I wasn’t sure what would be best to make; but I started with an orange curd using a couple of the navel oranges. I started with a yuzu curd recipe that I got from Extraordinary Desserts, and just kind of improvised. It could probably stand some improvement, but as it stands it tastes a bit like an orange julius with more eggs mixed in.

The orange curd is meant to be baked — the recipe I have for the yuzu curd has you bake it in some puff pastry with almonds — but if you use pasteurized eggs, you can use the unbaked curd as a glaze or sauce, too. I’ve now got a whole bowlful, and I’m not sure what to put it on.

Chilled orange curd

Here’s what I did:

• * Juice enough oranges to get about 1/2 cup of juice. For me this was one and a half oranges.
• * Slice off the peel from another orange, then dice up the rest of the orange, and add it all to the same container.
• * Zest a lemon into the same container.
• * Cut a stick of butter (1/2 cup) into cubes and set aside.
• * Add 1 cup of sugar and 4 eggs (preferably pasteurized) to a medium saucepan; mix together, then add in the orange juice/zest/orange mixture.
• * Whisk it around in the saucepan over low heat; the orange chunks will cook down a bit and juice; feel free to smush the orange chunks and juice them a bit more.
• * Keep whisking until the mixture starts to visibly thicken, between 5 and 10 minutes. You really can’t time it, you just have to watch it. Make sure it doesn’t get too hot and curdle.
• * Once the mixture is thick enough, drop in the butter. Continue whisking until the butter is melted.
• * As soon as the butter is all melted, take the mixture off the heat.
• * Strain the mixture through a wire strainer; you’re going to have to help it through with the whisk, moving around and pressing on the orange chunks and pulp to get the curd through.
• * Chill it in the fridge for an hour or two, and you’re done!

The curd can be used as a topping if you used pasteurized eggs, or added to pastries and baked (it comes out with a texture similar to the cheese in a cheese danish).

I’d also recently found a recipe for homemade Oreo-style cookies, and gave the filling part a try. A couple of years ago I’d had a mocha at Hash House a Go Go that was a special — an “oreo mocha” where the mocha itself tasted exactly like Oreo creme filling. I’d wanted to replicate that for a while now, and after a few practice runs (hint, don’t add too much vanilla extract), I’ve got something close, though it still doesn’t match the actual filling of Oreo cookies. I’ll have to experiment more; I’m not yet to the point of buying a pack of Double-Stuf Oreos just to scrape out the filling into a bowl, but I might if I can’t get it right.

So, the other day, I combined the two joys!

First, I whipped together some of the creme filling. I used the recipe for the filling from the King Arthur Flour site above, but left out the gelatin and water. I combined the shortening and sugar along with the vanilla (scraping the mixture off of the whisk a LOT), then added a tiny bit of cold water as it mixed to bring its consistency together. That mostly worked.

Then, I did up the pots-de-creme. That was reasonably easy if a bit involved. I’m not 100% clear on reposting recipes, so the closest recipe I’ve found to what I was using was Oprah’s pots-de-creme — the only difference being that the recipe I was using has you add the milk and creme mixture to the eggs first, then reheat it to custard-ize the mixture and then pour that over the chocolate bits. (Also, for those who know what I’m talking about, I think the stuff that gets strained out of the pots-de-creme in the final step is the same thing that forms pudding skin.)

Next, assembly! I started with some of the creme filling crumblies in a little plastic container:

I took a second container and mashed it down on the crumblies in the first one, trying to compress it into a kind of cake. I’m not yet clear on what exactly holds it together and how to improve it, but this seemed to work, even though some of the resulting cakes came apart later. (It’s still tasty.)

After working it loose in the first container and setting it atop the second, you get this:

Next, I filled a bunch of the same containers about half-full of the pot-de-creme mixture, and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to harden up:

Then the cake goes on top:

And fill the rest with more chocolate pot-de-creme:

You can just see the creme filling cake on the side there.

I brought a bunch in to work, and everyone seemed happy with them; I got a suggestion to add some kind of crunchy something to the mix, which I’ll have to experiment with — I’m wondering if that should be something cookie-like or if I should try cocoa nibs.

The next recipe will be for the pavlovas I made with the egg whites leftover from this recipe. Happy desserting!

Cue a few weeks later; I’d signed up for the “Something’s Fishy” class at Great News, probably the best casual cooking school and non-ripoff cookware store I know of. The class was taught by a couple of managers and chefs from Iowa Meat Farms and Siesel’s, which would be the best place I know of to get meat and occasionally seafood. (Even they admitted it was a bit weird for a meat place to do a seafood class, but it worked.)

Anyway, the other night I picked up a side of salmon (not sure what you call it) to try out. Their recipe was for plank-grilled salmon with maple-mustard glaze, which was really tasty when I had it at the class. I haven’t washed the grill in ages (I know, sacrilege, but it’s been too hot to do much outside next to a giant heat source), so I figured I’d try the recipe, but bake the salmon instead.

Here’s the salmon fresh out of the package:

The glaze is really simple — basically, you take some sweet onion (the recipe called for just a half, but I used a whole one), then sautee it to translucent, just before it starts to caramelize. (You don’t need the extra sugar in this case.) Then, add half a cup of whole-grain dijon mustard and a whole cup of maple syrup. Mix it up and bring it to a simmer; let it reduce for about 5 minutes, or more if you want it thicker. Be careful not to let it burn, since there’s a lot of sugar in there.

Brown isn’t always appetizing, but the end result is yummy.

Once the glaze is ready, let it cool down somewhat. Then brush and drizzle it all over the salmon, and put the salmon in the oven at 400 degrees. Let it go for between 10 and 20 minutes depending on the size of the piece; I added more glaze if needed at 10 minutes, and started checking it at about 15.

One of the key things about fish that I didn’t really get until now was that you can’t go off of time; you really need to check the fish and look for signs that it’s done. I started pulling back pieces of the salmon and checking to where it was touching the baking dish — after three or four times of doing that, it looked like there was only a tiny piece that was still raw-ish. This was also the point where the salmon’s fat started coming out of the piece of meat (as you can see a bit in the picture). Remembering that carryover does its thing and that it’s better to undercook fish than to overcook it, I pulled it out at this point and got a really tasty meal (and lunch and dinner the next day, too).

Here’s the final prize:

Serve it with some more of the glaze on the side.

The other things I really liked at the fish class were the bacon-wrapped margarita-glazed scallops and the steak that went with it. I have to say that I’ve been to a couple of really good steak restaurants, but none of those could match the steak at this class. It’s enough to make me want to take these guys’ beef class when it comes up next.

So here I present my dragon scrambled eggs.

INGREDIENTS:
4 to 6 eggs, shell-pasteurized if possible (eggs will be cooked wet at lower temperature, so better be safe than sorry)
1 tablespoon (more or less) of cream cheese
Pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Butter for the frying pan

DIRECTIONS:
Crack the eggs into a bowl, and beat with a fork for 30 seconds or so. Take the dollop of cream cheese cold from the refrigerator, and add it to the bowl. Break up the cream cheese a bit with a fork, and continue beating. Add the salt, continue beating. Your goal is not to get the ingredients to mix completely; rather, the cream cheese will be in small chunks or lumps. Add the cinnamon, and beat some more. Note that it will be very difficult to get the cinnamon into the mixture — it will want to coat the bowl instead. Just do as best you can.

Heat up the frying pan low to medium hot; you want to slowly cook the eggs, more slowly than normal scrambled eggs. Add a good dollop (half to one tablespoon) of butter, and let it melt and coat the pan. Dump the egg mixture from the bowl into the pan. Stir it around slowly with a spatula or other device. Once the eggs start to set, flip chunks over so the still-raw top can cook a little bit. Once the eggs look almost set, plate them quickly; they’ll set up a bit as they get plated, and you don’t want to cook them any more!

Serves 1 to 2, depending on if you have side dishes. I usually don’t.

Remove excess fat from steak. In a small bowl, mix butter or margarine, oil, garlic, seasoned salt and seasoned pepper until blended. Spread on all sides of steak. Mix bread crumbs and cheese. Press into butter mixture on steak, coating steak well. Place steak in a brown paper grocery bag. Fold end over and secure with staples or paper clips. Preheat oven 375 degrees. Place bag on a rimmed baking sheet and bake 30 minutes. For medium rare steak, increase oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake 15 minutes longer, a total of 45 minutes. For medium well steak, reduce heat from 425 degrees to 375 degrees and bake 5 minutes longer before removing from oven, a total of 50 minutes. Remove steak from bag. Let stand 5 minutes before carving into thin slices. Makes 4 to 6 servings. Yummy..yummy!!!! Lots of love and hugs..Mom

INGREDIENTS:
2 and a half cups finely crushed vanilla wafers (Nila wafers, for example)
1 cup powdered sugar, plus extra for coating
1 cup finely chopped nuts
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup (or more; the danger comes from the full cup of brandy Gerri uses)
3 Tablespoons corn syrup

DIRECTIONS:
Mix vanilla wafers, sugar, nuts, and cocoa. Add corn syrup and brandy.
Mix well with hands or whatever’s convenient. Roll into 1 inch balls, then roll around in powdered sugar to coat.

Notes:
* 1 cup crushed graham crackers can be substituted for vanilla wafers, if desired. Never tried this variation, though.
* Balls may be rolled in granulated or superfine sugar instead of powdered sugar — Gerri prefers them rolled in granulated sugar.
* Wafers, nuts, sugar, and cocoa can be put through a grinder or food processor to make them as fine as possible.