2013 February « Putney Farm

Cupcake Parfaits In A Jar

February 14, 2013

21 Comments
“Jarcake”.

Actually, carrot cake cupcake and maple frosting parfaits in a jar, to be precise. But you can use any cupcake and frosting combo you like. This dish is just a fun riff on cupcakes and, truth be told, helps you avoid some of the mess and cleanup associated with cupcakes and crowds. But your guests won’t think about any practical matters, they will just get a kick out of eating cupcakes in a jar and getting cake and frosting in each bite. Good fun.

How did we come up with cupcakes in a jar? We didn’t. We first saw this dish at a farmers market in the Hamptons last summer and Carolyn got her “I’m gonna make that” look. So she waited for the Super Bowl and then pulled out some 1/2 pint canning jars, made the cupcakes and frosting and put these out along with the Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. And, like the brownies, this dish was a hit and much better than the game…(and we are slowly getting over the loss.)

As for the recipe itself, we use a riff on a carrot cake cupcake and maple frosting recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I think we all know Smitten Kitchen rocks, so other than encouraging everyone to buy the cookbook, we won’t drone on too much about the awesome recipes, photos and writing, etc. Carolyn does adapt the recipe somewhat, but this is “Carrot Cake 101”, and most bakers will be very familiar with the recipe.

But we will share one important note about carrot cake for a crowd. We do not include walnuts or raisins in our carrot cake. Why? Well, for every person who just loves the raisins and walnuts, there are 2x the people who don’t. If you know every guest likes raisins and nuts, go for it. But we bet many folks will be happy if you just let the sweetness of the carrot and the spices shine through. And when you serve these cupcakes in the jar, your guests (or kids) will just think these are “spice cakes”. So if want to sneak in a few extra veggies, this is the way to go.

Continue reading →
Click to Share:
Print
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Tumblr
More
Reddit
LinkedIn
Like Loading...
Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Dessert, Entertaining, Vegetables Tags: Carrot cake, Cook, cooking, cuisine, Cupcake, cupcake recipe, cupcakes in a jar, dessert, food, photography, photos, recipes, vegetarian
Mixology Monday Cocktail #1: The Calm Sunny Day

February 12, 2013

22 Comments
The Calm Sunny Day. Neither dark, nor stormy.

There is one week to go before Mixology Monday drinks are due. But since we are hosting, we figured we should post a few examples of cocktails that might fit our theme of “inverted”. If you want the whole download on the theme, click here. But the basic idea is to create or share a cocktail that in some way inverts or “flips” common parts of the drink. You can invert the ratio of spirits, liquor and bitters, or flip the colors, flavors, theme, etc. Plenty of ways to be creative.

To start, we decided to go with something easy, but as we got into it we realized just how many ways you can play with a cocktail. Our first “inverted” creation is the Calm Sunny Day, essentially an inverted Dark ‘n Stormy. The Dark ‘n Stormy is a well-known long drink combining Goslings dark rum, lime juice and ginger beer (or ginger ale in a pinch). It is a bright, funky and spicy summer drink, usually served on the rocks in a highball glass.

We decided to invert the Dark ‘n Stormy into a more traditional cocktail, and this is where it got fun. The Calm Sunny Day combines aged filtered rum, ginger liqueur and lime juice (and a dash of bitters, if you like). You get the same basic flavors of the Dark ‘n Stormy, but everything else is flipped. Highball turns to cocktail, dark rum to light, brown colors are now very pale, ginger beer to ginger liqueur and the name gets a change as well. You get the idea.

A few notes on the ingredients will help with the recipe. Firstly, we use filtered aged rum like El Dorado 3 yr. or Banks 5-Island. It turns out you can filter the color from aged, darker rums and keep most of their “funk” and flavor. This kind of rum let us change the color of the drink and is a good cocktail ingredient, but if you already have Goslings or other dark rum you can use it (you just get a deeper color, extra recipe below). As for Ginger Liqueur, there are a few producers and each type varies slightly in sweetness and spice. It is best to mix your first version with less ginger liqueur and adjust upwards if needed. And you may need a dash of simple syrup to add sweetness without adding too much ginger. We also add a dash of Bittermen’s Burlesque bitters for extra funk, but it’s totally optional.

Continue reading →
Click to Share:
Print
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Tumblr
More
Reddit
LinkedIn
Like Loading...
Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Entertaining, Rum / Cachaca Tags: Cocktail, Cocktails, cooking, Dark 'n Stormy, DrinkWire, food, inverted cocktails, lime, mixology monday, photography, photos, recipes, rum

Squash, Coconut And Spinach Curry

February 9, 2013

33 Comments
Squash, Coconut and Spinach Curry

We will start by letting everyone know that this is a vegan dish. We will also let everyone know (in case all the bacon posts didn’t give it away) that this is not a vegan, or even vegetarian, food blog. But we are mostly agnostic here at the farm, if we see a recipe that looks good we are going to make or adapt it. And in this case we saw a Sunset Magazine recipe combining squash or pumpkin, coconut and curry. As we like squash and curry dishes (see here), we figured we would tweak the recipe. It only occurred to us after making the dish that it was vegan. But since we never knows who is coming to dinner, we may as well have a few vegan recipes at the ready.

And, to be fair, we would make this dish any time. The sweet and hearty squash always seems to work with deep, spicy curry, and the coconut milk adds a welcome sweet and creamy dimension. We add spinach both for flavor and some extra greens. The bright, slightly bitter and astringent notes of the spinach play very well with squash and coconut (think Thai soups). We add some citrus for acidity and toasted coconut, dried fruit and peanuts for flavor and texture. Overall, this is a complete dish. Put the curry on some rice, maybe drizzle on some Sriracha, and you are ready to go.

The only issue with this recipe, and many vegetarian dishes, is that you do need to spend a little extra time to develop the flavors. Let’s face it, animal fat and protein have plenty of flavor and make it easy to quickly add depth to many dishes (think butter or bacon fat). With vegetarian cooking and/or using high-moisture ingredients like vegetables, a few extra steps and a little extra time are needed to remove water (water has no flavor) and concentrate flavor. In this dish, the key is to caramelize both the onions and the squash before adding the spices and coconut milk. The extra browning adds more sweet and umami-like flavors that bring this dish to life. It takes an extra 20 minutes or so, but it’s worth it.

Continue reading →
Click to Share:
Print
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Tumblr
More
Reddit
LinkedIn
Like Loading...
Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Dinner, Lunch / Salads / Sides, Musings, Vegetables Tags: Cocktails, cooking, cuisine, curry squash coconut spinach recipe, eating, food, photography, photos, recipe, vegan, Veganism, vegetarian
Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

February 7, 2013

38 Comments
Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies.

Now that we have almost recovered from the ~~trauma~~ disappointment of a Super Bowl loss by the Niners, we can reflect on the positives from last Sunday. And there were plenty of positives: friends, family, cocktails and some very good food. Our friends all brought good cheer and some very tasty snacks and drinks (thanks guys!). The Kentucky Royale was the featured cocktail (along with some Scofflaws and cold beer) and we even got some exploding / fermenting probiotic hot sauce that splattered on the ceiling when we opened it (somewhat aptly named “Sunny Bang”, website here). Happily no one was hurt, and good times were had by all (even me, after I finished wiping down the ceiling…seriously).

Exploding “probiotic” hot sauce. Nothing to do with brownies, but funny, nonetheless…

One of the highlights of the day came at dessert. We will post a few of the things we served, but will start with these Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. Oh boy are these good. And they taste just like you would expect, with deep chocolate, peanut butter and some extra zip from salt. What’s not to like? But then you also get some texture and crunch from the pretzels and pieces of peanuts, and that’s what takes these brownies over the top. And they even taste good with a beer.

Carolyn made these brownies from a King Arthur Flour recipe. And as you may know, we are big fans of King Arthur Flour recipes. Why? Because they almost always work and they give recipes by volume and weight- a good thing for the home baker. We did adapt the recipe somewhat for our tastes by using bittersweet chocolate chips and double-dutch dark cocoa (mix of dutch process cocoa and dark cocoa) to amp the chocolate flavor and darken the color. But we are sure the recipe will still be just fine with regular chocolate chips and cocoa powder.

As far as making the brownies is concerned, there is just a bit of extra work (not much) but it is pretty cool, even fun. The brownie batter follows a basic recipe and making the peanut butter topping is just mixing the peanut butter, melted butter, sugar, pretzel pieces and vanilla. While it takes a few minutes to make the topping, your reward (other than a decadent brownie) is the fun of swirling the topping into the brownie batter. Call us food geeks if you must, but it’s hard not to smile when you mix peanut butter and chocolate. It just seems “right”. Looks cool too.

To finish up the brownies you just add some more chopped peanuts, pretzel pieces and peanut butter chips to the top of the brownies, then bake, cool slice and serve. And the whole thing takes about an hour. And considering the reaction of our guests (and ourselves), making these brownies is an hour well-spent. Not only did we love these brownies, we all went for seconds as a consolation when the Niners ~~were jacked by the refs~~ came up short. 😉

Continue reading →
Click to Share:
Print
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Tumblr
More
Reddit
LinkedIn
Like Loading...
Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Dessert, Entertaining, Musings Tags: brownies, chocolate peanut butter, Cocktails, cooking, cuisine, dessert, food, peanut butter pretzel brownies, photography, photos, recipes

Announcing Mixology Monday LXX: Inverted

February 4, 2013

64 Comments
Happy Mixology Monday.

Here at Putney Farm we enjoy our cocktails, but we also farm and cook. A while ago, while researching Julia Child’s recipes, we noticed that she was well-known for enjoying “upside-down” or “inverted” Martini’s (God bless her). This is a version of the classic cocktail that swaps the ratios of gin and vermouth, turning the Martini into something of a “long drink”. And if you are cooking for hours at a time (or gardening with a cocktail- something we highly recommend), the Inverted Martini is a very tasty drink.

We wondered if we could apply the same “inverted” approach to Mixology Monday and, at first, didn’t think it would work. But then we asked ourselves, what does “inverted” really mean? Well, here is the definition:

–
1. To turn inside out or upside down
2. To reverse the position, order, or condition of
–

Hmm…it appears that the definition is pretty broad. It seems that “inverted” really just means something “flipped on its head”. And that can mean almost anything, and leaves plenty of room for creativity. So we are going with the “inverted” theme. You can invert the ratios of spirits, liqueurs or bitters in a cocktail, but we suggest you go beyond that and “invert” whatever you want. Spirits, name, ingredients, proof, color, geography, garnish and glassware are all fair game. An apéritif made with Navy-Strength booze? Give it a try. A beer-based cocktail that tastes like champagne? Sure. A clear Manhattan? Worth a shot (and good luck with that). The only thing we expect is the unexpected. Have fun.

–

Here are the particulars:

–
- Find a drink recipe or create one that “inverts” the ingredients or other elements of the cocktail. Write up the recipe and your thoughts about the drink, add a picture or two, and post it on your own blog, Tumblr, or eGullet’s Spirits and Cocktails forum. If you don’t have any other way of posting, you can also email us at stewartbputney (at) gmail (dot) com.
- Include in your post the MxMo logo and a link back to both the Mixology Monday and Putney Farm sites. And once the round-up is posted, a link to that summary post would be most appreciated.
- Get your submission in by February 18th. Any time of day is fine and we are happy to take a few stragglers.
Thanks again to Fred Yarm at Cocktail ~~Virgin~~ Slut for keeping Mixology Monday going.

As for us, we would certainly like to “invert” the outcome of the Super Bowl. Oh well. And here are some more photos. Just because.
Related articles
- Mixology Monday Cocktail: Alone, Bitter at the Beach (putneyfarm.com)
- A Few Christmas Cocktails (putneyfarm.com)
- MIXOLOGY MONDAY IS BACK! Just in time for the Christmas Season! (mysweetwedding.wordpress.com)
- Weekly Cocktail #40: The Bamboo Cocktail (putneyfarm.com)
- New Years Cocktail: Black Velvet (putneyfarm.com)
- Weekly Cocktail #39: Blood On The Adriatic (putneyfarm.com)
- New cocktail recipes don’t make it easy (sfgate.com)
Click to Share:
Print
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Tumblr
More
Reddit
LinkedIn
Like Loading...
Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Cocktail Recipes, Entertaining, Musings Tags: Cocktail, Cocktails, cooking, food, Mixology, mixology monday, news, photos, pjotography, recipes
Our First Anniversary, And Some Gratitude

February 2, 2013

69 Comments
Hard to believe, but it has been one year since our first blog post. We had no idea where this was going when we started, but our family blog is now a labor of love. But it isn’t even “labor”, we simply love this. We are not much on milestones here at the farm. We enjoy every day and hope to do a little better every tomorrow. We don’t look back much, as we are so grateful for the present. Sometimes heaven is a place on earth, and many days we think we’ve found it (or at least something pretty close).

But we will mark this anniversary because we want to thank all of you for visiting us. We cannot begin to tell you all how grateful we are that you would take time out of your day to visit Putney Farm. We feel like we have dozens of new friends from all over the world. And for that, we are eternally grateful.

We are also grateful for all the feedback, suggestions, jokes and encouragement. Bloggers, it turns out, are a very fun group of people. We are also grateful for all the corrections and suggestions to improve our recipes. It pains us to make mistakes or poor choices (and we apologize for any and all recipe issues), but the only way to get better is to recognize where you can improve. And we can both say we are much better cooks, photographers, gardeners and bartenders than we were a year ago. And for this we are most grateful. To us, food truly is love, and to constantly make and serve better food to those we love is a dream come true. Thank you. (And a summary of photos from the last year).

Continue reading →
Click to Share:
Print
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Tumblr
More
Reddit
LinkedIn
Like Loading...
Posted By: putneyfarm Category: Musings Tags: art, booze, Cocktails, cooking, cuisine, dessert, food, news, photography, photos, recipes