Peach cobbler

• Our summer CSA brought us loads of peaches.  While I love a nice bowl of peaches, I needed to find another way to eat them.  My friend was coming over for dinner.  She is a bit of a healthy eating nut, so I thought how much healthier can you get than fresh fruit. 
• This cobbler is really only meant for two people, but it can fill up 6 if you top it with ice cream.  The little bit of orange zest gives it a great twist.  Yum.
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Cobbler love

• Ingredients:
  3 tablespoons brown sugar
  2 teaspoons cornstarch
  1/4 cup water
  1/2 cups sliced fresh or frozen peaches
  1 tablespoon butter or margarine
  1 teaspoon lemon juice
  
  TOPPING:
  1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  2 tablespoons sugar
  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  Pinch salt
  2 tablespoons milk
  4 1/2 teaspoons butter or margarine, melted
  1/4 teaspoon grated orange peel
  
  Directions:
  
     1. In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, cornstarch and water until smooth. Add peaches; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low; stir in butter and lemon juice.
     2. For topping, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir in milk, butter and orange peel. Transfer hot peach mixture to an ungreased 1-qt. baking dish. spoon topping over peaches. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

I always thought making ice cream was hard.  This was a cake walk.  No pun intended.  This is delicious and even my daughter loved it.  The salt definitely did not turn off the kids.

You really don't need an ice cream maker to make ice cream.  Just freeze a glass bowl before you start.
  
Adapted from Epicurious
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
2 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt such as Maldon
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk
3 large eggs

Directions:

1.  Heat 1 cup sugar in a dry 10-inch heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring with a fork to heat sugar evenly, until it starts to melt, then stop stirring and cook, swirling skillet occasionally so sugar melts evenly, until it is dark amber. This takes 8-10 minutes.
2.  Add 1 1/4 cups heavy cream and stir until all of caramel has dissolved. There will be chunks of sugar still left.  You can filter this later and leave the chunks to show it's home made.
3.  Transfer to a bowl and stir in sea salt and vanilla. Cool to room temperature.
4.  Bring milk, remaining cup cream, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar just to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring occasionally.
5.  Whisk eggs in a medium bowl, and add half of hot milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Pour back into saucepan with caramel and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard thickens up and coats back of spoon (do not let boil). Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, then stir in cooled caramel.
5.  Pour custard into frozen glass bowl or freezer ice cream container.  Stir mixture and the freeze custard.  Once frozen transfer to an air tight freezer container.

Veal Osso Buco with Pappardelle

Fancy cooking night with friends...Seriously we cook from 4-8pm.  Each time we realize we should start earlier.  Last time we made yummy ravioli and lamb ragu pasta (sorry we were too hungry to take pictures).  This time we thought we would make it a bit easier. A dish that will cook with little intervention. WRONG.  We chopped before we braised in the oven.  Then we were so busy making pasta that there was little time to sit.  Result: Worth it!  This was so delicious that I used the left over sauce to make more pasta sauce the next day. 

Just in case you are wondering, veal shanks can be found by special order from your grocery store.  It's worth your time to call ahead to see if they have shanks in stock.  I called ahead to my local Whole Foods and they didn't call them veal shanks.  They called them Osso Buco.  Happy shopping and eating.  If this dish doesn't fill you out, check out the dessert we had ...Salted Caramel Ice Cream.


Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Veal shanks with Pasta

Ingredients:
Four 12-ounce veal shanks
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery ribs, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, sliced
1 cup dry red wine
4 cups veal stock or chicken stock
3 cups chicken stock
I can whole peeled tomatoes
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf


Directions:

1. Lay the veal shanks in a shallow baking pan and sprinkle liberally on both sides with salt. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Rinse the veal shanks of their salt and pat dry with paper towels. Wrap each veal shank once around the circumference so that it holds the bone and meat together in the center. Tie the twine with a good knot. Season the veal shanks with pepper.
3. Heat a large dutch oven over high heat. Put the oil into the casserole and let it heat.
4. Place the flour in a bowl and dredge the shanks through it shaking off the extra flour. Brown the veal shanks in the hot oil for about 5 minutes on each side, or until browned on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.
5. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic to the pan and cook over medium-high heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the wine, bring to a boil, and cook for about 2 minutes, or until reduced by half.
6. Add the stocks, tomatoes, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf to the pan. Return the veal shanks to the pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once the liquid boils, cover, transfer to the oven, and cook for 2 1/2 hours, until the meat is fork tender and falling off the bones.
7. Remove the herbs from the braising liquid and discard. Let the veal shanks come to room temperature in the braising liquid. Remove the veal shanks and set aside. Strain the liquid to remove all vegetables and reserve the veggies. Bring the strained liquid to a boil over medium-high heat, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until reduced by a quarter. Using a skimmer or large spoon, skim off any grease or foam that rises to the surface. Return the strained vegetables to the liquid and taste for seasoning.
8. To serve, remove the twine, put a single osso buco (veal shank) in a bowl, and serve with a cup of  sauce and vegetables over it.

Pappardelle

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 eggs
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. In a pile of flour make a little bowl.  Place the 3 eggs in the middle of the bowl with the oil and salt.  With a fork, slowly break the yolks and start bringing in the flour.  Start massaging the dough until it is completely mixed.  Let it sit for 15-20 mins.
2.  Divide the dough to 4 pieces.  With the first piece start flattening to the point where you can run it through the pasta machine.
3.  Fold the resulting dough into thirds.  Continue thirds and decreasing the pasta machine thickness until you get to about level 6.  Then run it through once per level to desired thickness.  Cut each pasta sheet to two inches and toss in flour so it doesn't stick.  Repeat with the remaining dough. 
4.  Cook for 3-4 minutes in salted boiling water.