Easy Easter

There has been a bit of cake obsession going on around here. Meg saw a rerun on the Food Network of Ina Garten making this Lemon Yogurt cake and decided we had to have one. Luckily, Easter provided the perfect opportunity to indulge, even though Ina didn’t use any butter, making this a small indulgence.  Readers of our previous posting will remember the salted caramel gelato and know why we are toning it down a bit. Knowing that we couldn’t eat just cake, we quickly decided, since it was Easter, a quiche and salad would nicely pave the way for the cake.

Sue saw some golden beets in the store and our salad grew around them as the featured ingredient. We decided to roast the beets to retain their full flavor.

Golden Jewels 

Roasted Beet and Greens Salad
Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials  04/19/2014

1 bunch of golden or other beets
Salad greens of your choice
3 Tbsp. good olive oil
1 Tbsp. whole grain mustard
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 clove grated garlic
¼ tsp. agave nectar
2 Tbsp. chopped roasted, salted pistachios for garnish
Coarsely ground black pepper to taste
Salt to taste

Scrub the beets and cut off the greens leaving about one inch of stem and the roots on the beets. Save the greens for a later use.

Line a large piece of foil with parchment paper, place beets on parchment and seal the package by rolling the foil and parchment together. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour.
Remove from oven and carefully open package to allow beets to cool. When beets have cooled enough to handle, cut off stem and root ends and slip or peel skins off.

At this point they can be put in a sealed container and kept refrigerated for several days.
Combine dressing ingredients and allow  the flavors to blend for at least an hour. This will mellow the raw garlic.

To prepare the salad, slice the beets in about ¼ inch slices and dress with some of the vinaigrette. Toss the greens with the remaining dressing, arrange beets on top of greens and sprinkle with nuts.

Roasted Beet and Greens Salad

Asparagus is in all of the markets here and was a natural for the quiche.  And because it was Easter, Sue said, “How about some ham?” One of the great things about a quiche is that you can put anything in it.

Asparagus and Ham Quiche
Recipe developed by Sue & Meg For Saturday Night Specials  04/19/2014
Serves: 4 – 6

1/3 lb. Emmentaler cheese, finely shredded
1 9” unbaked pie crust
12  large spears asparagus
¾ lb. diced ham
3 eggs
1 ½ cup heavy whipping cream
3 tsp. flour
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Trim ends of asparagus and steam lightly to partially cook. Reserve 5 spears to decorate the top of the quiche. Cut remaining spears into about ½ inch pieces. .  Combine with diced ham and sprinkle with 3 teaspoons of flour.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, beat eggs, cream and black pepper until blended.

Scatter half of the cheese evenly in pie crust.  Layer the ham and then the asparagus evenly over the cheese. Add remaining cheese and then pour cream mixture over everything. Decorate with reserved asparagus tips, pressing lightly into the mixture. Sprinkle top with red pepper flakes.

Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Turn oven down to 350 and bake for 15 minutes.

Turn oven down to 300 and bake for 15 minutes.

Cover crust during baking if browning to quickly. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Ham and Asparagus Quiche

Sue lobbied to have Cava again, but Meg said we couldn’t have it with every meal. So the second choice was a nice bottle of barrel aged Chateau Ste. Michelle 2011 chardonnay from the Columbia valley in Washington.  It actually went very well with the meal.

 

And finally we arrive at the reason for this meal, the lemon pound cake.   It is dense, moist, lemony and absolutely delicious. If you are going to be obsessive about a cake this is a good place to start.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten , 2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home, All Rights Reserved
Total Time:1 hr 20 minutes
Yield:1 loaf

Ingredients

1 ½ c all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
½ t kosher salt
1 c plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/3 c sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs
2 t grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
½ t pure vanilla extract
½ c vegetable oil
1/3 c freshly squeezed lemon juice
For the glaze:
1 c confectioners' sugar
2 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 ½  by 4 ¼  by 2 ½ -inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

We used a homemade crust for our quiche. Meg’s secret is to replace the cold water with whipping cream and use butter as the shortening. (I guess it’s not a secret any longer.) If you are not into making crusts, then buy one.

We selected the Emmentaler specifically to go with the ham and asparagus. If you choose other ingredients, suitable cheeses could be Fontina, Gruyere, Jarlsberg, Muenster or Port Salut.

We did not use any salt in the quiche preparation, because ham is inherently salty.

If you are not a fan of the traditional red beets, this golden variety is worth a try, as they are milder flavored.  The whole grain mustard and letting the vinaigrette rest at room temperature mellowed the garlic and rounded out the flavors in this dressing.  We also marinated the sliced beets for about an hour before assembling  the salad. We intended to use only arugula for the greens, but instead used a mix of “Super Greens” containing red and green chard, tat soi, arugula and mild spinach. The pistachios added a nice crunch.

We did not make the glaze for the cake and served it with sliced, sweetened strawberries. Meg says she feels less guilt eating cake with fruit. Sue says who cares.


Happy Easter to all!

Buona Pasqua!
Feliz Pascua!
Frohe Ostern!
Joyeuses Pâques!

Needlepointed eggs by Meg