Tag: help

Giving Back to NYC

Since New York City and surrounding areas are still in such desperate
need of help, I thought I’d post links to some of our favorite NYC-inspired
recipes, in the hopes you’ll think to yourself, “After all the delicious food
the Big Apple has given to us, the least I can do is give a few bucks to the
Red Cross to help them out.” After enjoying some pizza, cheesecake, blintzes, and pastrami, please follow this link and give what you can. Thanks and enjoy!

Make Your Own Pastrami

New York-Style Cheesecake

Easy Cheese Blintzes

No-Knead Thin Crust Pizza

Ginger Pear Cranberry Sauce – Making Your Holidays More Difficult, One Condiment at a Time

You would think the vast majority of the visitors to this
blog would be fine with me posting a new holiday cranberry sauce every
year, but apparently that’s not the case.

After posting the tease picture for
this lovely ginger, pear, cranberry sauce, I received a bunch of comments and
emails with the same basic message, “please don’t, you’re confusing us.”

Evidently, some people like our past cranberry sauce recipes
so much, that they don’t know if they should stick with them, or try a new
version. It’s causing quite the dilemma. Do you go with the one you know you love, and
that garnered so many compliments, or do you try something new and risk it all?

Sorry, I really can’t help you decide, but at least let me make an
already tough call, even tougher. This gingery, pear-studded cranberry sauce
was simply amazing. I’ve been wanting to try pear in a cranberry sauce forever,
and this was so fantastic that I’m a little upset I waited this long.

Anyway, I hope your Thanksgiving menu is shaping up nicely,
and that tomorrow will bring a table full of fabulous food. Whether you use
this cranberry sauce, or an older version, or heaven help us, one from another
blog, I hope you and your family have a great holiday. Enjoy!

Ingredients for about 2 cups:
12 oz fresh whole
cranberries

1 large bosc pear, peeled,
diced

2 oz candied ginger,
minced

zest of 1 large orange

1 cup fresh orange juice

1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 whole star anise

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp garam masala (an Indian-style
curry spice blend)

1/4 tsp salt

Gordon’s Lemon Treacle Slice Recipe Gordon Ramsay made…

Gordon’s Lemon Treacle Slice Recipe

Gordon Ramsay made this sticky, sweet treat for Caffé Nero with the help of some prisoners in Gordon Behind Bars.

Makes 8-10 bars
Ingredients

For the base

300g digestive biscuits
150g butter

For the topping

675g golden syrup
90g butter
100ml double cream
225g white breadcrumbs
5 egg yolks
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp Lemon curd

For the glaze

50g icing sugar
juice of 1 lemon juice

Method

To make the base, pre-heat the oven to 160oC, fan 140oC, gas mark 3.

Place the biscuits in a food processor and blend until you have a smooth crumb.

Melt the butter, then stir into the biscuits. Press the biscuit mixture firmly into the base of a 20cm square tin which has been lined with baking parchment. Allow to chill for at least half an hour.

To make the topping, put the golden syrup into a saucepan along with the butter and allow to melt gently without boiling.

Once the butter has melted take the pan off the heat and stir in the cream, breadcrumbs, egg yolks, lemon zest and juice. Stir well.

Once the base has cooled, spread the lemon curd onto the base. Pour over the breadcrumb filling and then place into the oven to cook for 25-30 minutes or until firm to the touch.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into rectangular slices.

To glaze the slices, mix the icing sugar with enough lemon juice to make a thick paste. Place it into a piping bag and pipe onto the top of your bars, or drizzle the glaze over with a spoon.