March 25 – March 31, 2024

Monday:                     Chicken Perloo with Soda Bread

Tuesday:                    Brie, Turkey and Apple Sandwiches

Wednesday:             Mortadella Carbonara

Thursday:                   Dinner at the PFC

Friday:                         Crispy Salmon with Green Beans and Rice

Saturday:                   Bintje Potato, Cream and Rosemary Pizza

Sunday Brunch:      Baked Ham with Mango Chutney, Orange and Mustard Glaze, Spinach-Bacon-Goat Cheese Frittata, Smoke Salmon with Bagels, Lox and Cream Cheese, Blueberry-Ricotta Breakfast Cake

A PIECE OF CAKE

If you are, as I am, a lover of savory tastes, you may also, as I do, eschew – yes, positively eschew – most cakes and pastries.  The mounds of thick, gelid butter icing on the top and bottom circumferences of birthday cakes make me gag, the clammy, meaty moisture of spice and carrot cakes positively suffocate me.  So, today’s post ought to confuse you – lord knows, it has me tied in knots.

It is rare that we drift into that corner of cooking known as pastry.  To begin with, having just turned 75, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth (see above).  Give me endive, collards and other bitter greens, put some bitters in my Rob Roy, add some red pepper flakes to my pizza (and anchovies, please), and by all means pass along the onions and the capers for my smoked salmon. 

But there are times when it is appropriate to serve up a bit of sweetness for the other 8,100,455,752 people in the world (the number will have changed a bit since I made this count, but it should be close).  I mean, while Ifeel that this blog should be all about me, that doesn’t seem quite fair to everyone else, and  we had guests for Easter who don’t always share my tastes, and we have a certain reputation to keep up, and . . .

But to get back to the subject at hand, this week we’re going to leave the sphere of the savory, the spicy, and the salty, and wade into the sticky swamp of the sweet – but not too sweet.

If you, like many others, have avoided pastry because of the difficulties inherent in making dough, proofing it, rolling it out and, when you have finished, dealing with the mounds of flour that have accumulated in various corners of your kitchen, and the powdery splotches on your clothes and in your hair, avoid no more.  The recipe below is as simple as it gets – there is no kneading or proofing or rolling out or pinching of dough.  There is almost no way to foul up this recipe and, most important of all, it will create a cake that is moist but light, not too sweet, filled with blueberries which are tasty and good for you (very high in vitamin C, antioxidants and something called anthocyanin which gives the berry its distinctive hue and is useful in fighting heart disease and cancer.  You can read about that here:  Mayo Clinic:   https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/the-power-of-blueberries

This recipe comes from one of the genius cookbooks of Ina Garten.  She is into sweet and, in her case, I’ll allow it, because she’s also into savory and she has made cooking so easy for the rest of us.  So, without further ado, here is Ina Garten’s Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake.*

*Well, one more piece of ado – we served this cake at our Easter brunch and the crowd was quite happy.  I even had a piece.  I’m working on Barbara.

Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Cake

Timing:                  

65 minutes or so – another 15 to rest before serving (and remember to leave the butter                             out to come to room temperature – 1.5 hours)

Ingredients:                                    Serves 8 or more

10 tablespoons butter at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature (we used 3 large eggs and 1 small)

1 cup whole-milk ricotta

2 tablespoons sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

Kosher salt

2 cups fresh blueberries (12 ounces), divided

Sifted confectioners sugar, for dusting

Special equipment – electric mixer, 9” springform pan

Prep:

Let butter come to room temperature (1.5 hours)

Preheat oven to 350 F. 

Grease and flour the springform pan, shaking out any excess flour.

Measure out the sugar, flour, baking powder, and blueberries.

Make the batter:

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Beat on medium for 3 minutes – sugar should be light and fluffy – scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

With the mixer on low, add the eggs one at a time – mixing well after each addition.  Now add the ricotta, sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest and mix well.  (the batter will look curdled)

In a small bowl stir the flour, baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt and then, with the mixer on slow, slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter, mixing just until incorporated.

Fold about 2/3 of the blueberries into the batter with a rubber spatula.

Transfer the batter to the springform pan, smooth the top and scatter the remaining blueberries on the cake, lightly pressing them into the surface.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pan on a metal rack for 15 minutes.

Remove the sides of the pan, lightly dust the top with confectioners sugar and serve warm or at room temperature.