue potatoes, and since I've found that my local Whole Foods does indeed carry them at cheaper per pound than the variety mix at Trader Joe's, I'm revving up to hit the produce bins for scalloped purple-blue potatoes. (And yes, it's going to look weird, royal blue potatoes peeking up from inside orange cheddary sauce, but I love doing that sort of thing. Weird colored food rules!) So. Rose-purple tomatoes to go with my purple-tinged blue potatoes? I cackle with glee.
And contemplate all sorts of summery tomato-based meals. I stopped at 101Cookbooks.com to check out the 1000 Layer Lasagne that went up Thursday morning, and while looking at her homemade ricotta recipe, I hovered the mouse over the image at top and found the next recipe was an heirloom tomato tart. And then I went hunting for anything involving specifically heirloom tomatoes, and found her cheesy heirloom paninis.

Wow. If I wasn't hungry before...
I anticipate a lot of homemade foccacia, caprese, and tomato-based recipes this summer. I think I may even delve into things like making tomato sauce and stewing tomatoes from scratch if the plants produce enough... After all, we know the hazards of gardens: You end up with more than you know what to do with, and your friends and family will only take so many. ;)
Seriously. Found the best foccacia I've had in ages at the Whole Foods of Doom, and it was not only crisp and garlic-parmesan-y, but had quarter inch tomato rounds pressed into its top and sprinkled with basil and oregano...
Which means I can do that, easy.
Also, the idea of making my bagels, slicing them in half, and making it into a cheese and tomato sandwich and then sticking it in the toaster oven for a little bit.... Sounds like heaven to me!

So, yes. I've been poking thoughtfully around the comments in the 101Cookbooks.com recipes and it's led to some interesting sites: The one holding my interest at the moment is a page on making cheese -- and while I'm honestly contemplating dragging my little college fridge out of storage to set up as a cheese making fridge for the blue cheese recipe, the one that really has me grinning like a fool is the recipe for fresh mozzarella from a gallon of milk.

Home grown tomatoes. Fresh mozzarella. My friends are right, I do need to start growing my own basil: I'll have myself a caprese garden at this rate. And there's just something satisfying about knowing where the things came from, as opposed to buying things from the store.
I'm still gleefully hunting up tomato recipes online: I really ought to hunt through my vegetarian and four-ingredient cookbooks for more ideas -- after all, the four-ingredient cookbook is where I picked up a favorite puff pastry tomato 'pizza' recipe, and that's pretty delish.
At that, I have a cookbook called Tomato. I think that just might be a good resource for tomato recipes. Who knew?

Also: It's Saturday, which means to bagel, or not to bagel, that is the question...
So I went to make some bagels. I made my last batch of bagels with King Arthur's white whole wheat flour, and it wasn't bad, but they were a little more dense in flavor than I'd have liked. No problem, but I decided to go half and half with the all purpose and wheat if you're going that route again, see if that resolved the issue.
I think I used too much water or something this time around -- the problem with attempting to do recipes from memory, honestly -- because the dough was sticky like mad. I ended up pulling it out of the bread machine and adding more flour by hand: It still doesn't feel right for bagels, though, and the proportions were probably close enough to pull off a foccacia instead... So I went crazy, kneaded in about half a tablespoon of dried 'italian herbs' (as the bottle proclaimed -- probably a mix of basil, oregano, parsley, possibly more). It's currently rising on a silpat, and I'll be sure to pat it out into my baking pan and start doing the olive oil / garlic topping.
Fresh bread. Nothing really like it, even if it wasn't the first thing I'd intended.

What to serve at a party.

Oct 15, 2006
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Threw a house party, and it went swimmingly.
I am exceedingly pleased. :D

I now also know that I can semi-reasonably fit twelve to sixteen people in the house, and so long as the windows and doors are open, there's no lack of people talking to each other or contributing from the yard. :)
Yes. The trite phrase 'pleased as punch' comes to mind.

Apparently, I fed people too much -- and I didn't even get through everything! Sheesh. ;)

Things that were sadly omitted:

Things I personally made:

... And technically, I was also bartender, since D. brought me margarita mix and a big thing o' tequila, so I suppose I also made margaritas on the rocks. ;)
And the Starbucks-liqueur spiked coffee, but who's counting?

Things I bought that were a hit:

Also, K. brought mozzarella wrapped in prosciutto, green olives stuffed with garlic, and sliced cucumbers. I could not leave that tray alone. And the other K. at the party brought macaroni salad: A. and his partner's carrot- and death-by -chocolate bundt cakes were also very popular. (Cake? Popular? At a party? Who'da thunk? ;))
Let's see. Who else brought food or booze... S. gave me these fabulous candles and a selection of tequila that we have yet to crack: I am all set for the next time I have a margarita craving, clearly. ;)

Oh! Drinks: Note to self for when hosting this batch of friends, buy more of the diet coke than the regular one, as they burn through the diet. On the plus side, this means I don't have to worry about keeping it in my house. ;)

Everyone was simply faboo! L. and her hubby brought this really COOL looking game -- It has pieces of eight and everything -- and my friend D. brought me Tokaij and some actual household stuff. One of the fiance's co-workers gave us a really big rooster-shaped cookie jar, so we were inviting people to look at the giant cock in our kitchen all night. (It never got old. I'm so juvenile.)
Penny brought me herbs so I can honestly start on my garden. :D!
And I know there was more, but my brain is refusing to call up the answers right now: Let it be said that the night had me wonderfully turned around and busy, and there's so much good stuff to remember that it's not surprising I'm being absent-minded.

This was my first time hosting a party in my home.
I am so very tickled at how well it went: Stress clearly wasn't necessary, but I wonder if I would have gotten as much done if I hadn't. ;)

Bansidhe's Salem Blue Pop-overs
Yield: 24 pop-overs

Originally Roquefort pop-overs from Williams-Sonoma's Hors d'Ouvre collection, it was changed enough ingredient-wise that I think I can claim it. (Not having the ingredients you thought you had make for wonderful experimentation.)

After moving a baking rack to the center-low position, preheat the oven to 450 F and then start mixing all the dry ingredients (flour, chives, salt and pepper) together in a large bowl. In a Pyrex measuring cup or other lipped cooking bowl, whisk the milk, eggs, and olive oil together until well blended. Slowly stir the wet ingredients into the dry ones, and whisk until combined. (Don't worry if there are still lumps -- It happens, and it won't hurt.)

Grease your mini muffin tin (preferably two, but it can work in batches if you need to) generously with the olive oil: If you can leave somewhere around a half a centimeter / sixteenth of an inch of oil in the bottom of the tin, the popovers will come out without any issue. Drop a tablespoon, tablespoon and a half of the batter in each of the tins: Be sure to leave close to a ¼ inch between the top level of the batter and the top of the tin, since these will rise.

Add a few pieces of the crumbled blue cheese into the center of each cup, and put the tin(s) in the 450 F oven. Bake for 10 minutes. Now comes the hard part: DO NOT LOOK. At all. Opening the oven door will cause these light little buggers to fall.
When the timer for ten minutes is up, without opening the door, reduce the oven heat to 350 and put the timer for 8 minutes. (It can take up to 10, but I found they were a wee bit too golden when I went for that long.)

When the second timer goes off, remove the pop-overs immediately and turn the tin out over a napkin-lined bowl. Best when served warm.
Also note, you CAN reheat the things by putting them in a 350 F oven for five to ten minutes: You do not want to put these in the fridge, because I'm told they become irreversibly soggy.

Almond-Milk Crepes
Yield: 20 Crepes

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Create a well in the center and add the eggs, stirring into the surrounding flour. Add the almond milk a little at a time: Try to keep from making lumps, though I've found some are unavoidable. Add half the peanut oil, and then add the water a half-cup at a time to thin the batter out: Remember, these are crepes, not pancakes. (Although, let it be said that with a quarter to half teaspoon of salt and the recipe exactly as stated here will turn out some fabulous almond-milk pancakes. Funny what you learn with the 'oops' crepe, isn't it?)

Take part of the remaining peanut oil and heat it in an 8 to 10-inch nonstick frying pan over high heat: Tilt the pan around, and when the oil races easily, it's ready. Your first crepe will likely be an oops crepe if you add too much oil: Don't sweat it, it's still tasty. I have a small quarter-cup ladle that worked perfectly for this -- You want to pour about a quarter cup of the batter in the center of the pan, and quickly tilt it around so the batter covers the bottom. Let it sit until you see the batter bubbling slightly on the up side: Flip it with a wide spatula and let it brown some more.

Depending on how high your stove's high heat really is, you'll probably need to fluctuate it a little bit while you're cooking: If you can't get the batter to circle around the entire bottom of the pan before it cooks, it's too hot. Likewise, if you're sitting there and tilting the batter over the same places several times, it's a little too cool. At any rate, test the edges of the crepe with your spatula: You should be able to slip it under and flip it. Let it cook the other side about 5-15 seconds, and then slide it off onto a napkin-lined plate.

Repeat until you're out of batter, adding oil as necessary. (I find the almond milk crepes are a little easier to handle than traditional crepes: They aren't quite as delicate, which should you ever have the pleasure of listening to me making traditional crepes in the kitchen, my exclamations of "Oh, fuck!" when I tear through one I'm trying to flip are reduced to one out of ten instead of one out of four.)

Serve warm with your filling of choice!

Bansidhe's Family Recipe: Lil' Smokies
You'll need:

When making party food, start with this one: It'll take several unattended hours to cook. Toss the little sausages in your crockpot: Cover with the maple syrup. Drizzle the molasses over the top of all that and stir until combined. Set your crockpot on low and leave it there for as long as you can: When the sausages are plump and vaguely mahogany-tinted, they're ready. Serve with toothpicks or long skewers.

Bansidhe's infamous garlic

For each 3 heads of garlic prepared, you'll need:

I cheat: I have this fabulously large Visions stockpot that I use, and I entirely eyeball the recipe. If you also have a large glass pot, you'll probably want to use it too: I usually fill the pot about a quarter full (sometimes less, sometimes more) of the olive oil, and then use that as a measure for filling it half again with the balsamic. If you're using the 'whatever' recipe like this, toss in about a quarter to half a cupped palmful of salt, and then add the CostCo-size two to three pound container of pre-peeled Gilroy garlic. Stir the whole mess together and make sure that the cloves are entirely covered in oil: If not, go ahead and add a little more oil. Stir until you see little droops of balsamic floating around the garlic, and then put over low heat.
Stir intermittently and plan to leave it there at least two to three hours: You'll know it's done when the balsamic is almost entirely a foam on the top of the oil (and therefore, almost completely evaporated) and the garlic crushes easily when pressed against the side of the pan. Use a slotted spoon to fish out the garlic and serve with baguettes: Everyone will love you for it, as the garlic spreads like warm butter.

I strongly suggest reserving the oil, as it's now garlic infused and fabulous for use in just about any savory dish: Imagine the blue cheese popovers with this, hmm?

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Pear

I found this recipe on Simply Recipes, and honestly? Enough good cannot be said about this recipe. It's extremely simple and tasty, and I'm so VERY glad to have found that cooking site. Trust me, give it a look: You won't be sorry.

You can find the original recipe linked above: Here's what I did with it.

I pulled out the cast iron skillet for this, and started by cooking the bacon on the 'grill' lined side, turning frequently -- Word to the wise, bacon will stick to the raised parts if you leave it sitting too long. Once I had the bacon cooked but not charcoal, I transferred them to a paper towel-lined plate. Let them cool, and turn the heat under the skillet to almost nonexistent: I wanted it to still be warm when I was ready, but didn't want to worry about a grease fire.

While waiting on the bacon, I peeled and sliced up the pear. Keep the slices thin, as they'll work better than chunks: You want to assemble the sandwich by taking a slender slice of the cheese (which I did by cutting the Dubliner along the short end, giving me a ½-inch by two-ish inch rectangle), a third of a slice of bacon, and then the slice of pear. Raise the heat back to medium, medium-high and put the sandwich cheese-side down on the still-warm and bacon-greased skillet. Turn when you see the cheese getting melty off the side so everything sticks together.

If you're doing this on a long skillet, you can certainly do this with more than one of these at a time. Please do, it'll save your sanity. When both sides are toasty (and have grill lines, yay!), transfer to a plate and serve.

Makes 16-20 of the sandwiches, or as much as your sanity can take. ;)

Figs for Thought

Sep 13, 2006
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I'm feeling particularly foodie today: Sadly, game night, so there will be no cooking for me. I'll live, I think, but it doesn't stop me from thinking about what I'd like to do.
I really, really want to go get about a pound of fresh figs. I've been looking at recipes a lot lately, and the figs are just firing my imagination.
I also desperately want a nice, sharp white English cheddar -- I've been craving it for days, and the remainder of what we had apparently went bad on me when I wasn't looking. Quelle dommage du frommage.
...I am also apparently feeling exceedingly silly today.

But. What I want to get is a nice sharp white cheddar and some other English cheese (and maybe some halloumi!), figs, goat cheese brie, a baguette or three, fresh albacore, Armagnac, a variety of olives, large quantities of unsalted butter and some bartlett pears. On the other hand, what I need to get would be eggs, cheese, milk, butter and bread. (Sadly, I only see three items on those lists coinciding.)
As for why I want these things...

Figs: Champagne Summer Shortcakes, proscuitto-wrapped broiled figs, and the LA Times' recent fig salad with prosciutto and basil.
Armagnac and albacore: LA Times' Albacore gravlax 'terrine' with tapenade.
Cheese: Whipped Brie de Meaux with Tellicherry pepper and fig compote. Grilled Halloumi with Sauteed Green Beans. Grilled Cheese with Bacon and Pear. Rustic Onion Tarts. Panini Batons.
Butter: Compound Butters.

(Any recipe I haven't linked will be posted later... Likely this weekend.)

I want to cook. I want to make cookies. I want to take a shot at those chocolate truffles I've been eyeing forever.
Pity it's only Wednesday. I could really use a Saturday for culinary exploration.

Four Ingredients and Other Goodies

Mar 24, 2006
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Ah ha ha!
I have found my Four Ingredient cookbook. (For the curious: Cook's Encyclopedia of Four Ingredient Cooking, Joanna Farrow.)
This means I am now able to record the more interesting ones for posterity.

I am proudly a minimalist cook.

This isn't to say that I won't try and make souffles or other complicated, multi-ingredient dishes... Just that I prefer things that call for five or less ingredients, all of which can be easily found in my kitchen. I always seem to have on hand staples like olive oil, butter, corn or potato or tapioca starch, four kinds of sugar, sea salt and three kinds of pepper: I also try to keep cheeses and eggs stocked, and since I'm often picky about what vegetables I have and use, I've started keeping canned veggies and dried beans and grains on hand. Rice? Long grain, short grain, wild, brown, or risotto? Barley? Yep, let me soak it an hour and it'll be ready to go. I have dried shiitakes, morrels, fox ears. I have dried red beans, kidney beans, and I believe I even have black eyed peas. I'm such a hoarder of canned and dried ingredients that as long as I have a place to cook it, I will never go hungry.
I refuse to let my kitchen go without balsamic vinegar, or cider vinegar, or white. (The latter is an excellent cleaning agent on top of everything else.)

There is a point to this.
Give me a half an hour, and at this moment, I could make you balsamic chicken with pearl onions; I even have frozen veggies to accompany that with, so you could get sweet carrots in the deal as well. Give me an hour, and you can have a sweet potato pie in a fillo crust.
I could do that with what I have in my kitchen, right this moment. I could even tell you which four ingredients I would use to do it -- The chicken's easy. Oil for the pan, salt and pepper the chicken. Set them in the pan once the oil's hot and cook over low so it doesn't burn. Out come the small jar of marinated onions, pour off the vinegar brine and add to the skillet. Let them brown with the chicken, and probably pepper them some more for good measure. Add a quarter cup of balsamic when the chicken's turned and the onions are starting to brown, still over low. It ought to reduce into a lovely sauce: Come to think of it, butter would probably caramelize better, so possibly use that instead of the olive oil, but either will turn out lovely.
Heck, one of my favorite recipes only calls for four ingredients: A pound each of red and green seedless grapes, half a stick of butter, and six boneless chicken breasts or thighs. Wash the grapes, take half of each, stick them in a food processor or blender and puree. Take the other half and lay out on a baking sheet, putting them in a preheated 275 F oven and leave it there for three hours or so, shaking the tray intermittently. You're basically making raisins in the oven, but you don't want them that shriveled -- just bake until they're wrinkly and starting to caramelize. Press your grape puree through a cheesecloth-lined sieve so you have more juice than pulp, set aside, and start cooking your chicken in the butter over low heat. You want the chicken lightly browned on both sides and about 80% cooked before you add the juice -- salt and pepper if you like at this point, but it's not necessary. Add the juice, and let it reduce. Everything in the pan will take on a lovely mahogany color -- cook until the chicken is tender and fully cooked and serve. I think it works really well over rice, myself.
But, you see this. It's not an ingredient list as long as my arm. It doesn't need to be in order to be a good meal.

And that's why I prefer minimalist cooking. Keep it simple, you know?
Anyway! Original point of the post.

Meringue Pyramid with Chocolate Mascarpone
Serves about 10
"This impressive cake makes a perfect centerpiece for a celebration buffet. Dust the pyramid with a little sifted confectioner's sugar and sprinkle with just a few rose petals for simple but stunning presentation."

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Line three cookie sheets with baking parchment or waxed paper. Grate about 3 oz of the semisweet chocolate.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl until they form stiff peaks.¹ Gradually whisk in half the sugar, then add the rest, and whisk until the meringue is very stiff and glossy. Add the grated chocolate and whisk lightly to mix.
Draw an eight-inch circle on the lining paper on one of the cookie sheets, turn it upside-down, and spread the circle with about half the meringue. Spoon the remaining meringue in 29-30 teaspoonfuls on both cookie sheets. Bake the meringues for 1 to 1½ hours, or until crisp and completely dried out.
Make the filling. Melt the remaining chocolate in a heatproof bowl over hot water.² Cool slightly, then stir in the mascarpone. Cool the mixture until firm.
Spoon the chocolate mixture into a large pastry bag and use to sandwich the meringues together in pairs, reserving a small amount for the pyramid. Arrange the filled meringues on a serving platter, piling them up in a pyramid and keeping them in position with a few well-placed dabs of the reserved filling.

The meringues can be made up to a week in advance and stored in a cool, dry place inside an airtight container.

¹ Cook's note from Bansh! If you have finish-free copper bowls on hand, use them for this. Meringues and whipping egg whites are the whole reason to have those bowls, and the copper helps them retain shape. Chemical reaction, I believe.

² If you have a double boiler, use that. If not, the heatproof glass bowl in hot water will work just fine.

.. All right, I was pretty down on souffles earlier.
Here's something to prove I love them, too. (And the only thing I don't have in the house to make these? The dark rum.)

Hot Chocolate Rum Souffles
Yields 6 servings
"Light as air, melt-in-the-mouth souffles are always impressive, yet are often based on the simplest pantry ingredients. Serve them as soon as they are cooked for a fantastic finale to a special dinner party. For an extra indulgent touch, serve the souffles with whipped cream flavored with dark rum and finely grated orange rind."

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Place a cookie sheet in the oven to heat up.
Mix 1 tbsp of the cocoa powder with 1 tbsp sugar in a bowl. Grease six 1-cup ramekins. Pour the cocoa and sugar mixture into each of the dishes in turn, rotating them so that they are evenly coated.
Mix the remaining cocoa powder with the dark rum in another bowl.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl until they form stiff peaks. Whisk in the remaining sugar. Stir a generous spoonful of the whites into the cocoa and rum mixture to lighten it, then fold in the remaining whites.
Divide the mixture between the six ramekins. Place on the hot cookie sheet and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until well risen. Dust with the extra sugar and serve.

I Love Fig Season.

Fresh Tomato Tart with Cornmeal-Thyme Crust

Home Grown

What to serve at a party.

Figs for Thought

Four Ingredients and Other Goodies

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