Blood Tangerine Tart with Raspberries

Last week I found these gorgeous Blood Tangerines at Whole Foods – tangy and sweet. I decided to make a tart with them by incorporating them as a curd.

Pate Sucree

My favorite tart dough because it is unforgivable!! It won’t get tough from rolling and doesn’t shrink when you bake it. The texture is very similar to a cookie.

1 stick + 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg yolk

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Beat together the butter, sugar and salt with an electric beater or stand mixer until creamy. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and mix until combined. Add the flour until the dough comes together. Shape into a flat round disk and refrigerate until firm.

Roll the dough out between two pieces of flour dusted parchment paper big enough for your 10-inch tart pan – so about a 12-inch round. Don’t worry if the dough breaks when you are transferring it to the tart pan – like I said this dough is very forgiving and you can just gently press and piece it in.

Pre-bake the tart shell at 350* for about  25 minutes until slightly golden.

While the tart is baking start making the curd. I added the zest of a Meyer Lemon I had for a little extra flavor.

Grated zest of 3 Blood tangerines

6 tablespoons Blood tangerine juice

3 tablespoons water

1/2 cup sugar

1 stick butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

Place the zests, juice, water, sugar, salt and butter in a saucepan and heat slowly over low heat until the butter melts. Whisk all the eggs together in a bowl and slowly start to drizzle all of the warm mixture into the bowl. Pour back into the saucepan and constantly stir and scrape over low heat until thickens about 5 minutes. Strain through a sieve directly into the pre-baked tart shell and spread evenly.

Top with 3 pints of raspberries. Gently warm some apricot jam and use it to glaze the tart. Chill until the curd is firm about 3 hours.

Chunky Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies

 

Warning: These cookies have more chocolate and nuts then they do dough!

Chunky Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Cookies

1-pound bittersweet chocolate, cut into small chunks

2 cup pecans, roasted lightly and chopped coarsely

2 sticks butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1-teaspoon salt

2-cups all-purpose flour

Maldon’s Sea Salt

 

This dough is similar to a shortbread cookie.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Position rack in the middle of the oven.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla and almond extracts. In a medium bowl sift together the flour and salt, then add them to butter / flour mixture. Add the pecans and chocolate and mix on low speed until the dough sort of comes together.

Chill the dough in a refrigerator for at least an hour.

Start scooping the dough into small golf ball sized balls with your hands. When making the cookie balls I’ve found that the dough sometime starts to stick to your hands when you are working with it. If this happens, run your hands under cold water. Then continue to make the cookie dough balls. Firmly shape the cookies into 2 ½ inch rounds and place on a parchment lined backing sheet. Sprinkle sea salt on top before baking.

Bake approximately 18 minutes. Rotate cookie pans if baking more than one sheet at a time.

Remove cookies to a rack and cool completely. Though, they will be tempting to eat. I find it is better to allow the chocolate to become firm again.

Makes 18 – 20 cookies

Dan Pelosi Eats Out

Dan Pelosi Eats Out

Dan Pelosi

Dan and I both consider ourselves big eaters as well as feeders. We’ll both spend hours in our kitchens creating food so that we can feed or give it away to our hungry friends. It’s an illness. And one I think both of us will never get over. We once went on a date to the Ferry Buildings Farmers Market and I got to watch Dan smell fresh summer tomatoes. It looked like he was getting high. I knew at that moment that we would be friends forever. We’ve shared a lot of meals around town – but its been the meals at my table that have proven most memorable. Dan is a great conversationalist with a whip smart sense of humor. After dinner he always offers to do the dishes – but is really in the kitchen scrapping up the bottom of the pot and eating it with a spoon.

Dan & I on a date.

Dan answers my foodie questionnaire here:

What is your favorite dessert?

Lillian’s Cherry Nut Cake. My grandmother’s best friend Lillian used to make it all the time when i was little. It’s incredible- not too sweet and the perfect texture . My mom got her hands on the recipe and would always make it for me for my birthday. I would spend the whole week following my birthday sitting in front of the fridge with a fork (or 2) eating away at it. It only got better with time. The recipe has now been passed into my hands, and when i am making a cherry nut cake, it’s always for someone special. If you ask nicely, i will share the recipe with you.

Dan’s kitchen

What restaurant would you call your home?

Anyone who knows me at all knows the answer to this question is Bar Jules. I live in Hayes Valley, and from the moment Bar Jules opened, I have been obsessed. Jessica (the owner) and her staff treat me like family. I have spent so many special occasions there. Jessica has taken all the things that make Northern California cuisine so wonderful and has simplified them into a tiny delicious menu that changes daily. Many nights i am eating dinner alone at the bar chatting with a stranger, and many mornings i wake up dreaming of their burger.

Dan & Grandpa Pelosi – the meatball maker!

What is the strangest or most inspiring thing you’ve ever eaten?

On my parents’ 30th wedding anniversary, my grandparents made my parents 30 pounds of homemade cavatelli to celebrate  (they are known to make meatballs in batches of 100, so this feat was something they were ready for.) The cavatelli lasted (frozen) for a while. On the christmas after my Grandmother died, we gathered as a family and ate the last few pounds of cavatelli that she had ever made as a tribute to her. Everyone was crying and laughing as we all told stories about her and shared one of her greatest gifts, food. Before she died, my grandmother taught me how to make her cavatelli, and now i get to pass her recipe on to the next generation.

What was your favorite breakfast cereal as a kid?

I don’t think i knew other cereals besides Lucky Charms even existed when i was a kid. The way that the marshmallows got really weird in the milk was fascinating to me. The milk would turn all kinds of cuckoo colors. And it only got better once it was all in my mouth. Also, any leftover milk was transformed into a sip-able sugary form of crystal meth.

Dan and his mom.

What is your favorite food to pig-out on after the club?

Well as of late there have been no clubs, and i am pretty much a full-time stay-at-home lesbian. So that means lots of crumbs in the sheets from Goldfish Crackers or my homemade chocolate chip cookies. In my glory days as a Booty Call Wednesday regular, though, if i wasn’t eating my own tears after the club, i was definitely eating some form of pizza from that place on 18th or chicken fingers at one of those 24 hour diner places that somehow exist despite strict health codes.

Dan Pelosi

After leaving his job in July as a designer for GAP after 5 years, he has been working as Creative Director for an experiential retail design firm. The job has had him very busy traveling, and eating, all over the country. I know the minute he lands in  San Francisco – he smells the croissants baking at Tartine – and heads straight there.

William August Cullen Eats Out

William and I finally got to meet just moments before this photo was taken at my Pride Party in 2009.

William and I

We had been admiring each other over the internet for quite a while. When he arrived to the party he made a bee-line to my side and since that day we have been steadily involved in a hardcore / ongoing sexting conversation that continues to outlive some of my most ravenous affairs. We are making plans to spend a romantic weekend in Pasa Robles – I want to stay at La Bellasera – he’s asking if I would settle for a one and a half star motel with partially clean linens and a  Continental breakfast.

William August Cullen

William is currently involved in hosting the new LA weekly party Rasputin: Russian Love Machine which I will be DJing at in January.

William answers my foodie questionnaire here:

What is your favorite desert?
My favorite is at Animal on Fairfax Ave in LA.  They have these AMAZING Chocolate Crunch bars with pieces of bacon sprinkled on top accompanied with a salt and pepper ice cream…If I’m poor I’ll settle for a Butterfinger.

Bacon Chocolate Crunch Bar at Animal

What restaurant would you call home?
Madame Matisse in Silverlake or when I’m in NY Artichoke Pie.

What is the strangest or most inspiring thing you’ve ever eaten?
I’m pretty vanilla when it comes to food..I’ll eat ANYTHING but best not tell me what it is first.  I’ve come to love oxtail gravy especially in a poutine.  YUM.

What was your favorite breakfast cereal as a kid?
Cinnamon Toast Crunch

What is your favorite food to pig-out on after the club?
I’m such a Guido at heart…slices of pizza!

Guido at heart.