by Suvir Saran
Serves 6
One 2-lb/910-g beef tenderloin roast (preferably Wagyu beef)
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, pressed through a garlic press or finely minced
¼ cup/15 g chopped mixed fresh herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme), or 2 tbsp dried mixed herbs (Herbes de Hebron, or herbes de Provence are nice)
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp freshly ground black or mixed peppercorns
2 garlic cloves, each cut lengthwise into 4 strips
Remove the meat from the refrigerator and place it on a rimmed baking sheet. Let it sit out for 1 hour (bringing the meat up to room temperature will help it to cook more evenly).
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, minced garlic, and herbs and rub the mixture all over the roast. Then rub the roast with the salt and pepper. Using a paring knife, make eight small ¾-in-/2-cm-deep slits all over the roast and insert a garlic strip into each slit. Set the roast aside for 1 hour longer.
Preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C/gas 8. Place the roast in a roasting pan and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F/180°C/gas 4 and bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how you like your meat cooked. Insert an instant-read thermometer into the center of the roast to check its internal temperature, pulling the roast out from the oven when it’s 10°F/6°C shy of your preferred temperature range—125°F to 130°F/51°C to 54°C for rare, 130°F to 135°F/54°C to 57°C for medium-rare, 135°F to 140°F/57°C to 60°C for medium. (The meat on the ends of the roast are often more well done than the meat in the center of the roast.) Remove the roast from the oven, loosely tent with aluminum foil, and set aside for 10 minutes to rest. Carve and serve on a platter.
VARIATION: GILDED LILY WHISKEY GRAVY
After removing the roast from the roasting pan, place the roasting pan over medium-high heat. Stir in ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper, cook for 1 minute, and then deglaze the pan with ¼ cup/60 ml whiskey (we love Suntory Hibiki 12-year-old whiskey), being sure to scrape up any browned bits off the bottom of the roasting pan. Whisk in ½ cup/115 g crème fraîche, turn off the heat, adjust the flavor with salt and pepper, and serve alongside the roast.
Candy Cane Kisses
These are a must at our house during the holidays. The only problem is that they never last—I have been known to eat a dozen within minutes! The recipe comes from a pastry chef friend, Allison Heaton, who grew up in Austin, Texas, and learned how to make these from her dad, Kencil Heaton. A retired Air National Guard general, he was raised eating these airy, sweet, and minty meringues. Though Allison now makes them with fancy 75 to 85 percent cacao bittersweet chocolate bars, she learned to make them with semisweet chocolate chips courtesy of air force ration supplies. So feel free to use what you prefer. When candy canes fall out of favor at the farm (anytime before December 1 and after January 1), I substitute 1 teaspoon finely pulverized dried lavender (you can grind lavender in a spice grinder or use a mortar and pestle).
Makes 4½ dozen cookies
4 egg whites, at room temperature
¼ tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp fine salt
1½ cups/300 g sugar
3 tbsp crushed candy canes
8 oz/225 g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
A few drops of red food coloring (optional)
Heat the oven to 250°F/120°C/gas ½. Line three rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. (If you don’t have three baking sheets, be sure to allow the baking sheet to cool completely before baking the second and third batches of meringues.)
Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on medium speed until they’re foamy. Add the cream of tartar and salt, increase the speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form. With the mixer running, add the sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, and beat until the whites are glossy and hold stiff peaks. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the crushed candy canes, chocolate, vanilla, and food coloring (if using). Use a rubber spatula to fold the ingredients into the meringue.
Measure out 1-tbsp dollops of meringue onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the meringues until they begin to crack on top, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely on wire racks. Store the cookies for up to 5 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Cranberry and Dried Strawberry Free-Form Galette
We moved to the farm from Manhattan just two months before the holidays. Charlie and I concluded that the best way to get to know our neighbors was to host a New Year’s Eve party and make all of our favorite foods, like New Year’s Black-Eyed Pea Curry, Shortcut Potato and Pea Turnovers, and a massive selection of desserts for guests to nibble on well into the midnight hour. While we expected around twenty guests, we ended up with sixty! So for our second New Year’s Eve bash, I planned for about eighty revelers (more than ninety showed up) and cooked for the feast all week long. I made dozens of dishes in the days leading up to the party and, by December 30, had only enough galette dough for one last tart. With one bag of fresh cranberries and a pantry full of dried fruits, I came up with this delightful sweet-sour and rustic galette that has since become a much-requested favorite dessert—even in the summertime when I have to count on frozen cranberries to make it. A simple and sure-bet crowdpleaser, I made this for a Slow Food Saratoga fund-raiser and the chapter founder, John Sconzo, and his son, Michael, saw the tart, grabbed it, and sequestered themselves off in a corner where they (along with a few select friends) happily devoured it without sharing. Easy to make and light on the fuss, this galette always pleases big-time.
Serves 6
1 tart dough (see Rustic Double Apple Tart)
¼ cup/35 g almonds
¼ cup/30 g panko bread crumbs
3 cups/300 g fresh or thawed frozen cranberries (if using frozen, thaw them on paper towels)
1 apple, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼- to ½-in/6- to 12-mm pieces
¼ cup/30 g dried strawberries, roughly chopped
¼ cup/60 g strawberry jam, either store-bought or homemade (see recipe)
1 cup/200 g packed light brown sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
2-in/5-cm piece ginger, peeled and finely minced
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1 large egg
1½ tbsp granulated sugar
Confectioners’ sugar for serving
Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C/gas 5. Place the dough between two 15-in-/38-cm-long pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 13- to 14-in-/33- to 35.5-cm-wide and 1/8-in-/3-mm-thick circle. Peel off the top layer of parchment, lift the bottom piece of parchment (and the dough), and place it on a rimmed baking sheet. Place the sheet in the refrigerator.
Use a food processor to coarsely grind the almonds so some are fine like a powder and others are rough textured like bread crumbs. Place the almonds in a small bowl and stir in the panko.
In a medium bowl, use your hands to toss together the cranberries, apple, strawberries, jam, brown sugar, minced ginger, lemon zest, ground ginger, and cardamom. Set aside.
Remove the baking sheet from the refrigerator. Place the almond-panko mixture in the center of the dough and use your hands to spread it into a 9-in/23-cm circle. Spoon the cranberry filling over the crumbs. Fold the edges of the dough over the filling, overlapping them as you go, so there is about a 4-in/10-cm circle of filling in the center of the galette.
Whisk the egg in a small bowl and brush it over the pastry. Sprinkle the pastry with the granulated sugar and bake it until the filling is bubbly and the crust is golden, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the tart cool for at least 10 minutes before using a spatula to gently separate it from the parchment and transfer it to a platter. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature dusted with confectioners’ sugar.
Chocolate-Nut Brittle
I feel confident in saying that this is the best toffee-
nut brittle you will ever eat. Of course, it depends on using high-quality chocolate, that’s more semisweet than bittersweet, and good salted butter—my favorite is golden yellow Kerrygold from Ireland (available in many supermarkets). A beautiful antique tin lined with parchment paper or wax paper and packed with homemade brittle makes a wonderful holiday gift. You can even freeze it and break it out for an easy afternoon sweet alongside a cup of steaming Farmhouse Chai. If you’re into sweet-salty confections, you’ll love this with roasted and salted peanuts instead of plain toasted nuts. I am partial to the soft heat that a pinch of cayenne lends to the brittle, but it can be left out for a more traditional taste.
Makes one 11-by-17-in/28-by-43-cm pan
FOR THE CHOCOLATE
11 oz/310 g chocolate (60 to 72 percent cacao), finely chopped
¼ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground mace
1/8 tsp ground allspice
Scant 1/8 tsp ground cloves
Scant 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
FOR THE BRITTLE
2 lb/910 g good-quality salted butter, cut into chunks, plus 1 tbsp at room temperature
4½ cups/620 g chopped and toasted nuts (I like a combination of peanuts and slivered almonds)
¼ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp ground ginger
3 cups/600 g sugar
½ cup/80 ml water
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
To make the chocolate: Place the chocolate, cardamom, ginger, mace, allspice, cloves, and cayenne (if using) in a medium bowl. Bring 2 in/5 cm of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Reduce the heat to low, place the bowl with the chocolate and spices over the hot water, and let it sit there, stirring every 1 to 2 minutes, until the chocolate is melted, 4 to 6 minutes.
To make the brittle: Lightly grease the bottom and sides of an 11-by-17-in/28-by-43-cm rimmed baking sheet with 1 tbsp room-temperature butter. Fit the baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper, press it down to grease the underside, and then turn the parchment paper over so that the buttered side is up.
Place 3 cups/415 g of the toasted nuts, the cardamom, and ginger in a large bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
Melt the remaining 2 lb/910 g butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the sugar, water, corn syrup, and lemon juice and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally to ensure that the sugar is completely melted. Once the mixture comes to a boil, stop stirring. Using a pastry brush, dab the sides of the pot with water if you see sugar crystallizing. Continue to cook the caramel until it reads 300°F/150°C on an instant-read thermometer, 25 to 30 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally to ensure that the caramel cooks evenly. (If the caramel starts to bubble and rise to the lip of the saucepan, reduce the heat.) Turn off the heat, stir in the spiced nuts (be careful not to spatter the piping-hot sugar), and immediately pour the mixture onto the greased baking sheet. Set the pan aside for 4 minutes and then pour the melted chocolate over the brittle, using an offset spatula to spread the chocolate in an even layer. Sprinkle the remaining 1½ cups/205 g nuts over the chocolate and set aside to cool completely, either overnight at room temperature or covered with plastic wrap and in the refrigerator, for at least 3 hours.
Break the brittle into irregular pieces and serve on a platter or store them in an airtight container or in a 1-gl/3.8-L freezer bag for up to 3 months.
Chocolate-Peanut Tart with Caramel and Chocolate Mousse
This tart is a love affair between chocolate and peanuts. Like many not born in America, I don’t share the national love of peanut butter (though I do love to cook with and eat peanuts), but in this tart I accept peanut butter for all of its creamy, salty, nutty glory! Frank Vollkommer (a Certified Master Pastry Chef—there are only thirteen such chefs in the world!) is responsible for this sweet, salty, caramely, peanuty, überchocolate creation, and works his thrilling magic with anything chocolate-related at The Chocolate Mill in Glens Falls, not far from the farm. When he and his wife, Jessica, opened the shop, I confess that I was nervous for them, worried that such talent could not be sustained by our local economy and taste buds. Luckily, their tempting creations speak for themselves, and they are successful and thriving. Butter toffee peanuts from Royal Oak really send this tart over the top, but simple toasted peanuts are perfectly wonderful, too. Making this tart requires time and patience on the part of the cook—so I double my efforts and make two, freezing one for another time. The tart dough is very delicate—be sure to use lots of flour when you roll it out (and brush away excess flour using a pastry brush before transferring the dough to the tart pan tin with removable bottom).
Makes two 8-in/20-cm tarts
FOR THE CRUST
2¼ cups/255 g pastry flour, plus extra for rolling
2/3 cup/80 g peanut flour
2½ tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder
¼ tsp fine salt
11 tbsp/310 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup/100 g sugar
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1½ tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
FOR THE CARAMEL
1¼ cups/250 g sugar
1/3 cup/80 ml water
6 tbsp/90 ml heavy cream
12 tbsp/340 g unsalted butter
½tsp vanilla bean paste or scraped seeds from ½ vanilla bean
¼ tsp fine salt
FOR THE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
1/3 1 cups/320 ml heavy cream
2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
¼ cup/50 g plus 1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp cold water
2½ tsp gelatin
6 oz/170 g semisweet chocolate (60 to 72 percent cacao), melted
FOR FINISHING THE TARTS
6 oz/170 g semisweet chocolate (60 to 72 percent cacao), melted
Scant 1 cup/225 g smooth peanut butter
¾ cup/110 g finely chopped roasted peanuts
¾ cup/110 g roughly chopped Royal Oak Butter Toffee Peanuts (or crushed roasted peanuts)
To make the crust: Whisk together the pastry flour, peanut flour, cocoa, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or large bowl if using a hand mixer), cream together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until the mixture is pale and aerated, about 2 minutes. Whisk together the egg, egg yolk, milk, and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup and add the mixture to the creamed butter and egg mixture a little at a time until it’s completely incorporated, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as necessary.
Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until the dough comes together in a ball. Divide the dough in half, shape each into a flat disc (about ½ in/12 mm thick) and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days before rolling.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and unwrap it. Lightly flour your worksurface and roll each piece of dough into a ¼-in-/6-mm-thick circle. Line two 8-in/20-cm tart pans with removable bottoms with the dough, pushing the dough into the sides of the pans, and pinching off the top. Chill for 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas 4. Line the pans with parchment paper and place dried beans or pie weights in each shell. Place the pans on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and gently lift out the parchment (with the beans or pie weights). Return the crusts to the oven, and bake until dry and set, 10 to 15 minutes longer. Set the crusts aside to cool completely.
To make the caramel: Place the sugar and water in a medium heavybottomed saucepan and gently stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook until the liquid turns a deep brown amber color, swirling the mixture occasionally (by holding the saucepan by the handle, not by stirring), about 12 minutes (occasionally brush the sides of the saucepan with a pastry brush dipped in water if you see crystallization on the sides of the pan). Remove from the heat, pour in the cream, and then whisk in
the butter, vanilla, and salt. Set aside.
To make the mousse: Use a stand mixer or a large bowl and a hand mixer to whip the cream to medium peaks. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Bring 1 in/2.5 cm water to a simmer in a medium saucepan. Place the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar in a large metal bowl and set the bowl over the simmering water. Reduce the heat to low and whip the eggs and sugar until the mixture is very pale yellow, thick, and ribbons when the whisk is lifted out from the mixture.
Pour the cold water into a small bowl or ramekin, and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Set aside for 5 minutes to bloom and then whisk it into the whipped egg and sugar mixture. Whisk in the chocolate and whisk vigorously to combine. Remove the whipped cream from the refrigerator and fold it into the chocolate mixture. Scrape the mousse into a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate.
