Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Ring

On Sunday, D and I are hosting thirty-ish people for a housewarming. Our freezer is full to the top spinach-feta filo pies, tartlets and muffins, all shaped like my one tartlet pan. I'm making a meringue pavlova tomorrow, but I wanted another dessert, and I can't make any more tartlet-shaped things or my house will become one big tartlet. Enter David Lebovitz -- acclaimed chef, lucky Parisian, and expert food blogger. His pumpkin-chocolate chip ring recipe looked tasty, but I had no applesauce or orange juice in my fridge. I did, however, have some homemade yogurt (thanks to my new Salton yogurt maker). So I took David's recipe and messed around with it a little, substituting yogurt for the applesauce and orange juice, altering some other proportions slightly, and doubling the recipe. I also added some toffee bits, which practically melt into the cake while it bakes. The result is an incredibly light yet moist cake that tastes rich with pumpkin and chocolate but won't break your calorie bank. I'll most definitely be making this again.

Here's my one confession about the recipe: David Lebovitz is a professional. He used to be the pastry chef at The French Laundry, an acclaimed restaurant, and has written several fantastic cookbooks (including The Perfect Scoop, which has the best ice cream recipes EVER.) The point is, being a pastry chef means that he's very precise in his instructions, and I'm sure he's right that following those instructions will yield a better, lighter cake. having said that, I didn't follow any of his instructions (see all my asterisked notes throughout) and my cake came out fine. Do as you please....but I'm telling you, my "wrong" way works, too. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Ring adapted from David Lebovitz. serves 10-12

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp. nutmeg 1/3 cup chocolate chips

1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin 2 cups plain yogurt or sour cream 2/3 cup brown sugar 2 large eggs 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1 teaspoons vanilla

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. 2. Mix together dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside. 3. In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients and blend with a mixer on high until frothy, 1-2 minutes.* 4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ingredients. Stir together JUST UNTIL MIXED and add the chocolate chips. DO NOT OVERMIX.** 5. Grease a non-stick ring pan. If using a regular ring pan, grease and flour to ensure that the cake comes out cleanly. Spread the batter into the pan (and as usual, other pans will work -- the ring does look pretty, though.) David says "spread using a gentle touch." 6. Bake until top of the cake springs back when touched, about 40-42 minutes depending on your oven. DO NOT OVERBAKE. 7. Let cool on a wire cake rack, then invert. Let cool completely, then sprinkle with powdered sugar. *I didn't use a hand mixer -- I just whisked the wet ingredients with a fork for a minute or two, until well mixed and light. ** I committed the sin of adding dry to wet -- and my cake still came out light and fluffy.

**Note: I've gotten a couple questions about how to make this pareve (non-dairy). The answer: subsitute David Lebovitz's wet ingredients for mine:

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon canned pumpkin
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
grated zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup fresh orange juice or water
3 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg 1
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The instructions in this recipe are the same for a pareve version of this cake, as they're mostly taken from Monsieur Lebovitz himself.

Not Derby Pie Recipe

One Friday night many years ago, this dish landed on my dining room table. Being the ever-obnoxious 9-year-old that I was, I immediately spat, "what's that?"
"Not Derby Pie."
"Not Derby Pie?"
"yep."
"Well if it's not Derby Pie, then what is it?" and, after a moment's hesitation, "what is Derby Pie, anyway?"
My mother laughed, as she often does -- then told me to just try it already.

The backstory: Derby Pie® is the exclusive product (and name) of Kern's Kitchen. According to their website, "Derby Pie® was born nearly a half century ago as the specialty pastry of the Melrose Inn, at Prospect, Kentucky. Once developed, a proper name had to be given. Because each family member had a favorite, the name DERBY-PIE® was actually pulled from a hat." While I've never had the original, the concept of the pie is genius. A deep-dish pie shell is sprinkled generously with chocolate chips, then loaded to the top with nutty nougat filling and baked just until set. What more can a pie-lover want?

In 1982, in an article by Phyllis Richman profiling Kern's Kitchen, The Washington Post featured a recipe for Not Derby Pie. My mom took hold of this recipe and never let go -- she made it very often and it was an instant hit among friends. Admittedly, I was a nut-hater at the time, and the pie didn't much strike my fancy. I did, however, manage to eat the entire bottom layer of two slices and pick through the nougat a bit before calling it quits. Once I discovered how fantastic nuts are, this pie quickly climbed high on my favorites list. It's one of my go-to recipes for Friday night dinner parties, and an unfailing success.

Not Derby Pie (adapted from the Washington Post)
serves 8-10.

1 pie crust or graham cracker crust
1 stick margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup flour
1 cup chopped or ground walnuts
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Combine sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flour; mix until ingredients are incorporated.

2. Melt butter, and allow it to cool a bit; pour butter into mixed ingredients very slowly. Mix to combine. Add nuts and stir just until incorporated.

3. Sprinkle chips into the bottom of the pie crust. Pour mixture over.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

...really, that's it.

Asian Cabbage Salad

I promise lots of posts this week with various recipes and pics from our housewarming, but this recipe was requested multiple times tonight with varying degrees of urgency, so it gets first attention. My mom and I first encountered this salad at a potluck. One of the guests showed up with four ziploc bags, and in a matter of minutes had a beautiful salad ready to go. Naturally, we went home and attempted to copy the fantastically sweet and tangy dressing for our own cabbage slaw. After a little tinkering, my we got it just right. Ever since then, it's been a family favorite. I've been known to devour this salad whenever it's in the fridge -- and that's pretty often, considering my mom always keeps around tupperwares of toasted "crunchies," dressing and the other ingredients. This will soon become a staple in your house -- and it's quick to prepare. I should add that this salad will welcome whatever you toss its way: yesterday, I had leftover chopped and spiced water chestnuts, carrots and fennel from some Asian dumplings I had made, so I added them to the salad and they worked quite nicely.

Asian Cabbage Salad
serves 6-8.

salad:
1 bag sliced cabbage or 2 small heads of cabbage, one green and one purple sliced thinly
2 scallions, washed and slivered
1 can mandarin oranges
1 avocado, sliced (optional)

crunchies:
1 bag instant ramen, broken up into small pieces
1/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds or pine nuts
1/4 cup sesame seeds

dressing:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
several dashes sesame oil

1. Preheat over to 300 degrees. Put ramen noodles, nuts and sesame seeds onto a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake 10-15 minutes, or until ramen are golden. Cool completely.

2. Toss all vegetables in a large salad bowl.

3. Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk with a fork.

4. Toss together shortly before serving. Noodles will gradually get soggy, so the sooner served, the better.

Etrog Marmalade

from the archive. It's the last day of sukkot. Your lulav is on the table getting brown, and your etrog is still in the fridge, getting dry. Same story, every year: what on earth are you going to do with a palm branch, some willow and myrtle leaves, and a fruit that really doesn't have all that much fruit inside? My answer is usually...uh...throw them away? I know, you're not supposed to. If you have a better suggestion...

Leave it to my mother to be creative; that's really her forte. She's been using the etrog in her Thanksgiving cranberry sauce for years now, and a few years back she started making marmalade. Now she doesn't go to all the trouble of soaking jars in a hot water bath, sealing them professionally and destroying any possibilities that bacteria will sneak in and give all of us botulism -- but hey, these marmalades aren't around for long enough that we really have to worry about it. Her no-nonsense packaging solution is mini tupperware containers. They stay just fine in the fridge until Passover, and by then my dad makes sure to finish them off.

While it may sound like a complicated project, it's really not: the ratio of sugar:liquid:fruit is one:one:one, and once it's on the stove top you just stir until it drips off the spoon in a particular way. The catch is that it's incredibly time-consuming. Pick up a paper, 'cause between the measuring, the waiting, the stirring, the checking, the packaging and (finally) the tasting, this is an all-day affair. Actually, make that an all-day-and-the-night-before affair, since if you don't like your marmalade to taste horridly bitter, you have to soak the peels overnight.

But it sure it worth the trouble.

So as I've already mentioned, when my mom told me she was doing this, I literally dropped everything and went on over. The smell of citrus and sweet sticky stuff assaulted me as I walked in the door -- not that that's a bad thing. My mom was slaving away over the stove, and I did what any good daughter would do: popped my camera out of its case and started snapping away! There's no recipe for marmalade; there are proportions, and there are steps, and then there are steps that you can't skip. At least, that's how I see it. Every recipe always has skippable steps. I've skipped a lot of steps that recipe authors claim are crucial -- is my food bad? you tell me. But in this recipe, there are a couple things you really should do, like soaking the peels and checking marmalade regularly. Don't skip 'em. :)

Etrog Marmalade

Ratio of fruit:sugar:water/juice is one:one:one.
fruit: we use etrog, apricot, orange, kiwi, pomegranate, cranberry...you name it.
equal amount of sugar
equal amount of water.
**My mom substituted some lime syrup she had lying around for a bit of water in one batch, and some juice she had for some water in another. If you sub juice or fruit syrup or other sweet liquid for any of the water, cut the sugar accordingly. By "accordingly" I mean if you use, say, 1/2 a cup of juice, cut the sugar by about 1/8-1/4 of a cup, say.

Begin the night before you plan to make the marmalade.
Wash and scrub the peels of any citrus fruits you plan to use. Then peel the fruit, pick out any pith (that's the white stuff between peel and fruit) (optional), and grind peels in the food processor until they're in small bits. I warn you -- this stuff is fragrant!

Soak the peels in water overnight. You'll drain them the next morning. This should help remove some of the bitterness that the peels would have imparted to your marmalade.

The next morning, drain the peels.
If you plan on using apricots or any other dried fruit, you have to reconstitute them before using them. Reconstituting dried fruit involves letting them soak in boiling water until they puff up a bit and get juicy. I enjoy some reconstituted dried fruit more than their fresh versions, and apricots are no exception: they're juicy like fresh apricots, but softer, and their flavor is greatly intensified. If you do reconstitute any dried fruit (and I recommend apricots), save the liquid and use it instead of some of the water in your recipe.

Here's a cheat sheet of how we used each fruit in our marmalade. This can serve as inspiration for you when you make yours, but it is in now way exhaustive.

• Apricots: reconstituted, then pureed, and saved the liquid
• Etrog: no real "fruit" in etrog, just peels -- so ground and soaked peels
• Orange/Lemon: ground and soaked peels, chopped segments of fruit
• Lime: lime syrup (can also use fruit and peels)
• Pomegranate: syrup, juice
• Cranberries: these cook very quickly and have a lot of natural pectin in them, so they firm up easily. Add them to your marmalade about 5-7 minutes before it's finished.
• Kiwi: mushed up fruit/pulp

Now you're ready to make marmalade.

Into a heavy saucepan, put equal parts of fruit, sugar, and liquid. Turn the heat on high until it reaches a boil, then lower the heat to low-med and let the mixture simmer. This will take between 15-20 minutes. The idea is to check for doneness with a wooden spoon. Every so often, stick your spoon deep into the marmalade, remove, and hold it horizontally over the pot, letting everything drip off of it.

• At first, the marmalade will be liquidy and will dip easily, in a steady stream.
• As marmalade reduces, it will start to coat the spoon and drip a bit more slowly.
• When marmalade is nearing doneness, it will form two points on the spoon from which it drips.
• When it's done, the two points will merge into one, and it will sort of dribble off the spoon in one slow motion.

Basically, you'll stop cooking it when it's thick to your liking. There's no real rule about this -- it's a matter of taste.

As for cranberries, I mentioned about that they should go in about 5 minutes before your citrus fruit are finished, if you choose to use them. They'll gel much more quickly than the rest.

When your marmalade is finished cooking, transfer it to a pyrex or coated glass bowl and allow it lots of time to cool. It will thicken further as it comes down to room temperature. When it's gone down to warm, you can start putting it in your tupperware containers. (If you want to do this the professional way, see here for canning instructions.)

You can eat your marmalade on toast, as a sauce on chicken or meat, as a condiment on most anything, or out of the tupperware with a spoon. And can I tell you? It's pretty darn great.