A Jump on Autumn

One bonus of working in a professional kitchen, is that I get to have a jump on the seasons. I get a head start on fall baking in early September, start playing around with winter spices in November, and experiment with bright winter citrus in December. We are rolling out a new fall inspired menu at the restaurant in the next week and I could not be more excited. Does this early run on autumnal goodies mean I will hit burn out on fall flavors by November?

Fall is my favorite season, and the food that comes with it is second to none. Even better than fall baking, is fall cooking, and while I am up to my ears in cinnamon, pumpkin and apples at work, at home I am diving head first into slow braised meats, stews and soups, and some serious comfort food. This week I made my first big 'ol pot of chili of the year. Chock full of hearty ingredients, warm spices, and healthy lean ground turkey, this is one soup to keep on rotation. Roasted sweet potatoes, black beluga lentils, white cannelini beans, crunchy corn and yellow bell peppers all add to the complexity and texture. Cumin, coriander, ginger, smoked chipotle chili powder add to the depth of flavor and slow subtle heat. If you are looking to change up your usual chili recipe, this is it.

Autumn Chili with Beluga Lentils, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, and Turkey

2-3 lbs ground turkey,

3 teaspoons paprika

1/4 cup AP flour 

1/2 cup olive oil 

1 large vidalia onion, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 large green jalepeno, diced (remove seeds if you want it a little less spicy)

1/4 cup tomato paste

4 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons smoked chipotle chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatos

2 cups white wine

8 cups chicken stock

4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced small

2 cans canellini beans

2 cups black beluga lentils

2 small cans corn

2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange are my preference), diced

1/2 cup parsley leaves, minced

greek yogurt and more chopped parsley to garnish

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Toss diced sweet potatoes with 1/4 cup olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast for 30-40 minutes, tossing periodically until starting to caramelize. Set aside. 

Meanwhile, heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a large heavy bottom pot, such as a dutch oven, over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add turkey and cook until cooked through and starting to brown. Add the onions and garlic and cook until softened and starting to caramelize, about 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the turkey and cook for a minute or two, stirring constantly to cook off a bit of the raw flour taste. Add the jalepenos and saute another 2-3 minutes, until softened.

Add the tomato paste, chili powders, cumin, coriander, ginger, and stir to combine. Add the wine, bring to a simmer, then add the chicken stock and tomatoes. Stir to combine, then bring to a boil and add the lentils. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30-45 minutes, until lentils are starting to get tender.

Add the beans, corn, bell peppers, and sweet potatoes. Bring back to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until veggies are tender. Stir in parsley and serve immediately topped with greek yogurt and more parsley. This also freezes wonderfully.

Autumn Cake

At one point this week, I had four fondant cakes of different shapes and sizes sitting in my kitchen. I can't bring myself to throw them away, but I don't know what to do with them. Maybe I will just let them petrify and make a cake shrine in our second bedroom. That probably won't happen, but it's an option. It's hard to dump something in the trash that you spent such a long time on, but nobody wants to eat two-week old cake (not that they will admit anyway). This cake luckily found a home this weekend for a friend's birthday and wasn't sacrificed to the garbage bin.

I am in my last quarter of pastry school, and one of my classes is a cake decorating class that focuses on fondant cakes. Unfortunately, I am not learning as much as I had hoped from this class, so I had to change my way of thinking about it. I now look forward to class as a chance to play and experiment for five hours a week with unlimited materials and lots of fun tools. This week our only restriction was an autumn themed cake, and since I love fall, I was really looking forward to it. I wanted to make a clean and classy fall cake, one that wasn't covered in pumpkins and marzipan fruit, perhaps something that could even be used as a wedding cake. We got to play with the airbrush machine to make more realistic leaves (Santa, if you are listening, Bria has been a very good girl this year and would like an airbrush machine for Christmas).

One great tip I did pick up this week was that I should start hoarding my egg cartons and always be on the lookout for other containers that can be reused to hold gum paste flowers and figures. Drying petals or leaves in a round cup gives them more dimension and movement than if you were to let them dry flat. You can purchase little round cups made specifically for this purpose, but why spend the money when there are things already in your house that work just as well? I happen to shop as Costco, and when honeycrisp apples came out this year, I bought a huge container of them. As I was reaching for the last one this week, I realized that the plastic clam shell they came in was perfect for flower shaping.

A drawback of using bowls that I had around the apartment to hold flower layers was that most of them had a flat bottom, but these apple cups are perfectly spherical. I cannot wait to test them out. Next time you are at the grocery store, check out the produce section, there are all kinds of egg carton-like packaging in different shapes and sizes that may be very useful in your cake creating endeavors.

Hope you enjoyed your extra hour of sleep/play/work this weekend. Happy fall!