Cranberry Walnut Bars

Baking Basics and Beyond has a recipe for Cranberry Walnut Tarts which are easy to make, and filled with the festive flavors of autumn. I've used the recipe when I've done classes and demos. Because in a class or demo there are time restraints and the need for numerous servings, I've developed Cranberry Walnut Bars. The bars are baked in a 13x9 inch baking pan. If you bake either recipe, be sure add a dollop of creme fraiche before serving. Creme fraiche is a thick cream, similar to sour cream but a milder flavor and very rich and creamy. (Locally it is available at Byerly's and Lunds.) When it is served with the Cranberry Walnut Bars the flavors sing.

The recipe for the bars was posted on October 11 in my blog titled Fall Baking at the Mill City Museum. Let me know if you like the flavors.

660 Curries

Raghavan Iyer, author of 660 Curries, spoke last night at The Barnes and Noble near my home. I know very little about Indian cooking and he is a great teacher. His knowledge of his subject was all encompassing and as he wrote the book as a teacher, it very easy to use. He defines curry as any food with or without a sauce that gets flavor from a combination of spices and/or herbs. Surprisingly the heat that we associate with curries comes from hot chilies that came to India via the Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the 16th century. Masala means a wet or dry blend of seasonings and there are as many combinations as there are Indian cooks. The main spices used in Indian cooking are mustard seed, cumin seed, coriander seed, tumeric, fennugeek and black peppercorns. These seeds can be whole or ground, toasted or not, cooked with liquid, fried and manipulated other ways- which explains the infinite combinations. After his talk we tasted two Indian dishes that were well seasoned, with a kick, but not too hot. His web site is www.raghavaniyer.com

Dinner with Friends

Monday night I had dinner with friends at Cafe Ena, a casual neighborhood restaurant in south Minneapolis. The food was a new experience for me. It was called Latin Fusion Cuisine, a term that was new to me. But the combinations of flavors combined into a delicious whole. Jumbo shrimp were wrapped in prosciutto and grilled, then served with red pepper mashed potatoes, sauteed artichokes, grilled asparagus and surrounded with a lemon caper sauce. My only complaints were that I didn't find any capers which I love and the prosciutto was a little too salty for the shrimp. Two salmon entrees and a pork entree must have been delicious because everyone cleaned their plate. For dessert we shared Blueberry Empanandas, accompanied by creme anglaise and roasted corn ice cream. I couldn't taste any corn in the ice cream but it was rich and creamy. We shared a Portuguese vinho verde that had just a bit of a sparkle. I'll be back.