What We Eat When We Eat Alone - Deborah Madison [81]
Salted Almonds
Makes 1 cup
These crunchy almonds are pretty irresistible, but if you can keep your hands off them after you’ve had a reasonable amount, they’ll keep for weeks in a covered container.
Blanched, peeled almonds will emerge from the oven smooth and golden. With the skins left on, they’re earthier, but both are very good.
1 CUP WHOLE ALMONDS
1 TEASPOON OLIVE OIL
1 TEASPOON SEA SALT OR KOSHER SALT
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
2. To blanch the almonds, bring a few cups of water to a boil, then add the almonds and let stand for 1 minute. Drain, then slip off the skins. Blot them dry with a towel before adding the oil.
3. Toss the nuts with the oil and roast on a sheet pan until light golden, about 25 minutes. Stir a few times so that they color evenly. When done, add the salt, and swish them around. Taste and add more salt if desired. As they cool, they’ll get crisp.
Chocolate Mousse with Cardamom Seeds
Today’s seductive dessert, even a chocolate one, would probably have to include seeds and bark of some kind, like bay leaf, mace, and peppercorns. One of the best chocolate mousses I recall had cardamom seeds in it—this mysterious aromatic crunchy stuff buried in the silky chocolate—and it was wonderful.
Here’s a classic chocolate mousse with cardamom seeds added, but there’s nothing that says you can’t make it using one of the more interesting chocolates that are available today. Just use one that hovers around 70 percent.
This is too much for two, so portion it into 4 small serving dishes. There can be seconds, and there are those who love dessert for breakfast.
2 EGGS, SEPARATED
1 TABLESPOON SUGAR
2 OUNCES DARK CHOCOLATE
2 TABLESPOONS WATER OR COFFEE
1⁄4 TEASPOON CARDAMOM SEEDS
4 TABLESPOONS BUTTER
CREAM, OR NOT, FOR SERVING
1. Beat the egg whites until foamy, then gradually add the sugar and beat until smooth and firm, but not dry or hard. Leave the whites in the bowl with the whisk.
2. Put the chocolate, water, and cardamom in a 1-quart bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has melted, then turn off the heat and remove the bowl. Quickly whisk the egg yolks into the chocolate, then add the butter and stir until it disappears. If it seems to be taking a while to melt, return the bowl to the pan of hot water to speed things along but without turning on the heat. You don’t want to risk cooking the eggs.
3. Once the butter has melted, go back to the egg whites and whip them for a few seconds to bring them back together. Fold them into the chocolate mixture, then divide everything among the dessert dishes and refrigerate. It will set in an hour or so.
4. To serve, either pour the cream over the top so that each bite of mousse comes up with some cream on it, or whip it until it’s soft and airy, sweeten it with a teaspoon or two of sugar, and then pile it over the mousse.
A Platter of Fruit
Fruit for dessert might consist of a single variety—a peach or a pear, for example—or a virtual garden of fruits, put out whole with knives for peeling and slicing. Or a plate might be sparsely covered with individual bites of perfection—a few garden strawberries, a cluster of raspberries, a soft fig, a Pixie tangerine, a sliced apple, a few nuts. Whichever way you go, what matters is that the fruit be as good as it possibly can be, which inevitably means local and in its season. This recipe is a sample fruit plate for late summer.
A RIPE, AROMATIC PEAR, SUCH AS A BARTLETT
A FEW RIPE FIGS
A FEW SMALL CLUSTERS OF GRAPES
A SMALL HEAP OF RASPBERRIES
WALNUTS IN THEIR SHELL, PUT OUT WITH A NUTCRACKER
Arrange the fruit and walnuts on a platter and put out two plates and two knives. Slice the fruit and crack the nuts for one another. Have a glass of late harvest Riesling or Muscat wine, or finish with the wine you had at dinner.
Breakfast with the Saints
Judith Espinar, who eats and reads in bed with her cat, is a serious lover of folk