Baked Brie en Croûte with Apple Compote

I have made Williams Sonoma's Baked Brie en Croûte with Apple Compote a number of times now. Unless you are making the puff pastry from scratch, this is a quick and easy recipe with great results. It's best served warm when the pastry is flaky, the cheese is oozing, and the apple pieces are as comforting as a freshly baked apple pie.

Baked Brie en Croûte with Apple Compote

This appetizer can be made up to 2 weeks in advance. Assemble the pastry, cheese and apple compote, but don't brush the dough with the egg wash. Instead, wrap the pastry tightly with plastic wrap and freeze until ready to bake. Then brush the frozen pastry with the egg wash and bake in a 350°F oven for 45 to 50 minutes.

1 Tbs. unsalted butter
2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. ground cardamom
1 round Brie cheese, 6 to 8 oz. and about 4 1/2 inches wide, slightly chilled
10-inch round of puff pastry dough, rolled out to 1/4-inch thickness
1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbs. water
Plain water crackers for serving

In a 2-quart sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the apples and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender and have released most of their liquid, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the sugar and cardamom, stir to dissolve and cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated, 12 to 15 minutes more. Remove from the heat and let the apple compote cool to room temperature.

Preheat an oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

With a sharp knife, cut the cheese in half horizontally. On a clean work surface, place one half of the cheese, sliced side up, and evenly spread 1/2 cup of the apple compote over it. Set the other half, sliced side down, over the compote and spread 1/2 cup compote over the top.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and set the cheese in the center of the dough. Fold the dough up over the sides of the cheese, pleating the upper edges to fit snugly around the cheese. Pinch the dough together in the center to seal. Brush the dough evenly with the egg wash and place on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake until the pastry is golden all over and crisp, 40 to 45 minutes. Let it rest for 5 minutes, then transfer to a platter along with a sharp knife and the crackers. Serve any remaining compote alongside.

Chez Panisse Experience

The first couple of years I was at Berkeley, I had walked right past the Chez Panisse gate many times without seeing it. I always wondered where it was. It was THAT unassuming. Of course, I eventually found the place, and enjoyed a few meals there. Maybe it didn't quite live up to the hype, but my experiences were all pleasant.

The last few months, I have came across several references to recipes from the acclaimed Chez Panisse Vegetables in a number of blogs. So when I got my hands on a copy of Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook, I thought it was time for me to try a couple of recipes. All things start small, for my first attempt, I chose two simple recipes - Fresh Ricotta Baked with Herbs and Olive Oil, and Baked Scallops with Prosciutto. (OK, OK, I admit, I simplified by skipping the meyer lemon relish and lettuce for the scallop. Yes, I'm sure these components would enhance the flavor of the dishes. However, I also believe that "enhancement" is what you build on top of a solid foundation. If something was distasteful to start with, all the enhancements in the world aren't going to make it fabulous, only mediocre.)

The baking dish I used for the ricotta is only about 1 1/2 inches deep, even though Ms. Waters said to pack in 2 inches of cheese. I took the ricotta out of the oven when it was all puffed up just like a souffle. Unfortunately, before I could even grab the camera, it shrank down. *sigh* Even with only 1 1/2 inch of cheese, the bottom still didn't get all creamy smooth like what you'd expect of baked cheese. The taste? Well, let's just say that even if the puff didn't go poof, my excitement would still be gone by the time I had the first bite. It tasted just like slightly salted ricotta cheese. The baking process didn't seem to alter anything. I felt so cheated. I should have just made another ricotta cheesecake. =(

The scallops, on the other hand, were superb! The outside was slightly crusty, the inside perfectly tender. The natural sweetness of the scallops paired with the salty prosciutto, even without the lettuce and the lemon relish, it was still so scrumptious that I had to keep telling myself "cholesterol, cholesterol, cholesterol.." to stop eating. =) Next time, I will definitely make the complete dish with the relish and all. (I know, my plating looked a little funny. The recipe said to drape the prosciutto over and around the scallops. But the creativity-lacking-me really didn't know how to "drape" artistically.)

With such a successful scallop course, even the uninspiring ricotta could be forgiven. I can't wait to try more recipes from this book.

New Gadget

I'm a kitchen gadget addict. I could literally drool in front of a pretty in pink food mixer, or goo goo ga ga over a shining SodaStream penguin. My latest object of obsession is the Vitamix blender. However, the price tag is really preventing me from getting close and personal with my love. The gadget addict haven't won over the thrifty deal seeker yet. But when I find an appliance in a killer deal, the universe comes together, both parts of me are happy! That’s how I became the new proud owner of a Cuisnart Brick Oven.

I used to fret over the preheating and cooling time of my oven. Who would want to bake cookies for 15 minutes when you had to preheat for 25 minutes, and listen to the oven fan for another 15 minutes to cool down afterwards?! Not me, that's for sure! So I normally stagger my baking, and let the oven run for hours. That of course lands me in the kitchen all day. (Call me crazy.) As much as I love cooking, that's exhausting. Now, this brick oven would solve my dilemma. Preheating only takes minutes, and no oven fan. Yippy!

The Ricotta Cheesecake from Le Cordon Bleu Dessert Techniques was the lucky winner to be the first product coming out of the Cuisnart. This was really a cake, instead of a cheesecake. The flour and ground almond made the filling quite dense, but it was nonetheless a good cake. It was neither too sweet nor too heavy like many cheesecakes. For the cup of dried fruit, I used a mix of dried blueberries, crasins, mango and pineapple bits. (I was out of candied peels.) Every bite was a little surprise. Hubby was so happy with the cake, he even had seconds.

I'm already planning on all the things I could bake. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. =)

Griddler, baby!

I LOVE my Cusinart Griddler. I love buying kitchen stuff, but I'm not very good at putting things to use. As a result, my kitchen is filled with stuff, and more than half of them never taken out of the boxes. This summer, I finally busted the griddler out of its shell. Since I don't have a BBQ (not yet anyways, don't worry, that's coming), the Griddler is great for things like sliders. Our favorite though is chicken quesadilla. It's so simple and cooked to order. Even J, who normally doesn't like meat in its original form, loves it and requests it every week or two.

Chicken Quesadilla

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup of shredded cheese (feel free to use whatever mix you like, Mexican, or a simple Jack & Mozzarella)
3 large flour tortilla
salt
oil

Use the Grill plates, brush just a little bit of oil on the plates. (I like to use grill plates for both the chicken and the quesadillas, so they all have the nice grill marks. The griddle plates should work fine too.) Preheat the Grillder on the Panini setting to Medium.

Slice the chicken breasts in halves crosswise. This step is optional, but the thicker the chicken is, the longer it takes to cook.

Sprinkle salt on both sides of the chicken breasts.

Put one layer of the chicken breasts on the grill, depending on the thickness of the chicken breasts, it could take as little as 2 minutes to cook. Repeat with the rest pieces.

Dice the chicken.

Wipe down the plates when they cool down a bit, preheat on the Panini setting to Medium low.

Brush the outside of the tortillas with oil, fill the inside with diced chicken, and cheese.

Grill the quesadilla!

Voila! You are done. You could grill and dice the chicken breasts ahead of time. So dinner would be ready in matter of minutes.

Halloween

About a month ago, K told me that she was throwing a Halloween party. So for the first time in years, instead of waiting in the house for trick-or-treaters, we were going to spend Halloween with some other adults. (That's exciting, isn't it? Yes, I know, my life is boring.) This party was what I looked forward to all week.

Right after trick-or-treating at Bell Square, (if you live in the area and don't know, Bellevue Collections hosts a trick-or-treating and a number of other activities on Halloween that are quite exciting for little kids) we headed over to K's. Being a person whose world revolve around food, I always worry about if there were enough food at parties. You certainly don't want to have guests wondering what else they could nibble on after someone takes that last scoop of dip. So I brought along a baked brie and some Parmesan crackers. I used half of a wheel of brie from Costco. And since that was much bigger than what the recipe called for, I had to roll out the puff pastry quite a bit. The apple compote and the brie complemented each other perfectly. It was a big hit. I wanted to serve the crackers alongside the brie, so I omitted pepper and rosemary altogether. (Oh, who am I kidding? That's just an excuse. The real reason was that I didn't have any fresh rosemary.) I ended up with 36 crackers. I probably cut them a little thin, so the dough kept on cracking (haha, no pun intended) that I had to reshape them a bit. But I thought they were the perfect thickness, I wouldn't want them any thicker.

I also made a French Onion Tart based on fellow seattlite Orangette's Molly's recipe. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the party (which was only 6:15), most people already had a fair share of the food, and the tart got a little cold. So not many people tried it, even after I reheated it in the oven. Lesson learned, next time, I should take things that still taste good eaten at room temperature or on the cold side of the temperature.

But I really shouldn't have worried about there not being enough food. K is a big food person like me. She often prepares way more food than necessary. There were tons of choices from the sophisticated crab dip to the Asian-influenced kalbi marinated flank steak to the very American hot dogs and tater tots to the various types of chips, AND desserts, such as cookies, dessert breads and rice krispy treats. I wouldn't bore you as the list went on, but you got the drift.
Everybody chatted and drank and nibbled while all the kids ran around the house and went trick-or-treating not once, but twice! We all went home happy and full. The only lingering thought on my mind was that I didn't realize it was a costume party. So now I have to start thinking about what I'd be next year. =)