bluekale

Pear, Goat Cheese & Nut Crumble Tower Serves 12 as Dessert. This recipe is tricky only in trying to judge the quantities of each of the four components. If you don't have ring molds, try napkin holders or cookie cutters. Forgive me for cheating on the cake recipe. Glazed Pears 3 pears 4 T pear liqueur 2 T butter Goat Cheese 1 pkg goat cheese, no herbs Sponge Cake 1/4 chiffon cake recipe, with pear liqueur in place of water Nut Crumb Crust 2 c pistachios, walnuts or a mix of the two 4 T butter (1/2 stick), soft 3 T brown sugar 1/4 tsp salt Miscellaneous Equipment 12 ring molds 1 food processor 2 large cast-iron pans 1 nonstick baking pan or sheet tray All the parts are baked in a 325° oven, which allows them to be done simultaneously. Glazed Pears Melt the butter in a cast-iron pan, making sure it covers the bottom. Pour out the excess butter into a bowl and combine with the pear liqueur. Cut the pears vertically on opposite sides, so that each pear yields two large pieces. Use the ring molds to cut a cylinder from the thickest section of each piece, and slice each cylinder into 4 discs. You should now have 24 discs. Brush each disk with the butter-liqueur mixture and bake in the cast-iron pan at 325° for a few minutes, then flip the discs over and bake a few more minutes. The discs should end up translucent, but not too soft that they break apart. Sponge Cake Prepare 1/4 recipe of your favorite sponge or chiffon cake, replacing any water in the recipe with pear liqueur. Pour a layer 1/8-1/4" thick on a nonstick pan or sheet tray, and bake at 325° for 10-15 minutes. Cut discs of the cake, which will now be about 1/2" thick, with the ring molds. Nut Crumb Crust Process the nuts in the food processor until very fine. Add the butter, sugar and salt and process to combine. Layer in a cast-iron pan about 1/4" thick, and bake at 325° until crisp but not burnt. Putting It All Together Take a ring mold and cut down on the crumb crust. Transfer carefully to a plate, keeping the crust in the mold. Layer on top of the crust in the mold: 1 pear disc, 1/8-1/4" goat cheese, 1 cake disc, 1/8-1/4" goat cheese, 1 pear disc, and finally a crust disc on top. Remove the mold and enjoy. For garnish, I would serve either a pear caramel sauce, some homemade vanilla ice cream made with pear liqueur, or simply a few pear slices from the parts of the pear that you didn't use. Keywords: Dessert ( RG1142 )

Pear, Goat Cheese & Nut Crumble Tower Serves 12 as Dessert. This recipe is tricky only in trying to judge the quantities of each of the four components. If you don't have ring molds, try napkin holders or cookie cutters. Forgive me for cheating on the cake recipe. Glazed Pears 3 pears 4 T pear liqueur 2 T butter Goat Cheese 1 pkg goat cheese, no herbs Sponge Cake 1/4 chiffon cake recipe, with pear liqueur in place of water Nut Crumb Crust 2 c pistachios, walnuts or a mix of the two 4 T butter (1/2 stick), soft 3 T brown sugar 1/4 tsp salt Miscellaneous Equipment 12 ring molds 1 food processor 2 large cast-iron pans 1 nonstick baking pan or sheet tray All the parts are baked in a 325° oven, which allows them to be done simultaneously. Glazed Pears Melt the butter in a cast-iron pan, making sure it covers the bottom. Pour out the excess butter into a bowl and combine with the pear liqueur. Cut the pears vertically on opposite sides, so that each pear yields two large pieces. Use the ring molds to cut a cylinder from the thickest section of each piece, and slice each cylinder into 4 discs. You should now have 24 discs. Brush each disk with the butter-liqueur mixture and bake in the cast-iron pan at 325° for a few minutes, then flip the discs over and bake a few more minutes. The discs should end up translucent, but not too soft that they break apart. Sponge Cake Prepare 1/4 recipe of your favorite sponge or chiffon cake, replacing any water in the recipe with pear liqueur. Pour a layer 1/8-1/4" thick on a nonstick pan or sheet tray, and bake at 325° for 10-15 minutes. Cut discs of the cake, which will now be about 1/2" thick, with the ring molds. Nut Crumb Crust Process the nuts in the food processor until very fine. Add the butter, sugar and salt and process to combine. Layer in a cast-iron pan about 1/4" thick, and bake at 325° until crisp but not burnt. Putting It All Together Take a ring mold and cut down on the crumb crust. Transfer carefully to a plate, keeping the crust in the mold. Layer on top of the crust in the mold: 1 pear disc, 1/8-1/4" goat cheese, 1 cake disc, 1/8-1/4" goat cheese, 1 pear disc, and finally a crust disc on top. Remove the mold and enjoy. For garnish, I would serve either a pear caramel sauce, some homemade vanilla ice cream made with pear liqueur, or simply a few pear slices from the parts of the pear that you didn't use. Keywords: Dessert ( RG1142 )

Awesome. Thanks!

OK! Can you guide me through the process?

Since it was a combination of several components, judging the quantities was tricky. I ended up making 9 of them, and having a good amount of the cake and the crust left over. If I had had more pears, I would have made more. As for how long and well they keep, I'm afraid I won't be able to answer that... I brought them in to the wait and kitchen staff at the restaurant I work at and they all got eaten!

Today I made a wonderful dessert, and the idea was entirely my own! It was a layered confection of pears, sponge cake, nut crumb crust, and goat cheese. The nut crust was a mix of pistachios, almonds, butter and brown sugar, ground finely and baked until crisp. The pears were thin slices glazed with pear liqueur and butter and baked until soft. The goat cheese was, well, goat cheese. The sponge cake was a simple chiffon cake with pear liqueur in place of water. I made all the parts in thin layers, then layered them in a circular ring mold: crust, pear, cheese, cake, cheese, pear crust. Delicious. Here are some pictures, but unfortunately the middle is a bit washed out. This is the cake before eating... and with a chunk cut out of it: If you guys want specific recipes for any of the components, let me know.

Hi, all. Tonight I tried a new preparation for my favorite fish, arctic char. I ground some pistachios, mushrooms and breadcrumbs in the blender, coated the fish (sans skin) in egg, then crusted it with my nut/mushroom mixture and pan fried it. It was awesome. I also made a panzanella (tomato and bread salad) with little grape tomatoes, orange pepper, cannellini beans, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a bit of leftover eggplant and red pepper spread from a previous meal. A nice, simple accompaniment. A little white wine, and that was all I needed.

I really like Inside in the West Village. It's between W. 4th and Bleeker, on a small street that runs only that block called Jones St., not to be confused with Great Jones St. several blocks further east. The menu is small, but the food is good and the service and atmosphere is extremely kind, in part due to the large percentage of the clientele who are regulars. The prices, last time I checked, are very reasonable for the quality of the food: 7-9 apps, 6-7 sides, 17-20 entrees, 6 desserts, 6-11 bar menu. Try the sexy grits with forest mushrooms; it's honestly one of the best dishes I've ever had.

Fair enough, and I also agree that bad reviews help restaurants improve, but I guess I was envisioning a system where the lack of a review of an overhyped place would speak for itself. Or, I suppose, they could find some space elsewhere in the section, like in the food gossip area that has taken over one part of "Food Stuff", to debunk unworthy praise. No, wait...a whole new column simply devoted to dissing bad food or undue attention! They could call it "Big Bad Apples", with an intentional pun on nyc's moniker.

Well, it depends what you want from a newspaper. If you want the most useful advice on the restaurants of the city, I think that making any review worth something is a good idea. I'm not saying that the critic can't criticize certain aspects of his meal, but rather that he should only print reviews of places that gave him a special experience overall. Whether the Times would actually put such a system in place...

As long as there is a star system in place, it's hard to avoid the following conundrum. Every time Frank Bruni writes a one or even zero star review, many people will immediately dismiss the restaurant in question (perhaps without even reading the review.) If that's the case, does it really make sense to invest time and effort into a restaurant that few people will consider? I don't know. What I do know is that many of the one and certainly two star restaurants are wonderful places to eat. One solution, then, it seems, is indeed to split into three tiers as has been suggested, but to define them not as highbrow, mediumbrow, lowbrow, but as "1: extraordinary experiences", "2: neighborhood gems", and "3: budget finds". It would be the responsibility of the Tier 1 critic to find the places that astound him/her the most, and review only these places. The Tier 2 critic would seek out lesser known but remarkable places, without regard for price one way or the other. The Tier 3 critic would seek out the best food he can find for dirt cheap prices. Stars would be abolished across the board, but a review in and of itself would be a recommendation. The critics would not all be obligated to write every week.

I recently ate at Sage in the North End, and my meal was simply amazing. It began with a corn custard with morels and peas, and then moved on to a sampling of the three unbelievable pastas/rice dishes on the menu, and concluded with a fabulous and unorthodox peach and plum strudel. Based on this meal (which in toto cost $30 exactly), I would consider Sage to be one of the best restaurants in the city. That being said, I have not tried many of the places mentioned in this thread, and am mainly comparing the food to places I've eaten in New York.

Yes, it certainly is. I have recommended it before, and I will recommend it again. I like the smaller of the two locations, which is on Broadway between Harvard and MIT, better.

Someone replied to me that the cheese was called perette, which sounds right, but I still don't know where to find it. Any help?

About 5 or 6 summers ago, a friend invited me for three weeks to his house in Sardinia, where we ate wonderful food most of the time. One of my favorite memories was of a hard, mild, pear shaped Sardinian cheese, whose name I believe is related to its pear-shape. I'd love to know what the cheese is, and whether it is available in this country.

Hi, again, Mario, and thanks a bunch for the recs for Boston: Imagine you're in an Iron Chef showdown against your favorite nemesis, and the Chairman is about to unveil the theme ingredient. At that moment, what ingredient are you hoping for? (No, I'm not a producer of the show trying to rig it in your favor, I'm just curious. )

From everything I've heard and tasted, I'd recommend Craigie Street Bistrot in Cambridge. It's a wonderful place with a menu that changes often at the whim of the chef.

This really surprised me when I read it. I understand that top chefs like Thomas Keller have a lot of power in selecting their ingredients, but I never realized a local purveyor would favor two restaurants hundreds of miles away exclusively, especially when quite respectable local places are also in the market for her food. I hope for the sake of chefs like you, who try to get the best local ingredients, that this is an isolated case of mixed up priorities.

I realize the purpose of this post has probably expired, but for the sake of any visitors with the same request, my favorite restaurant in Cambridge, which happens to be extremely reasonable, is Atasca, a small tapas bar in a hole in the wall on Broadway between Harvard and MIT. (I think they have another less intimate location nearer to MIT, though it is certainly not what you could call a chain.

Hi, Mario- As a displaced New Yorker and fervent admirer of Italian food and your supreme knowledge about it, I'd love to know where you like to eat outside of New York, specifically in the Boston area (if, that is, you ever make it out here to these culinary boondocks).

I'l happily second La Rosita, which I frequented when I lived on 111th St and Riverside. I remember especially good yellow rice. As for other places, try Sal & Carmine's pizza if it still exists (Broadway & 101/102nd street) The pizza there probably accounted for half of my lunches growing up. For a little bit fancier, but not out of reach, try Inside in the West village, tucked away on Jones street between west 4th and Bleeker.

I have had some very good sandwiches (and some excellent bright red tomato soup) at Bread on 20 Spring St. I'm also really anxious to try some of the places suggested above. Thanks a ton for this thread! Luke J.

Thanks so much for this recommendation. I live in the Boston area, and was only in San Francisco for three days. I tried to go to Kabuto on Friday night, but it was closed until Tuesday because of a family emergency! Staving off my hunger for sushi for one more night, I took your suggestion and tried Kirala, which was wonderful, and not as expensive as you made it out to be! By the way, on Friday night I went to another restaurant I had heard great things about, and can recommend it wholeheartedly. It's called Charanga; it's a small tapas place in the Mission district that serves great, inexpesive food.

I loved your review of Trio, especially since I had the honor of eating there this past weekend as well (it was only the four-course menu in my case, although we ended up getting seven courses anyhow). The pictures are amazing; I wasn't sure I was allowed to bring a camera when I went, so I decided not to. If anyone is interested in an alternate review of Trio's more modest (heh) offerings, I will post a description of what I ate soon. As for the rest of my trip to the Chicago area, I also came home stuffed. Apart from Trio, I highly recommend Mia Francesca for dinner and The Bagel for brunch, both of which are in the Wrigleyville area.