Cycling Foodie

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I love having a fully automatic espresso maker.

Aaah … life’s little pleasures …

A little pick me up.

A few more chores & errands.

Then, I’ll reward myself with a ride.

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Road 27 @ Road 89, near Winters

We rode just over 50 miles yesterday. The weather was perfect! I wish we could have done 100!!

About halfway through, we enjoyed a rest stop at Steady Eddy’s in Winters, snacked on an oat cake and ginger ale, then homeward bound.

I'm not a big soda drinker, but this one is wonderful!

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It’s quite hot out there today and the sun was relentless. I burned even through multiple layers of SPF 100.

We rode into Winters on Road 27, then cut over to Road 89, and stopped at Steady Eddy’s for a snack and a break. We had a really great tailwind on Road 89 South into Winters.

The wind wasn’t quite as cooperative on the way home, but I just have to remind myself … “The wind is an excellent training tool. The wind is an excellent training tool.” A cyclist friend of mine used to tell me this when we rode together and I would struggle with the wind. She also reminded me of this on Facebook when I posted complaints about the wind in Davis. This mantra works for me and when I ride the Napa Tour de Cure I find myself saying this during certain stretches of the ride, especially the last few miles heading back to the Veterans’ Home in Yountville.

Now it’s time to enjoy a cool, refreshing, tangy-sweet treat.

Banana Peach Raspberry Buttermilk Smoothie

Banana Peach Raspberry Buttermilk Smoothie

4-6 ice cubes
1 ripe banana
1 peach
1/2 – 3/4 cup raspberries
3/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1 scoop protein powder of your choice

Blend. Share with a friend. Relax, recover, refresh, and enjoy!

You can use fresh or frozen fruit, depending on how thick you want your smoothie. I prefer frozen. I like to buy fruit at the peak of the season, prepare it and freeze it so I have great quality fresh-frozen fruit on hand.

Today, I must confess, I also added about 1 tablespoon of malted milk powder. It just sounded good and we worked for it today!

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Perfect post-ride refreshment after a cute little 40-mile training ride.

Protein & electrolytes make for a great recovery beverage!

Coconut Water Smoothie with Blueberries, Mango, Banana

4-6 ice cubes
1 ripe banana
1 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen mango
3/4 – 1 cup coconut water
1 scoop whey protein

Place all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Share with a friend.

Makes about 2 12-ounce smoothies.

For my vegan friends, you can easily make this vegan by substituting soy protein powder.

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I just had a very pleasant quick post-work jaunt and am now enjoying a yummy smoothie.

Buttermilk Banana Berry Smoothie
2 servings 

1 ripe banana
1/2 cup each frozen blueberries and raspberries
1 scoop vanilla whey protein
3/4 cup low fat buttermilk
a little agave syrup or honey to taste (optional)
a few ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender, cover, and blend until smooth.

Share with a friend and enjoy!

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Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm …

Cloud Forest Cafe in Davis makes a wonnnnnnnnnnnderful latte!

More pics from the Market to come later.

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2012 North American Handmade Bicycle Show (http://2012.handmadebicycleshow.com/) … oh, so like kids in a candy store!!!

But first, Old Soul Coffee (http://www.oldsoulco.com/) for a post-ride, pre-show latte.

Old Soul Co. latte

That’s all for now … this thing called work is requesting the pleasure of my company. Some really cool bike pics will be posted soon.

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 Caramel, Nut, and Dark Chocolate Tartlets

These tartlets were really quite simple to make. All it takes is a basic shortbread crust, mini muffin tins, some good quality caramel sauce, dark chocolate, and nuts. You want to make sure that you have all of your ingredients ready before you bake the crusts.

Shortbread Crust
makes about 24 mini tart shells

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse briefly to blend. Add the butter and pulse until the dough begins to to come together. You don’t want to overmix this dough, but make sure all ingredients are evenly distributed.

Depending on your tastes, if you are using unsalted butter, you can increase the salt to 1/4 teaspoon.

Turn the dough out of the food processor bowl onto a large piece of plastic wrap. If necessary, knead every so slightly to incorporate any unmixed flour. Let the dough rest.

Prepare mini muffin tins. This dough has a lot of butter in it, so you’ll only need to spray or “grease” them if they’re not non-stick.

Pull off small pieces of dough (the size of a non-shelled almond) and press them into the mini-muffin tins. You’ll want the dough to be fairly thin at this stage. When you’ve filled the pan, then dock the bottom of the shells with a fork 2-3 times. This will prevent the shells from puffing up while they bake. Place the pans in the freezer and chill for at least 20 minutes. This will also prevent the dough from sliding down into the bottom of the pan while they bake. Use this time to assemble the other ingredients: nuts, chocolate, caramel.

You can prepare these ahead of time and keep the shaped dough in the freezer. If you’re going to freeze the shells for more than 1 hour, you’ll want to wrap them well.

When you are ready to bake them, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Keep the shells in the freezer until you are ready to bake them. Bake in the center of a preheated oven for about 13-15 minutes, rotating once if necessary. Watch your time carefully. These shells go from not done to too well done very quickly.

While the tarts are chilling in the freezer, lightly toast your nuts of choice. You can use almonds, pecans, macadamias, walnuts, or any nut you’d like to try.  I used almonds, pecans, and walnuts because that is what I had on hand. These would be fantastic with macadamia nuts.

Nuts can be toasted in the oven while it is preheating. Just be careful because at this temperature, the nuts will toast very quickly and there is very little time between perfect and burnt. When done, remove from the oven and cool. Save 24 whole nuts for garnish, and chop the rest into small pieces, but not too fine, maybe about 1/8 inch chunks.

Somewhere I have a fantastic recipe for homemade caramel, but it makes a huge amount and you really only need a few ounces for this recipe. For the caramel sauce, I used Trader Jacques’ Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce. It was fantastic. You want to pick a caramel sauce that is fairly firm when at room temperature. A thin caramel sauce won’t give you the chewy bite you’ll want in these tarts.

For the chocolate, I used Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate chips. I think next time I’ll make a ganache because the chocolate  bloomed a little after it cooled and the tarts did not turn out as pretty as I had hoped. They were still quite delicious, though!

When you have all of your ingredients assembled and ready to go (i.e., mis en place*), then place the shells in the oven to bake. While they are baking, heat up the caramel sauce so that it will be easy to pour into the shells. When you pull the shells out of the oven, you will want to fill them immediately.

To assemble the tarts:

If using chocolate chips, then place 1-2 chocolate chips in the bottom of the shell as soon as it comes out of the oven. Place a few pieces of chopped nuts, then pour in the caramel. Top with another 2-3 chocolate chips and allow to melt slightly. Then press a whole nut on top for garnish. Press it in slightly. Allow the tarts to cool.

If using ganache, you can allow the shells to cool. Place a few pieces of chopped nuts into the shell, pour in the hot caramel. Cool. Prepare the ganache (it can be as simple as 1 part heavy cream to 2 parts dark chocolate – heat the cream to just below boiling, remove from heat, and stir in the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth).

When the caramel has cooled completely, carefully spoon a little ganache on top of the tart, then place a whole nut on top.

Voila! You have tartlets!

We paired these with a Mendelson late harvest pinot gris (http://www.mendelsonwines.com/index.php/wines/pinot-gris-1.html).

The blackberry mascarpone tart recipe will have to wait another day …

These we paired with a Mendelson late harvest muscat canelli (http://www.mendelsonwines.com/index.php/wines/muscat.html)

Now that was a little piece of heaven on earth!

* Mis en place means to put everything in its place.

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So I’ve been struggling for a few weeks now about what the heck to make for a potluck we’re going to tonight. Having worked as a baker for many years, I typically whip up some yummy baked goods, but I wanted this to be different. Potlucks always seem to have so many desserts, I wanted to make something else. Stumped. I was completely stumped. What was everyone else bringing? What did we NEED? Inspiration eluded me.

We had dinner with a friend last week and he gave us a bottle of wine, a 2009 DeLoach Sonoma County Chardonnay Vinthropic Cuvee.

When it comes to wine, I like white wine, but I will almost always go for red. So this posed a fun challenge for me. What the heck could I make to pair with this wine?  I Googled it. This is what DeLoach recommends:  “a perfect complement to alfresco dining, and pairs well with creamy risotto with shitake mushrooms or a freshly tossed Caesar salad with grilled prawns” ( http://www.boissetfamilyestates.com/products/ProductDetails.aspx?PrdId=767)

Caesar Salad … that’s a possibility … but I’d like to take something warm.

Mushrooms. What can I do with mushrooms? Potluck … finger food … stuffed mushrooms? Nah. Skewers? Nah … that would take waay to long on my George Foreman.

What about quiche? Frittata? Tartlets?

Hmm … tartlets. In search of a recipe, I didn’t find exactly what I wanted, but one that sounded really good:  Hot Mushroom, Toasted Walnut, and Camembert Filo Tartlets (http://www.food52.com/recipes/11179_hot_mushroom_toasted_walnut_and_camembert_filo_tartlets).
This was my inspiration.

Mushroom, Walnut, and Smoked Gouda Tartlets

So, with this in mind, I set out shopping. I picked up some mini filo shells, baby bella mushrooms, fresh thyme, garlic and shallots. While I was shopping, I came upon a sample of a fantastic smoked gouda cheese and thought that would be amazing in the tarlets.

Here is my version of the tartlets …

1/2 cup walnuts
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 1/2 pounds baby bella mushrooms (cremini)
1/2 cup white wine (I used a sauvignon blanc)
salt & pepper to taste

45 mini filo shells
7 ounces smoked gouda, cut into small cubes or shredded

Chop mushrooms into small pieces (~ 1/8-inch dice) and set aside.
Strip thyme leaves from stems and set aside.
Saute garlic & shallots in olive oil and butter. Be careful to not burn.
Add mushrooms and cook until most of the liquid has reduced. Add wine and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Add thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remember the cheese will add some salt, too, so depending on the cheese you use, you’ll want to adjust the salt accordingly.
This can be prepared up to a day ahead.

When it’s time to assemble, preheat oven to 350-degrees (F).

Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper and line up the filo shells.Place a small amount of cheese (2-3 small cubes, depending on size) in the shell. Bake about 5 minutes, until the cheese begins to melt. Remove from the oven and top off the tarts with a spoonful of mushroom mixture. If you’ve prepared the mushroom mixture ahead of time and refrigerated it, you’ll want to heat it up a bit before assembling the tarts.
Top the filled tartlet with some additional cheese.
Bake about  5 more minutes, or until heated through and the cheese is melted.
Garnish with additional thyme, and/or chives.

 

Enjoy!

Expect to have some filling leftover. I suspect it will make a lovely omelet or frittata, savory pizza or focaccia topping, or filling for thinly prepared chicken, pork, beef rolled up. Or, even stir fried with some brown rice, or with hearty grain like barley. I will have to experiment with this.

Oh, I also made these …

Blackberry Mascarpone Tarlets

Caramel Nut Chocolate Tartlets

I’ll post those recipes soon.