I love fall! Vivid leaves falling, hiking, visiting orchards, hayrides, bonfires and Hallowe'en. Autumn celebrates the harvest and changes. I especially love autumnal food and celebrating the bounty. Enjoy these recipes! Also, click on the "Food for thought" title or here for a yummy seasonal salmon recipe.
Menu
Farfalle with Roasted Butternut Cream Sauce
Roasted Beet Salad, Sauteed Beet Tops and Bleu cheese with Orange Dressing
Brown Butter Chicken with Parsley and Garlic
Jewish Apple Cake
Wine: 2005 Riesling (next time, Pinot Grigio or Sancerre to cut the richness)
Farfalle with Roasted Butternut Cream Sauce
Serves 6
1 1/2 pounds farfalle, or bow-tie pasta. Cook according to package directions.
2 small or one large winter squash (used butternut), seeded and halved
1/2 stick butter
10 leaves fresh sage, chopped
5 stems parsley, minced
Dash nutmeg, optional
1/2 small onion or 1 shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tbsp flour
1 bouillon cube or 1/2 tsp. salt
1 pint half-and-half
1/3 cup pecans
1/4 C grated parmesan
Roast seeded and halved squash, face down on cookie sheet or glass pans, in 400 oven for 40 minutes, until tender and "scoopable" from their skins. Allow to cool, then scoop into bowl. Mash if necessary until smooth. You will need at least 1 1/2 cups. Set aside.
In a skillet over med-high heat, melt butter. When bubbly, add fresh sage and parsley. When the leaves have darkened, add onion and optional nutmeg. Cook and stir until onion starts becoming translucent and glossy. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add flour, and stir often until flour turns a very light brown. Reduce heat to medium. Add salt or bouillon.
Over medium heat, add milk slowly, stirring often, until you have used about half. Add squash and stir and smush to even out texture. Add the rest of cream while stirring. Add pecans. Turn off heat. Then add cheese, stirring until combined. The sauce will be quite thick and will sit on top of pasta. I prefer to toss the sauce and pasta together, with a little extra sauce on top.
Roasted Beet Salad, Sauteed Beet Tops and Bleu cheese with Orange Dressing
Serves 8-10
Roast 5 or 6 peeled beets wrapped in foil, with squash or by themselves--400 for 40 minutes in the oven should be enough.
Slice in disks or in small wedges.
Reserve beet tops. Rinse well 2 times under running water. Discard red stems; save the leaves. Sautee with a dash butter or olive oil and a dash of salt and pepper until wilted. Remove from pan and put in serving bowl. If you don't have the beet tops, use kale, spinach or mustard greens.
Throw in a few apple pieces and pecans from the other recipes into the bowl. Thinly slice some leftover onion from the squash into the bowl-about 20 small pieces.
Dressing- Mix 1/2 C orange juice, 1/4 c olive oil, dash vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, parsley and remaining onion in food processor. Mix until smooth. Pour over salad. Top or toss in crumbled bleu cheese, maybe 3 oz total.
Poulet a la grenouille-Chicken, frog-leg style
Don't get freaked out--it's just chicken sauteed in butter with parsley and garlic. I saw this on Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way a few years back. I think I made it that same day!
Really simple!
Chop skinless chicken breasts into cubes. Or, leave them whole or in large strips for a more formal presentation.
Coat them with flour and pepper, but do not add salt yet.
Sauté in melted butter. Or, you can mix butter and olive oil about 50/50. After they’ve lightly browned, add salt, garlic and chopped parsley to taste. Cook about 2 minutes longer.
If you are using rather large pieces, finish them off in the oven, so as not to have a burnt crust and an undercooked inside.
Jewish apple cake
named for its place on the table during Rosh Hashanah.I just made this on Sat. and have included my modifications. This is not a very sweet cake, as written. It tastes like the Apple Cake at Whole Foods, albeit with a better butter flavor! Feel free to use sweeter apples and/or increase the sugar by 1/4 to 1/3 cup for a more pronounced sugary taste, and to mirror the original recipe.
5 apples, peeled and diced (used Granny Smith)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon, plus another 1/4 tsp. reserved
1/3 c sugar
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3 C unbleached flour
2 C sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 sticks butter, melted and cooled--the original recipe calls for 1 C. vegetable oil
1/2 C chunky applesauce (I added this)
4 eggs
1/4 C orange juice concentrate--(original recipe calls for 7 Tbsp OJ)
2 tsp. vanilla
Directions:
Prepare apples. Add cinnamon and sugar. Toss & set aside.
Set oven to 350. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans or one bundt pan-- will take a longer baking time.
Add dry ingredients. Remember to add the extra 1/4 tsp. cinnamon. Mix to combine.
In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients.
Fold the wet ingredients into the dry. When well combined, gently fold in the apples.
Pour into pans or pan. Using shallow pans will take about 50 minutes while the bundt pan will take 1 hr. 45 minutes. I used 2 cake pans. You may have to switch cake between racks for even baking if cake is not in center of oven. Cake will be done when top is a deep golden brown and the buttery smell drives you near the point of insanity.
Allow to cool--warm to the touch is fine--before cutting.
It's great by itself. It also goes well with fruit compote, ice cream and creme fraiche.
Try it with Riesling, dessert wine or sparkling apple cider...or even some apple brandy.
THANKSGIVING PREVIEW~
Here's a recipe for the best turkey I ever made: Turkey with Sage Butter. It was just a few of us at a get-together, so I just used a 2- or 3-pound breast. I cut and rolled them into individual cutlets, like Chicken Kiev, but I didn't bread it. Turkey and butter may sound like they'd make strange bedfellows, yet it turned out very well and was not too hard. Brine the turkey. This means soaking it in a salt-seasoning-water solution for a few hours or, even better, overnight. Then let the meat dry a little on the surface. Prepare as usual. The original recipe calls for bacon. I didn't use any bacon, and it was still great.
