Sprung At Last

Spiced Carrot Muffins with Currants and Brown Butter

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Everything comes to an end, and in the case of this past week, that’s really for the best. It started off well enough, and I had all sorts of ambitions for things I’d get done: My to-do list was long, my vegetable drawer full.

 

By the end, the to-do list was no shorter and the vegetable drawer was still full, and even as Friday evening rolled around with time enough to do something about one of those things, I couldn’t find the list – it’s probably here somewhere, but I wouldn’t swear to it – and I had some awareness that me using a sharp knife at that moment was probably not the best plan.

 

In any case, I didn’t want dinner as much as comfort. The Child didn’t want either.

 

I flipped through The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook, which pretty much lives on my counter these days, and ran across these carrot muffins, which seemed like a good idea on several counts:  I had all the ingredients on hand; spiced, baked anything sounded really good at that moment, and at least three of the carrots in my kitchen would get used before they expired. So, on the Friday night of the week that I hope is not a sign of how the new year is going to go, I made them.

 

These muffins are delicious – buttery, light, moist, and spicy. Douglas uses a mixing technique I’ve not encountered before, layering the carrots and currants between the beaten wet ingredients and sifted dry ingredients, then folding the mixture just enough to blend. I’m not quite sure why, and if you happen know, please fill me in. The muffins didn’t rise quite as much as I expected them too, so I may have done something wrong (over-folded?). Still, I managed not to burn the butter, and render it a deep, nutty brown.

 

There is something comforting about a house that smells like melted butter, and there are times when breakfast is what you really need for dinner. So The Child and I watched Disney movies together, and scratched The Dog behind the ears, and ate muffins out of the oven on a Friday night.

 

 Spiced Carrot Muffins

Spiced Carrot Muffins With Currants and Brown Butter
 
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Author:
Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1⁄2 cup dried currants
  • 1⁄2 cup water
  • 1 3⁄4 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 3⁄4 tsp cinnamon
  • 3⁄4 tsp ground ginger
  • 4 large eggs at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1⁄2 tsp grated orange zest
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 3⁄4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 cup peeled and grated carrot
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line the muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.
  2. To make the brown butter, place the butter in a small saucepan over medium- high heat and cook until the butter solids are browned and smell toasty, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes or a little longer. Watch carefully so the butter does not burn. As the butter browns, the foam rises to the top and dark brown particles stick to the bottom of the pan. As soon as the butter is dark golden brown, pour it into a small bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature.
  3. Combine the currants with the water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium high heat. Simmer until the currants are plump, about 10 minutes. Remove the currants from the heat, drain, and transfer to a small bowl to cool to room temperature.
  4. Into a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger together twice, then set the dry ingredients aside.
  5. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, sugar, orange zest, vanilla, and salt. Using the whisk attachment, whip on medium- high speed until thick and pale, about 3 minutes.
  6. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Without stirring, place the carrots and currants on top of the egg mixture. Then pour the dry ingredients on top and, using a rubber spatula, gently fold everything together. Finally, fold in the browned butter, combining everything thoroughly but gently.
  7. Scoop the muffins into the paper- lined muffin cups, dividing it evenly, using about 3 ounces, or about 1 ⁄3 cup, of batter per muffin.
  8. Bake until the muffins are cooked through and golden, about 18 minutes, rotating the pan once halfway through the baking time. A wooden skewer inserted into a muffin should come out with a few crumbs clinging but no batter.
  9. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack about 10 minutes before unmolding.
Notes
Douglas suggests grating the carrot use the largest holes of a box grater. I have no idea where my box grater is or if I still own one. I used the grating disc of my Cuisinart. Douglas also suggests sprinkling the top of each muffin with sanding sugar and salt before baking, which I didn't do, but would be a very nice touch.
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Spicy Three-Bean and Corn Chili

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I have a culinary crush on Thomas Keller, and in poking around on the website for Seattle’s cookbook store, I discover they have a signed copy of one of his cookbooks for sale. This seems like a good reason to leave the house during our Christmas vacation, so The Child and I abandon our new toys – briefly – and head in to the city.

 

It turns out the store doesn’t have the book I think they do – Ad Hoc at Home, in case you were wondering – but they have dozens of other signed cookbooks that they are happy to sell me. I immediately spy a signed copy of Alice Waters’ newest, which I leaf through and claim, since it has a number of vegetarian recipes, although, truthfully, I’m not sure how many of them I’d actually make. I keep looking.

 

There’s plenty to look at – all the big names are represented, many with signed copies – Ottolenghi! David Tanis! But it’s like being lost in paradise: Everything around me is wonderful, but I just want Home – the cookbook full of things I’d actually make and eat. Most of the books have one or two recipes like that, but that’s it, and those are the books I check out of the library.

 

The Child is bored. You found something, she says. Can we be done?

 

No, I tell her. Not until you find a cookbook full of recipes you would eat. Go find it.

 

She comes back five minutes later with her mission accomplished and a very pleased expression. Can we get it? It will be my first cookbook. Can I get it?

 

She’s found a tiny cookbook, beautifully and probably artisanally printed, with nothing but different recipes for strawberries. I can’t argue the point – she really would eat pretty much anything involving strawberries. I tell her it’s hers if she lets me find a cookbook too. I want something full of recipes we both want to eat.

 

She takes my Alice Waters and turns her nose up at it, and then does the same with Patricia Wells. I hand her a book full of Mac and Cheese recipes, but she pronounces them weird and points out that half of them involve meat. I finally pick up and start leafing through what I think is a baking book, Flour, Too, by Joanne Chang. I loved her first cookbook, which actually was a baking book, that I checked out of the library to try, and then made several superb recipes from (Classic Peanut Butter Cookies and Vanilla Bean Krispy Rice Treats). This new book, though, includes both sweet and savory dishes, and I sit down with it and start putting mental sticky notes on half the pages. Chili and soup and sandwiches that even The Child might eat. I hand it to her, and she doesn’t need to do more than look at the table of contents. Spiced Banana Pancakes? We’re getting it, she says.

 

The first recipe I tried was the first dinner recipe that The Child got really excited about – Three-Bean and Corn Chili. She misses chili, she tells me, and I kind of agree. It seems like an obvious thing to make for her, because she loves it and there are hundreds of recipes for vegetarian chili out there, probably thousands. Yet, I’ve never found one I liked, until now.

 

Chang’s recipe, like all her other recipes I’ve tried, isn’t complex. Although she gives directions for an overnight bean soak, she very graciously also gives directions for the rest of us –  the ones who didn’t plan our meal yesterday but really want chili right now. I made this with canned beans and it was just fine. I also didn’t use no-salt-added tomatoes, but took extra care at the end not to oversalt, tasting rather than measuring out salt. I cut all the pieces into a fairly small, even dice, and cooking was a breeze. It doesn’t have the issues that I’ve found with other vegetarian chili recipes that I’ve tried – too watery, not robust enough, not enough flavor. A lot of them feel more like soup to me than chili.

 

This chili is spicy, and those who don’t like things very spicy may wish to cut back on the amount of chili powder used (one blogger suggests cutting it by half). I thought it was fine, but The Child thought it needed to be less spicy. Still, she surprised me by proclaiming that she liked it,  and asking if I would make it again, just with a little less spice. I will definitely make it again, and play around with it until I get the spice mix just right for her – once I finish this batch. It makes a lot.

 

Spicy Three-Bean and Corn Chili

 

 

Spicy Three-Bean and Corn Chili
 
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Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • One 15-oz. can of cannellini beans
  • One 15-oz. can of black beans
  • One 15-oz. can of chickpeas
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, cut into ½-inch pieces
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
  • 1 celery stalk, cut into ½-inch pieces
  • 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
  • 2 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
  • One 15-oz. can of corn kernels, drained and rinsed
  • One 4-oz. can of minced mild green chiles
  • Two 14½-oz. cans of "no-salt added" diced tomatoes, with juice
  • 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
  • 2 tbsp packed brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tbsp smoked Spanish paprika
  • 2 tsp cocoa powder
  • ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp kosher salt
  • ½ tsp freshly ground white pepper
Instructions
  1. Drain the beans in a colander, rinse under running water, and set aside.
  2. In a large stockpot, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, sweet potato, and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the vegetables start to soften, the onion starts to turn translucent, and you can smell the vegetables cooking. Add the drained beans, corn, green chiles, tomatoes, and 4 cups of water, and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add the vinegar, brown sugar, chili powder, paprika, cocoa powder, cayenne, salt, and white pepper. Stir until well mixed and bring back to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the mixture thickens a bit.
  3. The chili can be ladled into bowls and served immediately, or it can be cooled, covered, and refrigerated overnight to develop flavor and texture. It can also be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up 1 month.
Notes
Chang also gives instructions for using dried beans in her book. I used canned beans for convenience and the recipe worked very well. I also didn't use "no salt added tomatoes", but you should adjust the amount of salt you add at the end if you do this.
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Creamy Spaghetti Carbonara

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The Child gave me a lovely gift on Christmas: a set of new pans. She’d heard enough of me complaining about the set I bought with The Departed – which weren’t actually bad pans, but they scratched up badly and very quickly and after just a few years of use, look like they were used for target practice by a squadron of Iron Chefs.

 

These new pans are cheerful and clean, and they heat up fast – I was a bit alarmed by a warning on the bottom of the pans to only use them on “low or medium heat,” but apparently that’s because if you use high heat, your food will be rapidly reduced to ash. I discover this when I break in the first pan with a couple of strips of bacon, and have to quickly turn the heat down.

 

The Child is pleased, and watches me cook with obvious pride in her selection, but also with a certain amount of interest in what I’m cooking. It smells good, she says. I miss bacon.

 

She made her pescatarian pledge several years ago, and to my amazement, only broke down once, succumbing to temptation at Red Robin with an order of chicken tenders that she has regretted ever since.

 

She sniffs the air and agonizes over the decision. I am fine with whatever you do, I tell her.

 

She succumbs, and eats one piece.

 

I try not to discuss it too much, but later I ask if she feels bad about eating it, and she says, no. I really miss bacon. I miss chicken mcnuggets, too.

 

We have a long discussion about her eating habits. I don’t mind her refusal to eat meat, and never have – I’d happily make vegetarian dishes all the time. But it’s a struggle, because most of the time she doesn’t like them, or worse, she likes them the first time she eats them, and I’m happy to have found something to add to my limited Child-friendly repertoire, but then the next time I make the exact same thing, she doesn’t like it. I’ve explained the need to broaden her horizons, or if she is unwilling or unable to do that, to learn how to manage them politely, because it’s a pain to be around, and she’s going to find that people are increasingly less tolerant of this trait as she gets older.

 

She tells me she thinks she may grow out of it, or at least her internet research on the subject has led her to this conclusion, but she’s also afraid she may have this other, rare condition she read about, which causes her to never grow out of it.

 

I’ve done this same research, and have this same fear.

 

But the day after Christmas, she’s still not regretting her decision to eat one piece of bacon, and I inquire, would you be willing to eat a little bacon, just here and there? You used to like spaghetti carbonara so much.

 

I miss that, too, she says. I miss that a lot. Maybe, could you make it, and just not tell anyone that I ate it?

 

Sure, I could do that, I tell her.

 

So I opened up my binder of recipes to what was once an old standby, Creamy Spaghetti Carbonara. I found this dish from Anne Quatrano on Food and Wine, and used to make it regularly when The Departed’s children came over for their scheduled visits; the kids all loved it, and called it bacon and eggs spaghetti. It’s easy to make, though I nearly always manage to forget to reserve some of the pasta water for the sauce – just swap in some regular water if you do this. The recipe calls for pancetta, but I just use regular bacon and cook it a bit longer. There’s no need for olive oil if you do this. It probably goes without saying, but just in case: If you use regular store bacon, don’t get maple flavored. The bacon flavors the dish. (Unless you want maple-flavored spaghetti, in which case, enjoy!)

 

Creamy Spaghetti Carbonara

 

Creamy Spaghetti Carbonara
 
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Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 pound spaghetti
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 6 ounces thickly sliced pancetta, or bacon, cut into ⅛-inch dice
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 cup Parmesan cheese (3 ounces), plus more for serving
  • Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
  • pepper
Instructions
  1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the spaghetti until just al dente. Drain, reserving ½ cup of the pasta cooking water.
  2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks and cream. In a large, deep skillet, heat the oil. Add the pancetta or bacon and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until crisp, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until golden, 1 minute.
  3. Add the spaghetti to the skillet. Cook over low heat, tossing, until coated. Slowly add the reserved pasta cooking water and beaten egg yolks. Toss until coated with a creamy sauce, about 1 minute. Add the cup of Parmesan and the nutmeg; season with pepper. Transfer to bowls and serve, passing extra Parmesan.
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