achevres
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First-Cooks magazine...for the most part consists of unmemorable recipes. For great tasting baked goods this is NOT the publication to turn to.
Sinclair, If this is on an older thread I apologize. What are your favorite publications for baked goods? Thanks
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My best tip ever: spray oven cleaner, such as Easy-Off. Just spray on the cold roasting pan and leave overnight and then just wash off with water and the most minimal of scrubbing (mainly to dislodge the gunk). It like magic.
This is the way I clean my one Le Creuset pan and the broiler pans when they get brown, since there is no scrubbing and absolutely no chance of scratching. -
DOC WILSON'S FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVORS has a lot of recipes for traditional and "different" ice cream flavors. Most of them use a mix of sweetened-condensed milk plus half and half and heavy whipping cream. There are several tea-flavored ice creams to give you an idea of the process.
I can personally vouch for the "Lemon Sisters Vanilla." It was fantastic.
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This thread brings back a great food memory. In Puerto Rico, where I grew up, we have the piragua (pee-rah-gwah - emphasis on the rah). They are shaved ice cones topped with syrup. They are different than other snow-cones I have had elsewhere. The ice is hand shaved from a large block of ice with a special shaver and it is coarser than the American snow-cones. The top of the ice is shaped like an inverted cone, which gives a larger surface for the syrup. The syrups are thick and in many "regular" flavors, like red cherry. But, for me, the best syrups are the ones made with tropical fruits: passion fruit (parcha), soursop (guanabana) and, especially, tamarind (tamarindo). In fact, I have tried other flavors from other people's cones, but since a small child the only flavor I have ever ordered has been tamarind. Another popular flavor for adults was anise, tasting a lot like anisette, the liqueur.
The piraguas are usually sold from colorfully painted carts. The block of ice is in the middle, and the bottles of syrup lined up around the sides of the cart. Don't miss them if you visit Old San Juan.
Edited to correct typo.
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Thanks for the comparison!
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Your family is so lucky! TAll the food sounds sooo good!
The Cajun Microwave looks a lot like a "Caja China," which I first read about in a Jeffrey Steingarten article in Vogue. Here is their website--it looks more economical than the Cajun Micro.
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May I suggest the following recipe for a white icing that uses marshmallow fluff. I have made this icing several times and it has passed the test with preteens. Kids taste buds are different! The good things about this icing are that it is easy to make, will not harden (great for an amateur decorator like myself), keeps well, works great for decorating, and you can flavor it as you wish. The way I see it, the 7-minute and sea foam icings have a cooked meringue base, and the marshmallow fluff is like a pre-made meringue.
I have been making and decorating cakes for my 12-year-old-daughter since she was 4. She has hated several icings from The Cake Bible (that I found delicious). Try this one, you won't regret it.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Makes: 3 cups. Can be refrigerated up to 4 days or frozen up to 1 month. Bring to room temperature and beat before using. I've kept the decorated cake overnight at room temperature (70 deg F) and its been fine.
Ingredients:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 jar (7 or 7 1/2 oz) marshmallow cream (such as Marshmallow Fluff or Creme)
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract (can use up to 2 tb flavoring)
In the medium bowl of a mixer, beat the butter until creamy and fluffly. Add marshmallow cream and beat well. When well blended, beat in confectioners' sugar and vanilla.
Note: I use salted butter, because I think a bit of salt helps the flavor.
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I have had great success with recipes from Food & Wine, Cook's Illustrated and Martha Stewart Living.
I have had consistently dissappointing results with recipes from Gourmet and Bon Apetit. The "new" Gourmet is not what the old one was. The new version seems an odd intersection of wanting to remain gourmet but also wanting to help people who barely know how to cook, judging from some of the instructions, IMO. But I wouldn't care if the recipes turned out. Gourmet, however, has good travel info.
I love love love Saveur, but have made only a few recipes. It irks me to no end that they give no direction on the amount of salt for the savory dishes. When cooking with expensive ingredients, like an an expensive cut of meat, I would welcome some starting point with the salt.
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I have used Martha Stewart's Perfect Pie Crust for years and was happy with it. It's still good and fool-proof.
I always start in the food processor but don't over do it. You need to leave some fat visible if you want flaky pastry. I'm in the "no-Crisco" camp. initially, because I wanted my fat to contribute flavor, and lately because of the trans-fat issues. I would use lard, but the available one is partially-hydrogenated and making my own is more than I want to tackle.
Recently, out of curiosity, I tried Rose Levy Berenbaum's cream cheese pie dough and got rave reviews. Ms. Berenbaum stacks the deck by using cake flour, baking powder and vinegar, plus the cream cheese and butter. I can't explain all the food chemistry, but definitely try this recipe! (BTY, I use salted butter, because I like a little saltiness with the sweet filling and I think most dough recipes are too bland as written. Also, I used half cake flour and half all-purpose).
The recipe is in this link from Minnesota Public Radio's The Splendid Table:
The Best All-American Apple Pie with Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Crust
Edited for punctuation.
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I used to have an old Vittantonio strainer. I threw it away during my last move because I hadn't used it in a while, and regret having done so every raspberry season. I got it specifically for raspberies, as it had a berry screen. It did strain berries very well. I don't think the regular crank food mills can strain out berry seeds, as the holes are too large.
The new model of strainer is suppossed to be even better and is described here: Villaware Food Strainer. It is a machine similiar to the Squeezo you were asking about, but with a lot of the parts in plastic (and less expensive). It does have more screens than the Squeezo. The Villaware has grape spiral, pumpkin, berry and salsa screens available, in addition to the standard (tomato) screen that comes with the machine. The Squeezo has standard, pumpkin and berry screens only.
I recently started looking into buying a replacement strainer, so I did some research, but I hadn't heard about the Squeezo.
I emailed Kitchen Aid about their strainer and they said that it would strain raspberries, but not other things with bigger pits, like grapes or pumpkin.
Let us know what you decide. BTY, my favorite things to do with the strained raspberries are syrup and raspberry butter (Lee Bailey's recipes) and raspberry ice cream (old Cuisine recipe).
Edited to correct spelling.
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I made this pie: Cherry-Raspberry Pie a few weeks ago and it was a huge hit. I used Rose L. Berenbaum's cream cheese crust recipe, which is available here:RL Berenbaum's Apple Pie and Cream Cheese Pie Crust recipe. I used a glass pie plate and salted butter for the crust (I like it that way), but otherwise stuck to the directions. Note that you will need to double the crust recipe, since as written is for a single crust. You may have to add some extra sugar if your cherries don't have any at all. The American ones I bought were in a somewhat sweet liquid.
The cherries that Ms. Berenbaum talks about are American Spoon Foods Spoon Fruit, but the ones you got do sound like a similiar product.
Edited for clarity.
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I was just looking at this book on Amazon the other day...
Culinary Artistry, by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page.
It looked interesting--is it worth it?
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artisanbaker, thanks for starting this topic.
Did Mr Torreblanca explain about the terms weak flour and strong flour? Spanish recipes specify these flours. I did an exhaustive search about this for a recent churro thread, and I think that strong flour is high-gluten, like bread flour, and weak flour is cake flour. Is this correct? How about all-purpose flour, does that have an equivalent in Spanish recipes?
Although Spanish is my first language and I am totally fluent, I don't know some of the Spanish (from Spain) terms. I guess it is a similiar situation when reading English (from England) recipes. But putting together your posted recipe for olive oil sponge and the one on the www.torreblanca.com for olive oil cake, I now know that "impulsor" is baking powder, so thanks!
And one more request: Can you post the goat cheese ice cream recipe? That's the one that caught my eye.
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In Puerto Rico we eat guava paste a lot with a hard fresh white cheese, similiar to Mexican "queso fresco." Any mild white cheese will do. Place a slice of the paste on top of the slice of the cheese.
There are also a number of desserts and cakes that use the guava paste. I also have recipes for guava-glazed ribs. These recipes are at home (I'm at work). If you want anything in particular, let me know.
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Wow, chocolate-dipped alfajores! That's gilding the lily, and I'm sure delicious.
I have several Argentinian recipes for alfajores and most of them call for spreading the sides with more dulce de leche and rolling the sides in coconut. One suggests dipping in chocolate as an option. What I am trying to say is that there are different variations, even within Argentina, as to how to finish the cookie. The alfajores will be plenty authentic even without the chocolate coating.
For me, the cookies with dulce de leche are good (and rich) enough on their own.
Alfajores are also made in other South American countries, like Colombia and Venezuela.
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The boys weren't there that night at Poulet D'Orleans, but there were only ourselves and another couple, at least as of 8pm. The owner served us. I regret not asking his name. Does anyone know? In any case, I'm still thinking of and savoring the chicken!
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We are back from St Martin. The island is beautiful, the people as friendly as advertised, the beach perfect and the weather was fantastic. I would love to go back, like many people do. My friend (JB) threw her back out (a freaky thing, just getting out of the car), so some of our time was spent in doctor-type offices. Just to remind everybody, we are 2 girlfriends, I'm married and JB is single. Last year we toured southern Spain. This year we were lucky to go on another trip together. This thread helped me a lot when I was planning the trip. Thanks again to everyone who wrote, especially bourdain, the Perlows and bushey. I, of course, also looked elsewhere, like frommers.com and other sites. This non-commercial site: Caribbean Travel News I found today and looks good also.
I will try to list some of our experiences. The food stuff is 1/3 down this post.
Car Rental: Was strongly recommended and I strongly agree you need one. I do not think a 4x4 is essential--we did fine in a Corolla. I rented from Tropical Car Rental, which was recommended by another website. This local company (and others) send a representative to wait for you at the airport. Mikey was there as promised. The car was not the Platina I reserved, but a Corolla, but it had air and was automatic and only $20 a day, so I didn't change it. He gave us directions to the car rental office (close by) and we drove there to fill out the paperwork. Yes, I actually drove the car before filling out the paperwork.
Driving: There is one main road than circumnavigates the island. The airport is in the southwest of the island. I recommend avoiding the Dutch section of the road, unless you are going there (and you would be disregarding Tony's advice). There was always a lot of traffic on the road that leads to Phillipsburg. Even if on the map it looks longer, we found it better to go around the island and avoid the Dutch section. Do drive defensively and do not get confident. All roads are 2 lanes, one each way and cars pass each other all the time. Goats, horses and cows graze right next to the roads, or cross the road. The roads have names, but we never got any directions with road names. They would go like this, "Go left on the main road, take a right at the fork by the Texaco, and go left at the Kentucky (KFC--this was the Dutch side), take a right at the T, then follow signs to …." There is a gas station between Grand Case and Oyster Bay that was open at all hours and on the holidays.
Language: We only encountered one shop lady that didn't speak English, and she tried her best to help anyway. Neither of us speaks French (although I know a lot of French words). Everybody else spoke English.
Currency: US dollars can be used anywhere. Some places do equal exchange with Euros if paying cash, and others don't and just convert it with a calculator, but we had absolutely no problems paying with dollars anywhere. Also, they put through the credit charges in dollars.
Beach: We only went to Dawn Beach. It was right next to the resort and had free chairs and umbrellas and a shower. We liked it so much we didn't feel like driving to another beach. It had clear water and was mostly calm, but in the afternoon it had some small waves, which I like. Ms. B's beach "eatery" also rents snorkeling equipment. I snorkeled 2 mornings (better in the calm morning) and saw some pretty fish and 2 lobsters. I wanted to go to Anguilla, as recommended by a lot of people (see bushey's post), but JB would not go in past her waist (the movie "Jaws" scarred her for life) and it seemed like a lot of trouble to go to snorkel by myself. Next time….
Oyster Bay Beach Resort: We stayed at the Oyster Bay Beach Resort, in a small efficiency (a smallish room with a tiny kitchen area and a balcony). It was exactly as on the Website. Small, but doable. The front desk people were very helpful. They went out of their way to get us appointments for JB's back. The resort was very clean. A request for an extra blanket and to change the air conditioner's filter was taken care of right away. They do charge per day for the air conditioner, which I new about from my internet research. I did not know about the $50 per room time-share St Martin tax (there is also a $20 departure tax that on some airlines you have to pay in another line). Rooms are cleaned only on Wednesdays; other days are extra. Trash is taken out daily and towels replaced daily. Our room was small, but a one bedroom next to us (we peeked) was huge. There was also a pretty good air-conditioned workout room. Beware of the stepper (a swing-type device), which really hyper-extends the legs and I think contributed to JB's back problems.
Bug Spray: Bring it with you and apply no later than 4pm--even on the beach. Disregard this advice, like JB did on the first day, at your own risk. I also brought anti-itch cream--JB was so grateful.
Food--finally (and where my lack of professional culinary training will be obvious. Some flavors I just couldn't place):
We ate two lunches at Ms. B's, right on the beach. I had the rib and chicken combo both times. JB had that once and a cheeseburger the 2nd time. The ribs are grilled, small and pretty good. The sauce was sweet, but not too sweet, and tasty. The chicken was marinated and grilled and also good. Served with rice and peas ("peas" are any pulse, I think. These were pigeon peas-my favorite), and a small salad with bottled Italian dressing.
The Diet Coke was especially carbonated, which I love. I have found most foreign countries carbonate more.
One lunch at the Creperie in Marigot-I had the Croque Monsieur with great fries. My friend had a rather too-golden omelette-but she liked it.
We had dinner the first night at the Dinghy Dock (a "bourdain" recommendation). Get there early (6pm) if you want a table. We sat at a one of the large picnic tables inside, but try for outside as the reggae band is loud for the small space. A couple asked if they could share the table and we said of course. But then eight people showed up and crammed into the table. I'm asking how many, next time. We ordered the special, the spicy burger, It turned out to be a good sized ground beef burger with a spicy brown sauce (not "hot" spicy), baked potato (already with sour cream) and a salad (already with dressing). It wasn't the best meal ever, but it was tasty enough and we were starving! All salads that we were served on the island came with dressing, so ask for it on the side if you want.
The Dinghy Dock got crowded as the sun went down. It seemed like an "in" place for the people with boats at the marina.
One dinner at Le Cottage in Grand Case (also a bourdain recommendation) I had the lobster ravioli in rouille sauce and they were fantastic. They served 4 raviolis in a square plate. The pasta was very thin (like wonton-wrapper thin) and the sauce light in consistency but not thin and balanced in taste and delicious. For entrée the waiter recommended the special, which was 3 white fishes and sea scallops sautéed with island spices and in a sauce. It was very fresh and tasty, but I was a little disappointed that the sauce was the same as my appetizer. My friend had the ravioli special, which were filled with goat cheese and had a morel sauce. They were good, but not as good as the lobster ones--get them if you go.
For dessert I couldn’t resist the caramel soufflé, served with caramel sauce and house-made caramel ice cream. I highly recommend it. The service was excellent, in a relaxed and friendly way. This bill came to around $100 (including bottled water and tip)
Another night we went to L’Auberge Gourmand. This was my friend’s mother’s favorite restaurant (and on a lot of guides). The menu looked good, so we decided to try it. I should say that since we were in the off season, we didn’t need reservations and that at 6:30-7:00 pm we could just walk up and down the Grand Case restaurant row and decide on the spot. I had the grilled shrimp field greens dressed with excellent vinaigrette-but it had a lot of vinaigrette. Tell them to go light or on the side. The shrimp were incredibly fresh and sweet. The shrimp were as fresh as in southern Spain, on the beach. The kind that makes me wonder what exactly I’m eating when I eat shrimp in the US. The salad was served on a crepe basket, which reminded me of a French papadum. My friend had a salad of the mixed greens with Roquefort cheese, baked apple, balsamic vinegar and goat cheese baked in a light crust--very good, but heavy for an appetizer. For entrée I had the whole grilled bass (of a size good for one person) with Mediterranean vegetables. They fillet it for you, if you want. It was fresh and delicious. My friend got shrimp and scallops—oops, I can’t remember what sauce, but also good. No dessert. The bill came to $108 (including bottled sparkling water and tip).
A note about Grand Case (case as in "cass" in cassoulet). It is a very narrow 2-way street which has restaurants and a few shops interspersed between houses. There is no side walk. Parking is, mostly, where you find it. Cars and people on foot share the road. It was not crowded in May, but I can only imagine that it could be a nightmare in high season.
Monday night I made us cheese omelettes in the “kitchen.” My friend had to be on bed rest for the night. We had great mangoes from the Market at Marigot for dessert.
Tuesday night we finally made it to the Poulet D’Orleans. It was closed Sunday on our first try. It is right on the main road between Oyster Pond and Grand Case in what looks like a very modest neighborhood. We were both a little skeptical, but I wasn’t missing it. After all, Tony eats there and the Perlows went back with their friends and these are recommendations I trust implicitly. And they were so right. It was the best chicken JB or I have ever had. You can get the breast (breast and wing) or the half chicken. I got the breast, because I thought the half would be too much--a mistake, because it was so good that at the end we were both searching our plates for any bits of meat we had overlooked. This home-grown chicken was falling off the bone and incredible moist at the same time. The "peanut" sauce was a Thai inspired sauce, not too peanutty at all. It had other Thai flavors in a perfect balance. I finished off the sauce with the garlic bread. JB got the Creole sauce (tomato-type, not hot). There is also a barbecue sauce. The chicken came with an assortment of vegetables including perfectly steamed broccoli, corn, a small piece of christophine (chayote) and fried almost-ripe plantains. The plantains were great with the Thai sauce. Really, anything was good with that sauce. The entrees also came with roasted potatoes and rice and peas (beans, this time). For appetizer I got the accras (codfish fritters). These fritters are pillowish and not crispy--still addictive. JB got the "stuffed crab back." She liked it, but I thought it was too bready and not flavorful enough. There are also other entrees besides chicken. This bill came to $44 (including water and good tip). Go, go, go. But don't forget the bug spray!!!
Market in Marigot: Right in front of the water in Marigot is an open air market. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, vendors come from the adjacent islands (and I'm guessing also from St Martin) and sell fish, fruits and vegetables and spices. At the resort they told us that for the fish you have to get there at 6 am. We went around 10am. We bought mangos (spectacular) and spices. JB bought jerk seasoning and a spice assortment for her mother. I bought something called "magic spice", which is an all-purpose dried whole-herb blend for rubbing or marinating any meat or fish. I can't place all the smells, but it is incredibly fragrant. All the spices were very fragrant. In that heat and humidity I can only imagine they are so fragrant because they are really fresh. I also bought 3 vanilla beans for $2 each. They were also incredibly fragrant. Now I'm regretting I didn't buy more…
In the market there are also non-food stalls that they told us are there every day. I bought a cotton pareo from a young French guy that salt-dyes the cloths himself. There was a nice stall selling Provencal linens and things made out of the linens. And there were many other stalls--from tchotchkes to nice hand-made silver jewelry.
For upscale shopping go to the West Indies Mall, also in Marigot (if you are facing the ocean it's on the right of the market). It is a beautiful air conditioned mall. We got there on another day just a little before closing, and probably for the best. The shops in St Martin can only have a sale 3 weeks of the year, and this was it. They have a Hediard store, where I had to practice restraint. JB wanted to go to New Man, one of her favorite designers, and they are not in Philly. There is also a nice cosmetic/perfume store. The whole island is duty-free. Some people told us that the shopping was better in Phillipsburg (a lot of jewelry stores and true 1 Euro=1 dollar exchange). But we weren't buying jewelry or anything that expensive, so for us it wasn't worth going to Phillipsburg, especially after Tony was so vehement about staying away.
Food Stores: We went in 2 Ram's supermarkets. If you leave the airport and go counter-clockwise on the main road (towards Oyster Bay) there is a non-air conditioned one. If you go clockwise out of the airport on the main road, there is an air conditioned one. Both are about the same size and you won't miss them from the road. We shopped with more detail at the non-air conditioned one. It had a section of international foods, including a lot of Indian products. I love going to supermarkets in other countries. From Ram's I brought home Carte Noire Arabica instant coffee. (Bring milk , or milk and a little water, to the boiling point then add one teaspoon of the instant coffee and sweeten to taste and you got café latte. I grew up in Puerto Rico. My grandfather made the best coffee, very dark and espresso-like, brewed with a flannel "sock." As kids, my sister and I got the hot milk with just a taste of the coffee. But when we moved from their house, my mom wasn't brewing like that and we had the instant caffe latte, as I described. Made with good instant coffee, like this Carte Noir, it is very good).
In Ram's we got stuff for breakfasts (eggs, cheese, butter, coffee, milk, etc) and chorizo (our favorite) and olives. Also a gulab jamun mix to take home.
We did not have time to check out the large supermarkets on the French side.
We stopped at the Bounty Gourmet store (on the main road between Marigot and Orleans). There are gold-colored signs advertising it on both sides of the road. This is a small gourmet market with a great assortment of French cheeses, charcuterie, and canned goods. They also have prepared foods that looked very good, but we didn't buy (a big mistake, since JB's back prevented us from going out to dinner and when we tried going later they had closed because it was a holiday on the French side. We had been lucky it had been open in the morning). Here we bought brie meaux and a baguette (the regular baguettes on the island all look good but are already stale by 11am). We also bought great pre-sliced chorizo. They had 3 kinds of chorizo. To take home I bought a large can of cassoulet (Raynal et Roquelaure), guava jam, pineapple jam, passion fruit-mango jam (these 3 M'Amour brand, made in Guadalupe) and Reine Claude (greengage plum) jam (this last one Bon Maman). Guava paste and jelly I can get here in the Philadelphia area, but guava jam has to be bought in another country. Pineapple jam is also hard to find here. I like it on Ritz crackers--a childhood treat.
The Perlows wrote about ice cream in St Martin. We looked everywhere and could not find the I'l Cappuccino gelatos. They didn't have them in Ram's or in several other small stores. I don't think they are being made. If someone can find them, please post detailed directions. We did find Etna ice creams and sorbets, but not in the guava flavor (the one I wanted). The most exotic they had were mango and coconut, and I can get those flavors here in the US. Hagen Daaz, however, was everywhere.
We also followed Tony's recommendation and went to the The Butterfly Farm. I highly recommend it. Once you pay you can go back on the other days of your trip for free. The morning tour starts at 9:30 (another one at 3pm). The tour was very informative and they open the chrysalis and pupae box and you can see the first flight of the butterflies and moths that hatched that morning. A newly-hatched Blue Morphoe landed on my neck long enough for JB to take 2 pictures! These insects are only active if there is sun, so don't go on rainy days. Great photo ops, especially if you can do close-ups.
Any other time not accounted for we spent at Dawn beach or sleeping.
I am hoping to return to St Martin. It's not too big nor too little and the people soo friendly. Next time I'm going to Anguilla and trying the Rastafajarian restaurant and eating at least twice at Poulet D'Orleans.
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I'll match your Arthur Schwartz with mine (above) ... anytime ... you do click on the links provided, no?
Ooops!
I'm sorry I repeated the link. I love the Food Maven site. -
Here is the website of the distributor: Ultimate Gourmet. You can contact them for a store in your area. The Raffetto brand is from NYC, so its got to be available somewhere near you. It is here in the Philadelphia area.
This is a link to Arthur Schartz' website and his history and recipe of this pie.
Neeselrode Pie--Arthur Schwartz.
Hope this helps!
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I've had clotted cream in London (several times) and kaymak in Turkey (every chance I got) and the jarred clotted creams available here in the USA. The fresher creams in London and Istanbul were probably better, but jar clotted cream is better than no clotted cream at all, IMO. I have also used mascarpone cheese in the same way as I would clotted cream.
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This recipe for cassata from the Tyler's Ultimate on the food network uses orange liqueur, which could easily be replaced with orange juice/flavor: Cassata. It has other citrus flavors too.
All the recipes say to serve it out of the refrigerator. I don't think you'll be able to park it pool-side for a long time-just a thought.
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This recipe is from Gale Gand"s show on foodtv.com: Graham Crackers
This next recipe is from my extensive collection of recipes from magazines, newspapers and, now, the web. It is from The Pleasures of Cooking, a cooking newsletter from Cuisinart from the 1980's. I didn't get it, but saved the recipe from a brochure. The recipe is by Pamela Murtaugh and it says that "our tasters judged them far better than any store bought or homemade ones they had tasted." The link is to a site that has the exact recipe, but uncredited. Well, it saved me the typing.
BTW, there are also molasses-rye and chocolate variations in my clipping.
I have not made them. I'm sure they are a special treat homemade. Here we get them at the store, but I know they don't have them where you live. Good luck!
Edited to add: Both these recipes use butter-not shortening.
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nightscotsman Posted on May 12 2004, 07:40 AM T hese raspberry tarts are also sold at Palio. They are about five inches tall and filled with pistachio pastry cream on a sablé Breton base:
I should know better than to read the baking forum right before lunch. These tarts are trying to jump out the screen and into my mouth!
Questions: Do you pipe the pistachio pastry cream in a cone shape and then "glue" the raspberries on? How do they stay on in that gravity-defying shape? Yes, I'm asking for the secret...
Thanks for posting the photos.
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Below is the recipe I took to the party. It was a hit. It was inspired by a recipe from Cooking Light, but I found many similar ones on Google searches. The orange juice idea came from the shrimp escabeche from Mexico The Beautiful Cookbook. Obviously, you can add other things or fiddle with the proportions to taste.
I took it in a plastic container with a bag of clear wide-mouth disposable cups, and spooned out about 4 shrimp per serving plus some veggies and sauce. Served in the cups, and with a fork, it wasn't messy at all. Don't forget to take the garlic out, like I did (no one complained). Also, I didn't put the cilantro because my husband was in such a hurry, but it was still delicious.
The party idea was good and easy. The hosts had drinks and a margarita machine and everyone brought an appetizer for 6. But…they gave no other direction, and about half the appetizers brought were shrimp.
BTW, ketchup and lime juice are used in Mexico for this type of cooked ceviche. I called it Mexican shrimp cocktail because I didn't want to get into explanations about it.
Ceviche de Camarones or Mexican Shrimp Cocktail
A:
1.5 qt water
1.5 ts salt
1/2 cup lime juice
1 sliced onion
4 cloves garlic, peeled, slice in half
B: 1.5 lb shrimp (not the big ones)
C:
1/2 sweet onion, diced (1/4 inch), soaked in cold water for 5 minutes and drained
2 jalapenos in small dice (remove veins and seeds to remove most of the heat)
1/3 cup ketchup
juice of 3 (juicy) limes
juice of 1 orange
1/3 cup prepared or homemade salsa
1/2 ts Mexican hot sauce, such as Cholula, or to taste
6 whole, peeled garlic cloves
D:
1/2 English cucumber, seeded and sliced
1 red pepper, seeded and sliced (slices about the size of a shrimp)
1/4 cup coarsely shopped cilantro
1. The day before serving: Bring ingredients in A to a boil. Add shrimp, bring to a boil, cover, take off the heat and let poach 10 minutes. Drain shrimp, peel and devein.
2. Mix ingredients in C and add the cooked and peeled shrimp. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
3. About 1-2 hours before serving, mix in the ingredients in D. The cilantro could be sprinkled on each serving also. Remove garlic cloves before serving.
4. For a cocktail party-sized appetizer, serve in individual portions of about 4 shrimp each and some of the vegetables.
Edited to add: Thanks to everyone for your help!
Too Many Raspberries
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Lee Bailey's Good Parties has a whole section on raspberries. The book is out of print, but available used (cheap) from Amazon. The book is very good and worth getting, even if only for the raspberry recipes. The recipes include syrup, butter (made with butter and soooo good), vinegar, shortcake, chicken, fritters, etc.
But I know you don't have time to wait for the mail right now...I would make raspberry syrup, which you can freeze. The only hard part about it is straining out the seeds. I can PM you the recipe(s?) when I get home (I'm at work). This syrup is great for peach melba and also to take raspberry shortcakes over the top, among other delicious uses.
I also have a fantastic raspberry ice cream recipe from the old Cuisine magazine that I can PM.