Ginger Lemon Scones

I have been making these scones for about ten years.  When I was in my last two years of college I lived with my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Tilman, and in addition to recipes for parmesan broiled fennel, spicy tomato-stewed cod, and the phenomona of eggy-brekky (on Uncle Tilman's mother Hanna's fine china on Sundays and birthdays), one of the best recipes I acquired was my Aunt Lisa's variation on a Gourmet magazine recipe for scones.  I have since added my own variations, making everything from tropical fruit scones to cranberry almond and so on.  If you've lived with me or near me, worked with me, or otherwise endeared yourself to me before mid-morning, you've likely had these scones.


Today we're having a broker open house to help sell our condo, and I thought I'd make these scones to help make the place smell yummy and otherwise charm potential buyer-agents.  I got up earlier than expected, so I had time to jot this down while the scones cool. I once set about to make these and didn't have a lemon, but did have a lime, and those turned out quite nicely as well.  You can use any sort of candied ginger, but the best is freshly candied slices of ginger you can dice up yourself.  But that can sometimes be hard to find (checking an Asian grocery is usually helpful), but I have had acceptable results with supermarket pre-diced candied ginger.  Just buy only what you need and if it feels like rock candy, don't use it.  The key to the tenderness in these scones is minimal handling.  This is a pastry, not bread.  Be careful to not overknead.  
The scones are moist and tender enough to serve on their own, but if you want to gild the lily, serve with jam or butter (I put out some cherry preserves with these).


Ingredients:
For scones:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 TBS baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 TBS cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/3 cup finely diced candied ginger
• zest of one lemon
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup milk (don't use skim, but 1% works just great, but whole milk makes a decadent scone, and if you have it, use it)

For glaze:

• juice of lemon
• 2 TBS sugar

Instructions:

• Mix together flour, baking powder and salt with a fork in a big bowl
• Using fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture, making the mixture crumbly
• Toss in candied ginger, lemon zest and sugar
• Pour in milk and mix gently with fork/hands until just incorporated into a single ball
• Turn out onto a board
• Cut dough into two and gently pat each section into a six-inch diameter circle
• Cut each circle into 8 wedges
• Place wedges about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet
• Dissolve the 2 TBS sugar into the lemon juice, and brush atop scones
• Bake at 425 for about 10 minutes, until golden, but not brown.
• Remove from pan immediately and place on a cooling rack under a tea towel for 15 minutes before serving

Saucy Lady Barbecue Sauce

For a while I have been wanting to make a house barbecue sauce with one of Matt's beers, and we are very pleased with this sauce. It's debut will be at a friend's barbecue this weekend. Now unless you are able to procure some of Matt's Lady in Red Irish Red, you won't be able to completely recreate this sauce. However, if you select a red ale that is malty, caramelly, a little nutty and not hoppy, you can get a close approximation. I also used honey from my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Tilman's bees, so you probably can't get that either, so just pick a good quality wildflower honey. If you don't make chicken stock at home, then use store bought, but make absolutely sure that it is as low sodium as possible.

This sauce is tangy, sweet, smoky, with a hint of mole flavor and just the right amount of spicy heat. If you don't want the spicy part, omit the ancho chile, and halve the amount of cayenne, but don't omit cayenne entirely. Also, I prefer a thick barbecue sauce, but if you prefer a thinner sauce, simply simmer for a shorter time.

The ingredient list is lengthy, and I suggest that before starting to cook, excepting the first 8 ingredients, measure all of the wet ingredients into one container and all of the dry ingredients into another.

Since there is sugar and honey in the sauce, don't marinate anything in this sauce, for once you put it on a grill, it will burn before your meat is cooked. It is for brushing on in the last minute of grilling, or as a condiment on cooked meats and vegetables. You can also heat a little in a saucepan, add shredded cooked chicken, then pile it onto a toasted bun for a quick, tasty dinner. The sauce will keep about a month in the fridge, tightly sealed, and you can also freeze it.

Makes about 1 quart.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces Lady in Red Irish Red beer
• 3 TBS chopped garlic
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 ½ cups ketchup
• 1 Ancho Chile, stemmed and seeded
• 3 tsp liquid smoke
• 3 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 3 TBS Worcestershire sauce
• 2 TBS low sodium soy sauce
• 2 TBS Lukas honey
• 1/2 cup homemade chicken stock
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
• 4 TBS dry mustard
• 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 ½ tsp mexican oregano
• ¼ tsp cayenne
• ¼ tsp ground chipotle
• 3 TBS cocoa
• 1 bay leaf

Process:

• Put oil into 4 qt. pot, heat over medium-low heat.
• Add onion, salt and black pepper, cook stirring regularly until onion softens.
• Stir in garlic, cook for about a minute.
• Pour in the beer, bring to a boil and boil for one minute.
• Add the ancho chile, ketchup and all remaining wet ingredients, dry ingredients and bay leaf.
• Stir until smooth (excepting for the chile and bay leaf)
• Bring sauce to a low simmer.
• After simmering for 5 minutes, remove ancho chile.
• Continue to simmer sauce, stirring from time to time for an hour or hour and a half, until thickened to desired consistency.
• Strain sauce through fine mesh strainer

Mexican Chocolate Cake

This cake is THE chocolate cake. If I ever baked you a chocolate cake, or you ever ate my mother's chocolate cake you know this cake. It is moist, light, but not too light, and super chocolatey. In my family we call it "Mrs. Gude's cake" (after the woman who gave my mother the recipe in 1967) or "mom's chocolate cake" or "the chocolate cake".

This weekend we were invited to a Mexican-themed BBQ at our friends' Jason and Caitlin's place (Caroline's bean dip and Jason's tacos al pastor were both dynamite!). I was assigned dessert and tried to think up a good dessert that would transport easily and hold in hot weather without detriment. The chocolate cake always traveled well, but how to make it fit the theme....add some cayenne and cinnamon and you get....

Mexican Chocolate Cake! Because there is a little kick to this cake, you definitely want to serve the cake with ice cream or maybe some whipped cream, too cool things off a bit. If you want a regular chocolate cake, just omit the cinnamon and cayenne and enjoy!

This cake is very forgiving, if you don't want a 9x13 cake, just halve the recipe evenly on all ingredients and make an 8 inch round or 9 inch square. However, since the cake freezes so well, just make the whole recipe and freeze it in single squares. It is yummy straight from the freezer, or defrosted.

For one cake, 9x13:

• Butter a 9x13 cake pan, line the bottom with parchment paper and butter up that too.
• Preheat oven at 350.
• Measure 1/2 cup milk and add a splash of cider vinegar, let sit while you prepare everything else.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 12 TBS butter
• 1 cup water
• 12 TBS cocoa powder (I use Hershey's)
• 2 tsp high quality cinnamon (I used Extra-Fancy Vietnamese Cinnamon from Penzeys)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sour milk (see above- milk plus vinegar)
• 2 eggs

Process

• On a sheet of parchment paper, sift together flour and baking soda, set aside
• Combine sugar and salt together into mixing bowl, set aside
• In a saucepan over low heat, melt butter and water together
• When butter is completely melted, while mixture is still hot, immediately whisk in cocoa, cinnamon and cayenne
• When smooth, immediately add to sugar/salt in mixing bowl and whisk until sugar is melted completely and batter is smooth
• Either by hand or with an electric mixer (standing or hand held), mix in flour mixture until batter is smooth
• Pour in sour milk and beat until batter is smooth
• Beat in the eggs (if by hand, for 200 strokes or 2 minutes, if using mixer, beat for 1 minute)
• Immediately pour into prepared baking pan and bake for 30 minutes.
• Test doneness by putting a toothpick into the center of the cake, if it comes out clean/dry, the cake is done
• Let cake cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes, then turn out cake onto the rack, peel off paper, and flip over carefully
• Dust cake with a mixture of confectioner's sugar and cinnamon, serve with ice cream

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Although I always liked the concept of a Buffalo Chicken Pizza from a restaurant, I was frequently  disappointed in execution.  Most were a pizza with tomato sauce, unseasoned chicken, tasteless cheese and were soggy and greasy from being doused with buffalo sauce (which is really just a pepper-infused vinegar and melted butter...not exactly sauce so much as it is a vinaigrette).  And then, one day while perusing the cheese case at Whole Foods (some women shop for clothes...I shop for cheese), I came across a Buffalo Wing Cheddar made by Yancey's in upstate NY.  Now that I'm looking for it, I've seen the cheese at Stop and Shop, and my mom reports a sighting at Hannaford's in the sticks of NH.

So now that I had the Buffalo Wing Cheddar, I set about to crafting it into a pizza.  I knew I wanted there to be something sweet that would play off the spicy well, but although tomato sauce can be sweet, it can also have too much of a tangy bite that would compete with the spicy flavors.  I settled on one of my favorite bases for a pizza or panini: beermelized onions.  The Buffalo Wing Cheddar is super spicy (I mean it, don't over do it with this cheese!), and I knew I couldn't cover an entire pizza, for it would be overkill.  Solution: a few slices of fresh mozzarella to balance things out and give a gentle creaminess to offset the spicy.  Next question was how to prepare the chicken.  As I mentioned, many pizzas with chicken overlook a key component: seasoning of the chicken.  This small simple step enhances the flavor of the chicken so much, that it isn't just a boring piece of protein.  I settled on pan-cooking boneless skinless chicken thighs seasoned with salt, pepper, and ground chipotle.  Finished off with some Gorgonzola crumbles, and you have a great pizza to pair with your favorite IPA.

What you get is a complex pizza with a balance of sweet earthiness from the beermelized onions,spicy buffalo flavor, a touch of smokiness from the chicken, and a nice piquant kick from the Gorgonzola.  This is Matt's newest favorite.  He almost said it has unseated the spicy chicken sandwich....but then quickly made the distinction that they are two different dishes.  My vote?  This kicks the spicy chicken sandwich's butt.  Another benefit of this pizza?  You can cook the chicken and the beermelized onions any time before pizza assembly, and keep in the fridge for a couple days.  Then you've got a fast assembly before baking and eating dinner.

For the Chicken:

• 2 large boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat, and seasoned with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and ground chipotle
• With a little olive oil in a pan, heat pan over medium heat
• Cook chicken thighs one side at a time, until browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes total, but do not over cook
• When cool enough to touch, chop into bite sized pieces

For the Pizza:

• Upon your favorite pizza dough, spread out the beermelized onions as a base
• Scatter chicken pieces
• Place fresh mozzarella slices atop pizza next
• Place grated Buffalo Wing Cheddar on next
• Scatter gorgonzola crumbles atop pizza (see below for a picture to see pre-cooked distribution of ingredients)
• Cook as you would any pizza
• If you are Matt, serve with blue cheese dip for the crusts

Indian Spiced Yogurt Marinated Lamb Kebabs over Herb Salad

Visiting Mom this weekend for more wedding planning and we wanted to make something fun for dinner without having to go to the store.  She happened to have some boneless lamb shoulder, and suggested lamb kebabs.  I started looking at marinade options, and devised my own based loosely on a tandoori recipe.  Since summer has come early to NH, we also wanted a lighter dish, and didn't have any naan or lavash anyways, so served the kebabs over an herb salad (although if you wanted to make the meal heartier, or feel a necessity for starch, you can always have some warm naan or lavash on the side and roll up the kebabs with the salad inside too).

These kebabs would be stellar over a charcoal grill, but we were too tired to haul it out last night.  The broiler worked great, giving a slight char and keeping the lamb juicy and tender.  The kebabs will make good leftovers, either brought to room temperature or reheated gently.  Some of the spices may not be regular players in your pantry (tumeric, coriander, mustard powder), but it is worth buying a small quantity to make this dish.  Tangy, not too spicy, but very complex, mouthwatering and good for you too.  Try to find sustainable, all natural lamb for this dish.

For 4 people

Marinade:

• 1 cup 0% greek yogurt
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 TBS minced garlic
• 1/2 TBS sweet paprika
• 1/2 TBS ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp tumeric
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 TBS milk

Kebabs:

• 1 to 1 1/2 pounds lean, boneless lamb shoulder or leg, trimmed of fat and cut into 2" chunks
• 2 red bell peppers, cut into 1 1/2" pieces

Salad:

• Small head of romaine lettuce, cut into ribbons
• 2-3 scallions, thinly sliced
• small handful parsley, roughly chopped
• small handful cilantro, roughly chopped
• juice of half a lime and 1/2 tsp lime zest
• 2 TBS olive oil

Instructions:

• Whisk together marinade ingredients in big bowl
• Add lamb chunks to marinade, coat thoroughly and let sit at room temperature for 2 hours or refrigerate overnight (if refrigerating overnight, let lamb come to room temp before cooking)
• Thread lamb chunks onto metal skewers, placing two chunks of red pepper per lamb chunk alternately on the kebab
• Broil kebabs on foil, 3 minutes first side and 2 minutes on the second side for medium rare, then let rest for 5 minutes (if you have a charcoal grill, cook for same time over direct heat)
• While kebabs rest, assemble salad by tossing the lettuce and herbs with the lime juice, lime zest and olive oil
• Place kebabs atop salad, family style, or make individual plates, giving each person 4 to 5 lamb chunks and 8 or so red pepper chunks