The Executive Cook

Weeknight Cook ~ Weekend Entertainer

tonmarmor

Pear & Blue Cheese Tart with Port Drizzle

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Ingredients
Crust:
6 oz. Walnuts
¼ cup Sugar
½ cup Flour
5 Tbsp. Butter
Filling:
8.8 oz Mascarpone Cheese
2 Eggs
½ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Pepper
½ tsp. minced Thyme
3 – 3.5 oz. Blue Cheese
Other:
1 ripe Pear
3 Tbsp. Water
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Port

❃❃Serves 4 – 12❃❃

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350, spray a 13” x 4” tart pan with non-stick cooking spray and line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.  Place the tart pan on the baking sheet.
Mix lemon juice and water together.  Slice pear in half, remove seeds with a melon baller and cut out stem with paring knife.  Slice the pears into even slices leaving the halves intact.  Place pears in water so they do not brown.
Mince thyme, melt butter for crust, crumble blue cheese and ensure that the mascarpone is soft enough to mix with the eggs.
Add walnuts to a food processor and chop until the consistency of course flour.

Crust
Add chopped walnuts, sugar, flour and melted butter together.  Press evenly into the tart shell on the sides and bottom.  Bake for 25 minutes then remove from oven and let cool slightly.  Turn the oven up to 400.

Filling
In the bowl of a mixer, or with a hand mixer, mix together mascarpone, eggs, salt, pepper and thyme.  Once mixed stir in the blue cheese crumbles.

Tart
Remove the pears from the water and lemon juice and pat dry with a paper towel.  Fan the pears in three diagonal sections across the length of the crust.  Evenly pour over the filling ensuring that you do not overfill the tart pan.
Cook the tart for 25 – 30 minutes, on 400, until the filling is set and a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cover with foil while you reduce the port.

Port Reduction & Assembly
Add port to a small saucepan and cook on medium-high heat until it begins to thicken slightly and reduces by half.
Remove the outer ring of the tart shell, place tart on a serving plate and evenly drizzle the tart with the port reduction.  Slice into desired widths and serve.

Duck Confit & Fig Crostata

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Ingredients
2 Duck Breasts or Legs
8 oz. Duck fat – (either store bought, bought online or homemade)
1/3 cup Fig Preserves
1.5 oz. Goat Cheese
1 refrigerated Pie Crust
2 sprigs Thyme
1 Egg

❃❃Makes 6 Servings❃❃

Confit Duck
Add duck fat to slow cooker along with duck breasts or legs and cook on low for 4 – 6 hours.
Once duck is done remove from slow cooker and cool slightly.  Once cooled shred the meat and set aside.

Preparation
Preheat oven to 450, line a sheet tray with parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray.
Whisk egg & set aside.

Assemble & Cook
Lay the pie crust out on the sheet pan and evenly spread fig preserves on pie crust leaving a ½” to 1” border, top with shredded duck and finally top with crumbled goat cheese.  Fold the sides of the crust up, overlapping slightly to seal.  Brush outside edge of crust with egg wash and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and sprinkle fresh thyme over the top.

Note:  Homemade duck fat can be made by buying a whole duck, removing the legs and breasts and then add the remainder to a heavy bottomed pot or Dutch oven with 1 cup of water.  Cook on medium for 30 minutes or until the water evaporates and you have fat in the pan.  Strain the duck fat and store in a container in the freezer.  The fat can be used 2 – 3 times.

Cinnamon Pizzelles with Pumpkin Ice Cream & Praline Pecans

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Ingredients
Pizzelles:
3 Eggs
¼ cup Vegetable Oil
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 ½ cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
¾ cup Sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon
Ice Cream & Pecans:
½ gallon Pumpkin flavored Ice Cream or other preferred flavor
5 oz. Praline Pecans

❃❃Makes 18-24❃❃

Preparation
Pre-heat Pizzelle iron to 3.5 setting, set up a sheet pan with parchment paper and cut three pieces of paper towel or foil into a 2 inch by 3-inch strip.  Choose a wooden spoon or another device that you can bend the pizzelle’s over to form a taco shell type figure.
Chop praline pecans and set aside.

Waffle Cones:
Whisk together all pizzelle ingredients and after iron is heated spray a 1 tsp. measure with non-stick cooking spray.  Fill each Pizzelle circle with 1 tsp. of batter, lower lid and let cook for about 30 seconds.  Remove each circle with a small spatula or fork, pick up each with the paper towel or foil strips and lightly bend over the spoon handle to form into a taco shell form.  Hold for a few seconds until the waffle cone is cooled and the form holds on its own.  Move each to the parchment lined sheet pan and continue to make waffle cone taco shells until all batter is used.

Assembly
Remove ice cream from freezer and allow to soften but not melt.  Once ice cream has softened fill each waffle cone taco shell with ice cream and sprinkle with chopped praline pecans on each slightly pressing int the ice cream.  Work in batches of about six and get the assembled deserts into the freezer to freeze ice cream.
Once all are assembled and ice cream has frozen again, serve.

Buckwheat Blinis with Mushroom & Chestnut Topper

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Ingredients
Blini:
2/3 cups Buckwheat Flour
1/3 cup Flour
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
3/4 tsp. Salt
3/4 cup Milk
1 Egg
1 Tbsp. melted Butter
Mushrooms & Chestnuts:
3.2 oz. Shitake Mushrooms
2 tsp. minced Thyme
5.2 oz. peeled Chestnuts
1 large or 2 smaller cloves Garlic
1/4 cup mince Leeks
4 Tbsp. Butter
2 Tbsp. Sherry
1 cup Beef Stock
Salt
Pepper

❃❃Makes 18-24❃❃

Preparation
Pre-heat oven to 200.
Mince garlic, thyme and leeks.
Melt butter for blinis, wipe mushrooms with a damp paper towel and remove stems.   Small chop the mushroom caps and the chestnuts.

Blinis
Whisk all the blini ingredients together in a bowl until smooth.  Heat griddle pan or non-stick skillet on medium high heat, spray with non-stick cooking spray and add blini mixture a tablespoon at a time.  Just as with pancakes cook on first side until bubbles begin to form around the outside and then turn.  You may need to adjust the heat down so the blinis cook on the inside but do not burn.
As the blinis are done remove them to a sheet pan and they can be kept in the oven to stay warm as you finish all the blinis and cook the mushroom and chestnut mixture.

Mushrooms & Chestnuts
Add butter to a skillet over medium high heat.  Once butter has melted add leeks, mushrooms, chestnuts, thyme, garlic, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper. Cook until mushrooms and leeks soften.  This will take 8-10 minutes.  Adjust the heat down if necessary so nothing begins to burn.  Once the mushroom mixture is to this stage turn the heat up as high as it will go for about 30 seconds.  Add the stock and scrape the bottom of the pan getting up any bits and deglazing the pan.  Turn heat down to medium and add sherry.  Continue to cook the mixture on medium heat until it becomes very thick and all the stock and sherry has been absorbed.  Salt and pepper to taste.
Remove to a serving bowl and serve with blinis.

Cranberry Bars

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Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups Flour
2 cups Brown Sugar
¾ cup Butter
1 tsp. Salt
2 cups Walnuts
1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
Filling:
16 oz. frozen Cranberries
1 cup Sugar
½ cup Cornstarch
1 tsp. Orange Zest
¾ stick Cream Cheese
1 tsp. Vanilla
¼ cup Powdered Sugar

 

❃❃Make 24 ❃

 Preparation
Preheat oven to 375 and spray a 9×12 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Line with parchment paper the short way with enough parchment to overhang both sides.  Spray the parchment paper.
Zest orange, chop walnuts, melt butter for crust and make sure cream cheese is soft.

Crust
In a bowl combine flour, brown sugar, salt, melted butter, walnuts and pumpkin pie spice.  Divide mixture in half and press half of the mixture into the bottom of the glass baking dish.

Filling
In a saucepan add cranberries and sugar.  Cook on medium high heat until cranberries have popped and are soft.  This will take about 15-20 minutes.  Once cranberries are soft add cornstarch and orange zest.  Remove from heat and cool.
In a separate bowl, with a handheld mixture, mix cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar together.

Assemble
Once cooled, add cranberry mixture on top of the bottom crust distributing evenly.  Add doll-ups of the cream cheese mixture over the cranberries.  Finally, evenly coat cranberries and cream cheese layer with the other half of the crust mixture, leaving it loose and crumbly.
Bake for 50-60 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool for at least 1 hour.  Once cooled, run a sharp knife on the edges of pan where there is no parchment, lift bars from pan using the overhanging parchment and cut into squares.

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Fall Marshmallow Treats

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Ingredients   
6 cups Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cheerios
3 Tbsp. Butter
4 cups small Marshmallows
1 cup Reese’s Pieces

❃❃Make 24 Squares❃

Preparation
Spray a large 17X13 inch sheet pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Pre-measure all ingredients.

Marshmallow Treats
In a large heavy bottomed pan melt butter over medium heat then add marshmallows.  Stir until all the marshmallows have melted.  Remove from heat and add the cereal and peanut butter candy mixing until everything is combined.  Quickly remove to the sheet pan and spread in an even layer to cool.
Once treats have cooled cut into squares or I use cookie cutters to cut out leaf shapes.  The areas that are left after leaves are cut out are then rolled into balls and a sucker stick is put in them.