Out to Lunch (34 page)

If you have any leftover cooked veggies in your fridge, you can add them when you add the pasta and potato.

Use what you have! No jarred pasta sauce? Grab a large can of crushed tomatoes. Have some fresh herbs on hand, or some slightly sad wilty veggies in the crisper? Use ’em up. Prefer a grain to pasta? Try barley or farro or brown rice. Want it soupier? Add more water or stock. Heartier and more stewlike, add less.

Elliot’s Valentine’s Toffee Bread Pudding

SERVES 12

If life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Preferably with vodka in it. If life gives you stale bread? Make bread pudding. Elliot knows that the way to Jenna’s heart is through gestures like bringing her enormous sandwiches and a pan of this homey and comforting dessert.

4 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

5 large eggs

4 large egg yolks

8 to 10 cups stale cubed bread, preferably French baguettes, about 1 ½ to 2 loaves

1 cup chopped chocolate-covered toffee (about 4 to 6 Heath Bars, chopped)

1 cup sugar

Pinch salt

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

8 palmier cookies (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375°F and butter a 9 x 13 deep baking dish or roasting pan. Toss your cubed bread in the melted butter in a large bowl to coat all of the pieces.

Mix the milk and cream in a medium saucepan with the scraped vanilla seeds and the pod, and put over medium-high heat. Cook just until a thin skin forms and you can see small bubbles around the outside edge. Do not let boil. When the milk reaches this point, remove it from the heat and remove the vanilla pod.

Whisk eggs, yolks, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 cup of the warm milk mixture, whisking quickly to temper, then add the rest of the milk and whisk until completely combined and the sugar melts.

Put half of the cubed buttered bread in the bottom of the pan. If using the palmier cookies, crumble them in an even layer over the bread. Sprinkle the toffee pieces evenly over the layer, then top with the rest of the cubed bread. Pour the custard over the bread, pressing down to help the bread absorb. Let the pan sit for at least 30 minutes to absorb the custard. Can be made to this point and then refrigerated overnight if you want to make it the day before an event.

Place the baking dish in a large, deep roasting pan, and fill halfway up the side of the baking dish with boiling water. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes in the water bath until a skewer in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or cold, with ice cream, whipped cream, or sweetened crème frâiche, or caramel sauce if you like.

Fire Station Ham

SERVES 16 TO 20

You don’t need a houseful of hungry firemen to enjoy this ham; it’s the perfect thing to make for Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Easter, or for a Super Bowl party!

1 whole bone-in ham, about 12 pounds (You can use spiral sliced if you want, but I find that they tend to be less moist than whole hams you slice yourself; see if your butcher can get you one if you don’t have good access at the grocery store.)

1 8-ounce jar mango chutney

2 ounces ginger jam or ginger syrup

2 tablespoons finely grated shallot

1 cup light brown sugar

Zest and juice of 1 orange

½ cup strong Dijon mustard, I prefer Maille brand

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

Salt and pepper

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 350°F. If you are using an unsliced ham, score the skin and fat of the ham in a diamond pattern. Place the ham in a roasting pan, and put 1 cup of water in the bottom.

Mix all glaze ingredients in a bowl. Spread the glaze all over the ham, being sure to get it into the scores. Cover the pan loosely with foil, trying not to touch the surface of the ham, but still sealing in the edges. Bake for 2 hours. Remove foil and bake an additional half an hour or so to caramelize the glaze. You can hold in a 200°F oven for up to two more hours before serving.

Corn Soufflé Pudding

SERVES 12

Nothing goes better with ham than corn pudding, and this version is surprisingly light.

2 cans creamed corn

2 cans whole kernel corn (do not strain or drain)

16 ounces sour cream

2 sticks butter, softened

2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix

3 eggs, separated

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Pinch salt

¼ teaspoon ground white pepper

Preheat oven to 350°F, and butter a 9 x 13 baking dish. Mix all of the ingredients except the egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl. In your standing mixer, beat the egg whites till they are foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat to stiff peaks. Fold a third of the egg whites into the corn mixture to lighten it, and then fold the rest in carefully, trying not to deflate the mixture too much.

Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 45 to 55 minutes until golden brown and a skewer in the middle comes out clean.

Coconut Macaroons

MAKES UP TO 24 COOKIES

These unusual cookies use larger dried flaked coconut instead of the usual shredded sweetened coconut, for a much more sophisticated and less cloyingly sweet dessert. Adapted from Alice Medrich.

4 large egg whites

3 ½ cups unsweetened dried flaked, not shredded, coconut (also known as coconut chips)

¾ cup sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Slightly rounded ¼ teaspoon salt

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Combine all of the ingredients in a large heatproof mixing bowl. Set the bowl directly in a wide skillet of barely simmering water (if your bowl bobs in the water, simply pour some out). Stir the mixture with a silicone spatula, scraping the bottom to prevent burning, until the mixture is very hot to the touch and the egg whites have thickened slightly and turned from translucent to opaque, 5 to 7 minutes. Set the batter aside for at least an hour to let the coconut absorb more of the goop. (You can also make it to this stage and store in the fridge for up to three days before baking.)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Using 2 tablespoons of batter, make heaps 2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheets. It is okay if some of the goop is left over in the bowl, but try not to have the goop puddle at the base of the cookies. Bake for about 5 minutes, just until the coconut tips begin to color, rotating the pans from top to bottom and from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking.

Lower the temperature to 325°F and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the cookies are a beautiful cream and gold with deeper brown edges, again rotating the pans from top to bottom and from front to back halfway through the baking time. If the coconut tips are browning too fast, lower the heat to 300°F. Set the pans or just the liners on racks to cool. Let cool completely before gently peeling the parchment away from each cookie. If they are sticking, place them in the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes and try again.

The cookies are best on the day they are baked—the exterior is crisp and chewy and the interior soft and moist. Although the crispy edges will soften, the cookies remain delicious stored in an airtight container for 4 to 5 days.

Lamb Shanks with Pomegranate and Walnuts

SERVES 6

Andrea knows that this homey dish is the right way to welcome a weary traveler home. An easy dish for a dinner party, you can make it the day before and reheat; the flavors only get better.

Adapted from Daniel Boulud’s Braise
cookbook

6 lamb shanks (buy foreshanks if you can get them, ask your butcher)

4 ½ tablespoons grapeseed oil

6 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

2 sprigs fresh sage

1 ½ teaspoons ground sumac

¾ teaspoon red pepper flakes

¾ teaspoon fennel seeds

3 medium red onions, sliced

2 medium fennel bulbs, sliced

1 ½ tablespoons tomato paste

4 cups pomegranate juice

2 15-ounce cans or 1 28-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

¾ cup golden raisins

¾ cup chopped walnuts

2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

Seeds of 1 to 2 pomegranates

2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Preheat oven to 275°F. Season shanks well with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat and sear shanks well on all sides till browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove to a platter, and reduce heat to medium. Add the garlic and seasonings to oil and cook, stirring for one minute, but be careful not to let burn. Add veggies and cook till softened, about 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and cook 3 minutes. Add juice, chickpeas, raisins, walnuts. and molasses. Return shanks to pot and bring to a simmer. Cover and braise in oven for 1 ½ hours, turning shanks twice while cooking. Remove lid, turn shanks again, and cook uncovered till lamb is caramelized on top and sauce is thick, about another hour. Reduce oven to 200°F and hold shanks, uncovered, until time to serve. Serve with fresh seeds, parsley, and mint sprinkled on top.