Fall Means It's Time for Apples!

Here in Northwest Arkansas' Ozarks, people grow a variety of apple I never encountered anywhere else. The variety name is Arkansas Black. Evidently, the strain was originated in the mid 1800's in Benton County, Arkansas. The color is much darker that what we normally see in the grocery, almost a dark burgundy. They are very crisp and crunchy which makes them great for eating raw and very tasty in pies and tarts.

Picture from the Internet - Thanks Fruitguys!

As I am stuck at home today becoming not contagious, but feeling better, I decided to turn several of these guys into an apple tart to surprise the wife when she comes home.

I will not take credit for the recipe. This is almost a word for word transcription from the Free Form Fruit Tart you can find in Cooks Illustrated. If you read the material below you will notice a few changes, but not many.

Ingredients

7.5 ounces unbleached all purpose flour
1 and 1/4 sticks unsalted butter cut in 3/4 inch cubes and chilled
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 to 6 Tablespoons of ice water
Four or five Arkansas Black apples
juice of a lemon
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch grated nutmeg

Method

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the rack lower middle.

Add the salt to the flour in a medium bowl and mix well. Place the chilled butter cubes in the flour and coat them. Using the thumb, pointer and tallman of each hand, squish the butter cubes flat. Toss to make sure all butter is flour covered and squish the flat pieces into two. Toss and repeat until the butter pieces are mostly, but not completely, the size of flattened peas. Work quickly to avoid melting the butter with the heat of your hands.

Notice the butter chunks! Time to add the ice water.

Add one Tablespoon of ice water and use a fork to mix it into the dough. Try not to mix the butter into the flour. Repeat until the water is used or the dough wants to come together, whichever occurs first. Turn the dough out onto the counter and use a bench scrapper to form a rectangular mound.

Using the heel of your hand, start at the far end on the mound and smear the damp flour and butter away from yourself on the counter. Working toward yourself, repeat until the entire mound is flattened. Use the bench scrap to re-mound the dough and repeat once. Bring the dough together without working it and form it into a disk. Wrap the disk tightly in cling film and refrigerate 30 minutes to 1 hour. (If you double wrap the dough, you can refrigerate longer, but the dough must sit at room temperature until workable.)

Notice that you can still see butter splotches.

When the dough has chilled, flour a sheet of parchment and place the disk in the center. Flour the disk top. Rolling away from yourself, roll the dough from the center out and turn the sheet a quarter turn. Repeat until the dough is about 3/16ths of an inch thick. Resist the urge to neaten the edges or cut and place pieces. The less you work the dough the flakier it will be. This is a Free Form, art not architecture. Slide the parchment with dough onto a sheet pan.

Chill the dough for 30 minutes. While the dough chills, peel, core, and slice the apples in quarter inch slices. Toss the slices in lemon juice to stop any oxidation. Sprinkle the cinnamon, nutmeg, and 2 Tablespoons of the sugar over the slices. Toss well.

Remove the sheet pan from the refrigerator and mound the slices in the middle of the dough. Pleat the dough to partially cover the fruit, working your way around the dough. Use a pastry brush and water to brush the outside of the tart and sprinkle the remaining sugar on the dough exterior.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes until the tart is golden brown.

Sometimes they leak.

Like pies, the tart needs to cool and collect itself before you slice and serve.

By the way, in the summer I use peaches and blueberries for the fruit. That may be even better.

End of the Season

Friday night was quite chilly here in the Ozarks. And Saturday morning I put away my summer robe and dug out the winter fleece one. My students at school are all talking about what they will be for Halloween, and my Facebook feed seems to be wall to wall pumpkin spice. I guess real Fall has arrived.
Real Fall means my wife and I must begin to winterize the potted herb garden on the back porch. The first step is always the basil. Basil loves the heat and turns brown in the chill. Here in the Ozarks, that means we do not even plant it until late May and by this time of year we need to harvest and process what remains.
We have found the best way to enjoy that fresh basil taste all winter is to make pesto and freeze portions in an ice cube tray. After the pesto is well frozen, we pop the cubes out and store them in a zip lock baggie for future use.
This post will not be a pesto lesson. Thousands of those exist already, complete with YouTube videos.
Instead I want to share a simple, easy dish we found that uses pesto. First, the ingredients:

Classic pesto, cubed slab bacon, frozen peas, and orzo. 

Yes, really, that is it, except of course salt and pepper.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups dry orzo pasta 

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup cubed slab bacon (substitute 3 slices thick cut bacon if necessary)

1 cup pesto

kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

olive oil for frying

Method:

Fry the bacon in olive oil in a large non stick skillet. When the fat has rendered and the bacon is crisp, pour off most of the fat. 

While the bacon fries, cook the orzo in salty boiling water but only until very al dente. When you test it, it should have a firm center and stick to your teeth. Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the water.

Fill the skillet with bacon and 1/2 inch of tap water and bring it to the boil. Add the orzo and finish cooking the pasta while stirring. As needed add the reserved pasta water. 

When the pasta is done, add the frozen peas and continue stirring until the peas have warmed. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the pesto. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Serve with Parmesan and a nice red wine.

Fall in the Ozarks - Which Weekend Is This?

(Photo courtesy of  http://www.eurekaspringscorvette.org)

Here in Eureka Springs, Arkansas every weekend in the Fall becomes an Event weekend. Last weekend was Bikers, Barbecue, and Blues. This weekend is Corvette weekend. Personally I prefer the Bikers. I hear the townspeople do as well - the bikers buy more and tip better. I am sure next weekend is something else. The point is that we in the Ozarks have found a way to make a living even though we can't grow much around here, there is nothing to mine, the trees are scrub oak and cedar, and the revenuers have made shine illegal.

Honestly, I enjoy the fact the hotels and motels fill up, the local restaurants becoming stand in line, and we need police to direct traffic at the junction of Highways 23 and 62. The tourists feed the families of my students and keep the odd and quirky stores going. "No Clothes" sells only accessories. "Two Dumb Dames" peddles sweets and fudge. "Judge Roy Bean's" takes those old-timey pictures that look like daguerreotypes.

This morning I went into town early, had breakfast and went to school to grade papers. Before noon I scurried back out of town. Just because I appreciate the tourists doesn't mean I want to be trapped in the traffic.

This evening I am preparing a Fall type meal.

Braised Smoked Bratwurst with Sauerkraut, Apple, Onion and Potatoes.

Ingredients

4 links smoked bratwurst, sliced in 1/3 inch rings
4 slices bacon, or equivalent, cubed or diced (about 1/2 cup)

1 onion, sliced in rings

10 baby golden potatoes, halved

1 Granny Smith apple, diced

1 cup sauerkraut, unrinsed

1 cup (approximate) chicken broth

1-2 teaspoons caraway seeds

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

salt and pepper

1 Tbs. vegetable oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Heat the oil in a dutch oven and add the bacon, onion, and sausage. Saute over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients begin to brown. Add the spices and cook until fragrant. Add the kraut and broth (enough to half cover all ingredients) and use a wooden spoon to scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the dutch oven. Add the sugar, potatoes, and apples and mix well. Add more broth if needed. Continue to cook on the stove top until the broth begins to gently boil. 

Cover the dutch oven and move to the center rack of the preheated oven. Bake 70 to 90 minutes until the potatoes, apples, and sausage are very done. Taste and adjust the salt, pepper, and sugar. Turn off the oven and let the pot sit in the oven for another 20 minutes. Serve in bowls with rye bread and a good beer.

Fall Cross Country Meets in the Ozarks

Just as everywhere else, Fall is Cross Country season. Our school here in the Ozarks is far too small to field a football team and basketball season is still some weeks away. The athletes who can run tend to join cross country. Meets of varying sizes begin to happen starting in September and Eureka Springs traditionally hosts the Holiday Island Classic here on the banks of Table Rock Lake near the end of the month.

Unlike many areas of the country, today's meet was not crisp and brisk or ideal runners weather. From dawn to nearly 8:00 AM a heavy fog covered the low areas and by meet ending at 11:30, the air temperature was a moist 80 degrees. 

The wife and I have acted as the scorers for nearly a decade and today was like many others. We had a light over-shirt on when we arrived, and by the end, our sun screen was running into our eyes. 

One of the joys of such events, despite the sun, are the people. Everyone knows everyone. The overall boy winner today was Oliver Perez from the next town over at Berryville. We have watched him race since he was a freshman and wished him luck for his last run in our event today. We hope he receives a healthy scholarship to University of Arkansas. 

We also visited with numerous parents, fellow school employees (some retired), students past and present, and with the usual community members who are involved in all local events - our banker, our insurance agent, and such.

Enough preamble. Today's post will be about a quick and easy pasta suitable for week nights or for company. At the same time, this version emphasizes the fresh tastes possible late in the summer.

Summer Seafood Pasta

Ingredients
1/2 small red onion, diced small
one 6.5 ounce can minced clams, drained with juices reserved
12 to 18 raw shrimp, shelled and cut in 3 or 4 bite size pieces
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
6 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
1 large pinch crushed red pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup each minced fresh oregano and parsley
16 ounces fettuccine or linguini  

Method
Heat 4 quarts of water to boiling in a large pot or pasta cooker. Add a palmful of coarse Kosher salt and when the water boils once more, add the pasta.
As the pasta cooks, about 5 to 8 minutes, heat the olive oil to hot but not smoking in a very large skillet. Add the garlic and crushed red pepper and cook until fragrant (30 seconds to 1 minute). Add the onion and reduce the heat to medium. Saute the onion until translucent. Add the tomatoes and the clams and continue to saute for one minute. Add the clam juice and remove the pan from the heat.
When the pasta is done to al dente, place the skillet back on the heat and drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of liquid.
When the tomato mixture reheats, add the herbs, a large pinch of salt, and the shrimp. Immediately add the hot drained pasta and begin to toss to mix the seafood and tomatoes/garlic/onion. and herbs into the pasta. If liquid is needed, use the reserved pasta water. 
Serve immediately with fresh cracked black pepper and fresh shredded Parmesan or Roman.
Serves four to six.