Cranberries

Are these not the most gorgeous cranberries you've ever seen?

My friend, whom I've known since childhood, just dropped them off this morning at my house.

Her dad picks them somewhere around Lake Rossignol, down in Queens County where we grew up.

When she asked me last week if I'd like to have some, of course I said 'Yes.'

I was assuming she'd give me just a few cupfuls for baking, but when the doorbell rang today, there was Angela holding out a huge grocery bag full of the freshest, most perfectly red, round, shiny berries I'd ever seen. There must have been 20 cups of fruit in that bag!

Time for me to get baking. The first thing I did was whip up a little pastry for a cranberry-apple tart.

(Well, actually, before that, I got out my camera, because anything this good-looking deserves to have its picture taken!)






I'm not much of a pie baker, but I do enjoy making free-form, open faced pies. You can't make a mistake with them. The more ragged and crooked you make them, the more beautifully rustic and homemade they look.

I don't really follow a recipe for this tart. If you want a "real" recipe to follow, I'll come back later and post exact measurements, but for now, here's what I did: I just tossed together a little flour, salt and sugar, cut in some butter and shortening, squeezed it gently into a ball and rolled it out. Then I tossed some apples and cranberries with a little lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and mounded on top of the pastry. I pulled the sides of the pastry up around the fruit, gave it a little hug with my hands to hold it together and baked it in the oven, first at 450F for about 15 minutes and then at 350F for about 30 minutes, or until the pastry was golden and crisp.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........

Thanks for the cranberries!!!

Update!!!: Here's the recipe I promised for the free-form apple tart. If you don't have fresh cranberries, leave them out, but this combination is so delicious and, I'm thinking, healthy, too.

RUSTIC APPLE TART

Toss grated old cheddar cheese in this pastry to add flakiness and a flavour similar to enjoying a wedge of sharp cheddar with warm apple pie.
Pastry:
375 ml (1 1/2 cups) unbleached flour
2 ml (1/2 tsp) salt
50 ml (1/4 cup) cold butter, cubed
50 ml (1/4 cup) cold shortening, cubed
Optional: 125 ml (1/2 cup) grated old cheddar
cheese
75 ml (1/3 cup) ice water

Filling:
6 Gravenstein apples, cored and
thinly sliced (peel if you like)
250 ml (1 cup) cranberries
15 ml (1 tbsp) lemon juice
50 ml (1/4 cup) sugar
5 ml (1 tsp) cinnamon
1 ml (1/4 tsp) nutmeg
15-20 ml (1-2 tbsp) cold butter
30 ml (2 tbsp) sugar mixed with 5 ml (1 tsp) cinnamon

Make sure butter and shortening are well chilled. Put mixing bowl, pastry cutter, even flour in fridge for a little while if kitchen is warm.
Sift flour and salt into bowl. Cut in butter, shortening with pastry cutter or fork until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Don’t make pieces of butter and shortening too small. If using grated cheddar, toss in now.
Drizzle in ice water, a spoonful at a time; mix with fork just until mixture starts to come together. You may not need all the water. Tip mixture out onto sheet of plastic wrap; use it to help you press mixture together into a ball.
Flatten into a disc, wrap well with plastic; chill 20-30 minutes.
To roll, lay large sheet of baking parchment on work surface; dust lightly with flour. Unwrap pastry disc; roll with floured rolling pin into large circle. (Or make individual tarts by cutting pastry into four and rolling each piece.) Slide pastry, paper and all, onto baking sheet; refrigerate while you preheat oven and prepare fruit.
Preheat oven to 220 C (425 F).
Toss apples with lemon juice and first amount of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mound fruit on top of pastry, leaving three to five centimetres (an inch or two) of pastry around fruit.
Bring pastry edges up and around mound of fruit, leaving centre uncovered. Hug edges of circle with hands to hold pastry in place. Dot tart with bits of butter; sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Bake at 220 C (425 F) for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 175 C (350 F) and bake 30-45 minutes until apples are tender and pastry is golden and crisp.

Gloomy Sunday Roulade

“... And then when you cut into the slice of roulade, your tongue is tantalized by the three separate tastes. They are so different and go so well together that with the next bite, you’ll be sure to get all three on your fork.”

- Lazlo Szabo, Gloomy Sunday

SOME MOVIES stay with you a long time after you watch them. If you read my Comfort Food column today in The Chronicle Herald, you know Gloomy Sunday was one of those movies for me. And not just because I loved the story, but because I loved the food in this movie, too.

Released in 1999, Gloomy Sunday tells story behind the wartime song of the same name. The song, written in 1933, became known as the Hungarian Suicide Song because, as legend has it, distraught lovers all over Europe were driven to end their lives upon hearing its haunting melody. (You can view a clip from the movie here, and if you'd like to listen to Billie Holiday's smooth-as-silk version of the song, click here.)

Food is important in the film because much of the action takes place at a little restaurant in 1930s Budapest called Szabo's. Patrons throng to Szabo's for two things: to hear the restaurant's pianist, Andras, play his famous song, Gloomy Sunday, and to dine on Szabo's signature dish, the Magyar roulade. So good is this recipe for Hungarian beef roll filled with ham and cheese, that it has the power to save lives - and take them away.

After watching the film, I wanted to make a Magyar roulade myself. Here is my interpretation of Gloomy Sunday Roulade. We enjoyed it with spaeztle, sautéed shredded cabbage and hot buttered beets.

GLOOMY SUNDAY ROULADE
Serves 4

(Step-by-step photos for assembling the roulade follow after the recipe)

1 large top sirloin steak (or use 4 beef tenderloin steaks for individual roulades)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped
olive oil
splash of balsamic vinegar, about 15 ml (1 tbsp)
freshly squeezed juice of one lemon

For the filling:
Dijon mustard
Thinly sliced prosciutto ham
Baby spinach leaves
1 jar flame-roasted red peppers, drained well and patted dry (or you can roast your own)
thinly sliced havarti cheese
freshly grated Parmesan cheese (NOT the powdered type sold in shaker-cans)
freshly ground black pepper
butcher’s twine

For frying: 1 clove garlic, peeled and lightly crushed, but essentially left whole
olive oil
butter

Place steak between two sturdy sheets of plastic wrap. Pound with a meat mallet until meat is about 1.5 cm (half an inch) thick all over. Try to pound it out to a nice, rectangular shape if possible.
Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
Squeeze the juice of a lemon into a large glass baking dish, pour in an equal amount of lemon juice, add the crushed, chopped garlic and balsamic vinegar and whisk together. Place steak in the dish, turning it to ensure the meat is well-coated on all sides.
Set aside in the fridge to marinate for at least 30-minutes or up to several hours. (I have left this in the fridge as long as overnight, but the garlic flavour becomes quite pronounced.)
When you’re ready to fill the steak, spread it out on a clean countertop and brush a generous spoonful of Dijon mustard all over the meat. Starting with the prosciutto ham, start layering the fillings over the meat. Follow with the spinach leaves, roasted red peppers and cheese, leaving about an inch of space on one long edge of the steak.
Finally, sprinkle with grated parmesan.
Now, carefully and tightly roll up the roulade, tucking in any stray bits of filling that squeeze out the sides. Place the roulade seam-down down on a cutting board. Cut a long piece of butcher’s twine and use it to securely wrap and tie the beef roll so it doesn’t fall apart.
Season with salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 450 F.
Heat a large, oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Melt a generous knob of butter and an equal amount of olive oil, enough that the skillet is well-coated with butter and oil. Add the crushed, whole clove of garlic and gently sauté it in the butter and oil, just long enough to scent and flavour the butter and oil. Sear the beef on all sides till well-browned, then pop the pan in the oven to roast for about 20 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat registers 160 F. Remove from oven, transfer roulade to a platter, tent with foil and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes while you make the sauce.

For the mushroom sauce:
30 ml (2 tbsp) butter
8 oz. pkg cremini mushrooms, sliced
1-2 shallots, peeled and finely diced
50 ml (one quarter cup) white wine
50 ml (one quarter cup) chicken stock
50 ml (one quarter cup) heavy cream
chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

Heat butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and shallots and sauté until mushrooms are golden and most of their moisture has evaporated. Pour in white wine and chicken stock and let cook until reduced by half. Stir in cream, season with salt and pepper to taste and cook until slightly thickened.

To serve:
Remove butcher’s twine from roulade, cut roulade into slices and arrange on a platter. Scatter with chopped parsley and serve warm with mushroom sauce.


Between sheets of plastic wrap, pound steak as flat as you can.


Marinate the steak for at least a half-hour in a simple mixture of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper.

Layer Dijon mustard, prosciutto, spinach, roasted red peppers and cheese over the steak.

Carefully and tightly roll up the steak. Tie it with butcher's twine so it holds its shape.

In a hot pan, sear the steak on all sides to seal in the juices. Then finish by roasting in a 450 F oven for about 20 minutes.

After roasting, be sure to let the meat rest for a few minutes so the juices can settle back into the meat. Remove the butcher's twine, carve the roulade into slices and arrange on a platter.