Jam tart and Macaroni and cheese

You know how sometimes you'll buy a cookbook on a whim, fail on the first recipe you try, and that experience calls the entire rest of the book into question?  So much so that you put it on the 3rd string cookbook shelf, every once in a while gazing upon its screaming yellow and black spine with resentment?  Such was the case for me with The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper.  I mean, the title alone fills me with a sort of unfocused rage, and I'm not prone to raging.  Reasons:

(1) Even though she has nothing to do with this book, The Splendid Table makes me think of the place where Ina Garten, a.k.a. The Barefoot Contessa, would eat.  "Oh Barefoot Contessa, please bring that rack of lamb over here to the splendid table!" etc. 

(2) I think I already know how to eat supper.  I put it in my mouth, chew it, and swallow it.  I can't stand condescending book titles, and for that reason I will never buy one of those "For Dummies" books.

So this book had two strikes with the title alone, and the dud recipe inside meant that this book has been languishing, unused, for nearly two years.  And this is a shame because it's expensive food porn, albeit with a lot of wasted space and non-recipe filler such as Japanese bowl/chopstick selection (p.186) and a couple of paragraphs on how to behave in France (p. 199, you should attempt to speak the language).  

Anyway, to break up my painting routine, sometimes I'll listen to The Splendid Table's online archives.  It's a weekly show on some NPR stations (not ours) hosted by the book's motherly co-author Lynne Rossetto Kasper.  TST is kind of precious and its rhythms are entirely predictable, but it is educational.  And all of this listening led me to revisit the show's cookbook.  I'm so glad I did, because last night it produced two fast and very easy winners, a rustic jam tart and macaroni and cheese.  I assembled the tart, cleaned out the food processor, and made the macaroni while the tart was baking.  I suggest you do the same because obviously this creates a balanced meal.

RUSTIC JAM SHORTBREAD TART (adapted by me for 11-inch tart pan)

• zest of most of a lemon
• generous 1/3 cup whole almonds <--salted, roasted snack almonds are fine
• 1 cup flour
• generous 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 C (stick) butter, cut into 8 pieces
• 1 large egg yolk plus about a 1/2 teaspoon of its white  <--sorry
• 1/2 t almond extract  <--I used vanilla as I find almond extract kind of aggressive
• 1 cup (or so) of jam  <--raspberry was good, TST recommends mixing bits of jam from the bottoms of jars in the refrigerator, which is a good idea

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400.  Butter an 11-inch round silver-colored cake or tart pan.  If using a dark-colored pan, you will want to cut baking time by about 5 minutes.  I did not butter my silver tart pan and it came out easily; skip that if you're into living dangerously.

Grind lemon zest and almonds in the food processor until they are fine in texture.  Add flour, sugar, salt, butter, egg yolk and tiny bit of white, and almond extract or vanilla.  Pulse until they are blended and start to come together in small clumps at the bottom of the processor.  They should look like clusters of peas.  Mine did not resemble peas, but it did sort of come together and I decided it was done.

Turn the pastry dough into the pan.  With your hands, pat it out to evenly cover the bottom of the pan.  Give the tart a standing rim by nudging the dough 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan.  Don't worry if it looks a little ragged.

Bake the crust in the center of the oven for 13-16 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the center is starting to color.  Mine took 13.  The rim will sink down a little which is fine.

Remove the pan from the oven and turn the heat up to 500.  Carefully spread the jam over the tart and immediately return it to the oven (don't wait for the temperature to reach 500).  Bake for another 5-8 minutes, or until the jam is bubbly.

Cool the tart on a rack, slice it into squares or wedges, and serve.  Serve the tart warm, but not hot, because hot jam can burn.

 

The following is now my go-to macaroni and cheese.  I refuse to call it mac 'n' cheese because I am uptight.  The reason they call this 21st-Century macaroni and cheese is because you don't have to make a time-consuming cream sauce base.  The food processor does all of the work, and it comes together in mere minutes.  It is insanely rich and therefore amazing.  I wouldn't eat it every week, that's for sure, but I can see this as a welcome addition to a holiday menu, or you could use it to make sad people happy.  And dude, do not skip the buttered saltines.  Trust me on that.

21st-Century Macaroni and Cheese

• 2 C elbow macaroni
• 1 large egg
• 1 C milk, half-and-half, or cream <-- depending on how severe a heart attack you wish to experience
• 1 small garlic clove
• 3/4 medium onion, coarse chopped  <-- this seemed like too much onion; next time I'll use less
• 1 generous cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 5 oz cream cheese, cut into pieces  <-- I went with 1/3 reduced fat
• 2/3 C shredded Gruyere, Appenzeller, or Manchego cheese  <-- Gruyere was *incredible* here
• generous 1/8 t red pepper flakes
• generous 1/8 t salt
• generous 1/8 t pepper
• generous 1/4 t sweet paprika
• 3 T butter
• 12 saltines, coarse crumbled

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350.

Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil.  Salt it and drop in the macaroni.  Boil, stirring often, until the pasta is tender but still with a little firmness.  Drain.

Butter a shallow 1.5 to 2 quart baking dish, and add the cooked macaroni.

In a blender of food processor, combine the egg, milk, and garlic.  Process 3 seconds.  Add the onion, cheeses, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and paprika, and blend for 10 seconds, or until the onion is cut down to small pieces and the ingredients are blended.  Turn the mixture into the dish, folding it into the macaroni.  (The casserole could be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 24 hours at this point.)

To bake, bring the casserole close to room temperature if it has been refrigerated.  Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the saltine crumbles, and coat them with the butter.  Spread them over the top of the casserole.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until thick yet creamy.  If the top is not golden brown, slip the casserole under the broiler for a minute.  Remove it from the oven, let it stand 5 minutes, and serve.

While all of this is going on, give your cats some catnip...

...and then watch your darling kitty turn into a mean drunk, throwing punches at anyone who invades her space bubble:

Comments

[L]

If I pretend to be sad, will you make me macaroni and cheese?

[Kelly]

For you, honey, I'd make the macaroni and cheese *and* the jam tart.

[Caroline]

I LOVE EVERYTHING IN THIS POST.

If I could ever eat that much dairy at once and not die, I'd be all over the macaroni and cheese.

[Michelle]

The macaroni and cheese sounds delicious! You crack me up; I don't like those condescending book titles, either. Then add pretentiousness to condescending with "The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper", and you've got a double whammy. I guess you can't always judge a book by it's cover.

[Kelly]

Thank you, Caroline and Michelle! Caroline, the key here is to eat about 1/2 cup of this and then walk away like it never happened. It is so freaking good. Michelle, you have crystallized my thoughts perfectly. :)

[GinaE]

Love the way you write as much as your painting!

[ML]

I am making the Macaroni and Cheese as we speak! I am from the Netherlands though so I'm not quite sure how much to use since the measurements are different, in The Netherlands we use grams. I can't wait to try it though! I'll let you know how it turns out :) Yours looks amazing!!! Thanks for posting recipes here!

[Kelly]

Good luck, ML! This might help you with the measurements:

http://allrecipes.com//HowTo/cup-to-gram-conversions/Detail.aspx

It's been a long time since I've made this, and yeah, I'm craving it majorly now. :)