« Daily wine deals now at Woot Wine | Home Page | Oenophiles... This one's for you »
Making home cooks great cooks - "Kitchen Sense" by Mitchell Davis
Admired by the likes of Eric Ripert and Daniel Boulud for his ability to cook and write a book geared to the home cook, Mitchel Davis offers a vast array of recipes designed to make all home cooks great cooks in his new book "Kitchen Sense" Says Ripert (executive chef/co-owner of Le Bernardin),
"...Mitchell can cook--and extremely well. Recipes written by a great home cook make a difference. Mitchell understands your challenges probably better than a professional chef who has all the equipment of a professional kitchen."
Loaded with preparation, storage, and leftover tips this is a cookbook destined to be a classic. And, as a special treat, Davis's recipe for Strawberry Shortcake--a summer classic--appears below.
Kitchen Sense: More than 600 Recipes to Make You a Great Home Cook by Mitchell Davis | at ecookbooks.com
Strawberry Shortcake
No dessert says summer has arrived to me as much as this Southern classic of warm biscuit shortcakes topped with ripe strawberries and whipped cream. For added flavor, brush the shortcakes or toss them with a little herbed syrup. You can easily double or triple the recipe, as needed.
Makes 4 servings.
For the Shortcake
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
1 tablespoon lard, vegetable shortening, or additional butter, chilled
1/3 to 1/2 cup buttermilk, plus a little extra for glazing
For the Topping
1 pint ripe strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 to 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, to taste
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
1 to 3 tablespoons strawberry jam
Preheat the over to 450 degrees Fahrenheit
To make the shortcakes, in a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Cut the butter and lard so the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add 1/ 3 cup of the buttermilk and mix with a fork just until the mixture comes together into a moist dough, adding more milk if necessary to make it cohere. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough by folding it over onto itself three or four times until it coheres and is smooth. Do not overwork it. Pinch off about one fourth of the dough and gently and quickly pat and coax it into a disk about 3/4 inch thick. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to make four cakes. Place the pan in the refrigerator so the shortening can rest while you prepare the topping.
In a medium bowl, combine the strawberries with the sugar and lemon juice and set aside to macerate. In another bowl, using either an electric mixer or a wire whisk, beat the heavy cream until it begins to thicken. Add the vanilla and confectioners' sugar and continue beating until the cream is stiff enough to hold its shape when you lift the beaters. Chill the whipped cream until ready to use.
Remove the short cakes from the refrigerator. Brush the tops with some buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 8 minutes, until they have risen and browned, on both top and bottom. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
When the shortcakes are cool enough to handle but still warm, carefully slice off the tops (don't worry if they break; just keep the pieces together). Place the bottoms on serving plates. Spread the jam on the bottoms, top with some strawberries, spoon on some whipped cream, top with a few more strawberries, and drizzle some of the strawberry juice from the bowl on top of that. Place the tops askew on the shortcakes and serve quickly.
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes (includes cooling time)
Advance Prep: You can prepare the dough and shape the shortcakes up to an hour or two in advance.
Variations:
Peach Shortcake
Follow the same recipe, substituting 4 very ripe peaches, peeled and diced, for the strawberries and 1 tablespoon bourbon for the lemon juice. Also, use peach or apricot jam instead of strawberry jam.
Herbed Strawberry Shortcake
Omit the sugar and lemon juice from the topping and toss the berries with 1 or 2 tablespoons of lavender, rosemary, or bay syrup instead. Brush the slit shortcakes with the same syrup before spreading the jam and assembling the shortcakes as directed.
___________________________________________________________
Copyright 2006 by Michell Davis. Recipe reprinted from Kitchen Sense: More than 600 Recipes to Make You a Great Home Cook with permission of Random House.
By Robert | June 28, 2006 in Cookbooks | Permalink
