peanut butter is my first and abiding nut butter love. but lately it’s
had to make room for some newcomers like a coarse textured almond butter made
with un-skinned almonds. i spread it on toasted brown bread with a little honey
for sweetness. i am pretty certain that tweaking my peanut butter cookie recipe
by substituting it with almond butter would make very delicious cookies. last
week i made a jar of pumpkin pecan butter. i toasted pecans, which were pulsed
in the food processor and folded into roasted baby pumpkin puree. my sweetener
of choice was a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup and the juice and zest of an
exceptionally sweet navel orange. this butter is all about textures and
flavours – grainy and rich from the pecans, brightened with orange and finished
with the smoothness of pumpkin. it never made it onto toasted bread as i ate
most of it with a spoon.
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Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Thursday, 8 March 2012
reflections on the first meal of the day plus a trip to st.ali coffeebar and cafe
banana bread with cult of done espresso mascarpone |
Wednesday, 7 March 2012
martha stewart's [truffled] crack and cheese
reheated leftovers - martha's crack and cheese |
béchamel; that perfect
marriage of scalded milk thickened with a roux. the addition of a scant pinch
of nutmeg, cayenne pepper, sea salt and a generous grind of coarse black pepper
give it some warmth. a trio of cheeses – gruyère, mature cheddar and pecorino
romano transform it into a cheese sauce. it helps to coarsely grate the
cheeses beforehand so that they dissolve easily in the béchamel. my
sister-in-law’s stirred it in batches. truffles have a natural alchemy with
cheese and cream and so i finished the cheese béchamel with a couple of drops
of black truffle oil. that combined with the aroma of flour toasted in butter
and pungent cheeses was an olfactory explosion.