Recipe Notes: Applesauce

14 January 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated, September 2018

Looking back through my blog posts, I find many where I describe making applesauce. With just a few exceptions this was done without using a recipe and it usually comes out fine. A recent edition of Cook's Illustrated included an intriguing new recipe. Not only does it incorporate the peels and cores, but more importantly it works with almost any variety of apples and it does not call for any tools (e.g. food mill) that I do not have. It also allows you to create a chunkier applesauce, which I prefer, that a food mill would produce.

I used 3 pounds of Gala apples. These were peeled and cored. The peels and cores were placed in a small sauce pan with water and simmered, with occasional mashing, until the cores broke down, about 15 minutes. The peeled apples were quartered and cooked in a sauce pan with water,  salt, sugar, and cinnamon until half of the pieces were broken down. The cooked apples were mashed. The cooked peels and cores were placed in a fine mesh strainer and the pulp was pushed into the mashed apples. From start to finish took 50 minutes. I expect the cooking time will vary significantly based on the variety of apples that are used.

This process resulted in a very nice apple sauce. The peels and cores added flavor and color. The sauce was well balanced, not too sweet and not too tart. When using tarter apples you could add some additional sugar. The applesauce kept well in the refrigerator and I had it with lunches and dinner for over a week. It is a little more work than usual but using the recipe led to a good applesauce, worth the small amount of extra effort.

Recipe Notes: Fresh Lime Pie

15 January 2019

Recipe from The Cook's Illustrated Baking Book, 2013,  p. 403, also available online.

The recipe in the cookbook is for "Key Lime Pie", but since it doesn't use Key Limes, I changed the name. In developing the recipe, America's Test Kitchen tried Key Limes and regular limes and found there was no significant difference in taste. Since Key Limes are hard to find, expensive, and hard to work with, they created this recipe using regular (or Persian) limes. 

The filling was made first and it requires no cooking. Egg yolks and lime zest were whisked together. A can of sweetened condensed milk was whisked into the mixture followed by lime juice. The acid in the juice is all that is needed to cause the custard to set. The change in texture was visible within minutes. Following a tip in the cookbook, the limes were juiced efficiently using a potato ricer. While the filling sets, the graham cracker crust was made. Graham crackers were ground in a food processor into fine crumbs. Some melted butter and sugar were mixed with the crumbs and the mixture pressed into a pie pan baked. When it was done, the thickened filling was added to the warm crust and the completed pie was put back into the oven to complete the cooking. The finished pie was refrigerated before serving. This was a very simple pie to make with a relatively small number of ingredients and no tricky steps. From starting to removing the pie from the oven was just 90 minutes.

This was a good pie, and easy to make. Not surprisingly it tastes similar and has a similar texture to pies made with lemon custard. It was good both on the day it was made and on days afterwards. Simple to make, good to eat, this pie is worth having again.

Recipe Notes: Easy black bean soup with kielbasa

13 January 2019

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated All Time Best Soups, 2016, p. 33

The recipe in the book is "easy black bean soup with chorizo". I substituted kielbasa for the chorizo because it is familiar and a sausage that we have often for dinner. I am not familiar with the various kinds of chorizo that are available in the market and when we've had them in the past they were usually too spicy for our tastes. Thus to be on the safe side I made the substitution.

This was an easy soup to make, taking just over an hour to finish. Most of the hands-on work comes from preparing the ingredients before starting the cooking. Canned black beans and chicken broth were processed in a food processor and set aside. In a Dutch oven, kielbasa, chopped onion, and chopped bell pepper were cooked in oil until lightly browned. Garlic, oregano, cumin, and chili powder were added and cooked for about 30 seconds. Additional broth was added with the processed beans and additional whole canned black beans. After simmering for about 15 minutes fresh cilantro was added.

This was very much a black bean soup with the legume dominating the flavor. If you like black beans it is likely you will like this soup. The kielbasa didn't add much in terms of either flavor or texture. The soup was okay, both freshly made and as a left over, but with many home made soups that are better, we probably will not make this one again.