Apple Fruit Tart

3 Tbsp butter
4 small-medium apples
½ cup mixed frozen berries
2 Tbsp brown sugar

½ pie crust (store bought, or see Thanksgiving pie crust)

Preheat oven to 350F. Sauté the apples in the butter for about 5 minutes. Add the berries and sugar, and continue cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated – about another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, roll out dough and press into a low spring-form tart pan. Trim remaining dough and reserve for decorative pieces on top of tart. When fruit is cooked, pour into dough in tart pan. Cover with decorative dough pieces. Bake for about 20-30 minutes, until top dough pieces are nicely browned.

Mussels Many Ways

Mussels with Salmon in a Lemon Primavera Sauce
1 lemon, jest removed and reserved
4 Tbsp butter
1 carrot, cut into small fine julienne
1 onion, finely diced
1 celery, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 lbs mussels in shells
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup chicken stock
1 lb salmon fillet, skinned and diced into ½ inch cubes
palmful of fresh parsley, minced

Juice the lemon and reserve juice. Dice the lemon rind into ½ inch pieces and reserve. In a large, deep skillet, sauté the onion, celery and carrot in the butter until onions soften. Add garlic and cook another 2 minutes until fragrant. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add the mussels, wine and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 2-3 minutes until mussels begin to open. Scatter salmon on top of mussels, and top with parsley and lemon rind. Pour in the lemon juice, cover and cook another 2-3 minutes until salmon is cooked through. Serve in bowls, topped with the lemon jest along with bread or focaccia. Alternatively, you can serve on top of linguine or other pasta.

Mussels with Scallops and White Wine
Under construction

Focaccia

Focaccia is fast, and is a great complement to soups or dishes with a sauce. This recipe is essentially the same I use for pizza dough. You can put herbs and spices right in the dough to flavor pizza or focaccia doughs. Think olive, garlic, rosemary; think Mediterranean.

Wheat Bran, Garlic and Oregano Focaccia
4 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp breadmaker granulated active dry yeast
2 Tbsp. wheat bran
1 tsp dried oregano (or other spice)
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1½ cup very warm water
1 Tbsp olive oil

In a mixer fitted with a dough hook and set on medium, mix together the first seven ingredients. Add the water and then the olive oil. Allow the dough to form a ball that has taken up all the flour. At that point, knead on medium-slow speed for 5 minutes. Place 1-tablespoon olive oil in a large bowl. Form dough into a ball and turn into the bowl. Roll dough ball around to assure all surfaces are coated and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let sit about 1-2 hours in the kitchen. I don’t find that a ‘warm, dry’ spot is necessarily needed, depending on the season. I have never had a problem simply placing the bowl on the counter top and walking away – and we live in New England! But if it is exceptionally cold, just put your bowl in a warmed oven (turned off of course!). After dough has doubled to tripled in volume, turn it out to a greased jelly roll pan or a pizza pan. Spread dough out with your fingers to about ¼ to ½ inch thick. Let rise to about ¾ to an inch thick, another 30 minutes or so. Preheat oven to 425F.

Then punch small holes in the dough with all fingers (as if you were playing the piano) and brush olive oil liberally all over the surface (this gives the foccaccia a nice brown crust). Sprinkle coarse salt, fresh ground pepper and whatever dried herbs you want (rosemary for example) over the surface. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

So Much Stirring, So Much Chopping, So much Flavor!

Cooking Indian with Padmaja from Mumbai - UNDER CONSTRUCTION