Tag: Sunset Magazine

A Crostata of a Different Flavor

Sunset Magazine is filled with interesting things. Recipes of all sorts may be found, and the holiday issues are some of my favorites. The Thanksgiving edition had a particularly intriguing recipe, which I made for yesterday’s family get-together. You may find the original recipe here; what makes it particularly interesting is the fact it is made with an artisan flour derived from a different wheat than is in your average flour.  It is made with

Emmer farro flour, made from whole-grain emmer wheat, gives the crostata a rustic texture and great flavor. Because it’s low in gluten, it needs to be mixed with all-purpose flour to hold the crust together

The flour is from Bluebird Grain Farms whose specialty is heirloom organic grains.  While I did not use their flour, I think I am quite likely to try it in the near future.  I’ve added a link to their site under the Farmers to Admire category.

Below is how I made the crostata.  I think that you can use this recipe as a basis for any fresh, seasonal fruit – the frangipane is a wonderful flavor!

PASTRY

  • 1 1/2 c. whole wheat white flour
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes (1 stick of butter, and 2 T more)

Use a food processor, as in the original recipe:  pulse flours and salt to mix. Add butter and whirl 3 seconds. Drizzle in 1/3 cup ice water, pulsing until mixture comes together in a shaggy ball but still has bits of butter showing. Form into a disk, wrap airtight, and chill at least 2 hours or overnight.

FRANGIPANE

  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 6 t. white sugar
  • 1/3 cup blanched almonds, finely ground
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 T flour
  • 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. almond extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat together 6 T. of sugar with butter until light and fluffy.  Mix in almonds (I used ground almond meal from Trader Joe’s), egg, flour, extracts, until smoothly blended.  Set aside.

CRANBERRIES

  • 3 cups fresh or frozen cranberries (1 12-oz. package)
  • 1/4 c. white sugar
  • 1 T. water

Mix together cranberries, sugar and water.  Set aside.

ASSEMBLING CROSTATA

Roll out dough on floured surface into a 14-inch circle.  Rotate and flip pastry as you roll it out.  Trim edges, and transfer to a round pizza pan or rectangular cookie sheet.  Line either with a sheet of parchment paper.   (I used a cookie sheet, only to find it was to big for my refrigerator, so I tilted it to fit, and had no problems with any berries escaping!)

Spread frangipane over inside of dough, leaving about a 3-inch border outside your circle of frangipane.

Place sugared cranberries over the frangipane mixture, pressing them in a bit to help keep the cranberries in place.

Fold the edges of the dough up and over the cranberries – do this gently! – and create pleats or folds as you go.  Once you do this, pinch the pleats in place a bit to seal the dough.  This will prevent leakage during baking.

Place crostata in refrigerator for about 30 minutes before baking.  While you do this, preheat the oven to 375 F with the cooking rack in the middle.  I used my oven on convection, but changed nothing as far as temperature or time.

Bake crostata for 45 minutes.  I checked mine at 35 minutes, and then continued.

Cool on parchment paper and cookie sheet, then transfer crostata and parchment paper to cookie rack to finish cooling.

Serve at room temperature, or warmed in the oven.  Great with vanilla ice cream!

Review of a Review

Sunset Magazine is a great resource for travelers, locals, and companies from the Rockies west. Getting written up is probably good for your business, because one of the great things about Sunset is it covers things which people enjoy doing – gardening, traveling, cooking, and eating. This month’s issue (June 2009) has a small section called “The West’s Best BBQ,” which begins on p. 42. Being suckers for such, we bit (so to speak) and, yesterday, took a short trip to South Pasadena, to visit the recommended Gus’s Barbecue, on p. 48.

About Gus’s Barbecue, Sunset writes,

If such SoCal perennials as Philips Bar-B-Que in Leimert Park are hall of famers, then think of this as the rookie of the year.  Brothers Chris and John Bicos took a beloved though tired restaurant that dated back to 1946, updated its interior, and reinvigorated the barbecue menu with superior versions of classics like beer-braised Texas brisket.  You gotta try Memphis-style baby backs – fall-off-the-bone tender – and such worthy sidekicks as the Cast Iron Cornbread and Red Skin Potato Salad.

The trip to South Pasadena was easy, without any of the traffic backups which make driving through L.A. so annoying.  We called ahead to make sure they were open – yup, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays.  The neighborhood where Gus’s is located is pleasant.  We parked off Mission, just around the corner.  Looking up the alley behind Gus’s showed that this definitely was an older neighborhood because of the brick construction on some of the buildings.  Trees down Mission were leafy and green, with the jacarandas adding a lovely color note.  Across the street from Gus’s is a pharmacy with a soda fountain, which, according to a plaque, was voted “best” – looks like it could be!

If you are looking for Gus’s, you will be able to spot it quite easily along Fair Oaks – its sign is bright red and speaks for itself.  (I wonder, is it lit up at night?)  Inside, the wait staff were cordial, and our charming young waitress, Melanie, was perfect.  We decided to have exactly what was recommended by the Sunset reviewer, and we were not disappointed.

We ordered a rack of Memphis-style baby ribs, to share, along with two sides.  We got the red skin potato salad, and the Louisiana Red Beans & Rice.  We should have doubled up on the sides – the potato salad was really good – but we fell in love with the Red Beans & Rice!  The Cast Iron Cornbread was a separate side, and is brought to your table in an iron skillet along with jalapeno jelly (good!) and honey butter – get extra butter and jelly, as you could go through it pretty fast!  The cornbread is crusty, yellow, coarse and sweet, and crumbles when you butter it – absolutely dee-lish.

The ribs were great!  A rack was enough for the two of us.  You could pull the meat off the bone with a fork, and the flavor of the barbecue was subtle.  Two extra sauces were on the table, one with a label of “hot” – which it really is not – and another darker one, with a nice vinegary taste to complement the meat.   Unfortunately, all of this was gone too soon.

If you are in So. Pasadena, Gus’s is worth finding.  Check it out!