Get Cooking: 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen (43 page)

bacon-wrapped fruit bites

Makes 12 bacon bites; serves 4 to 6 as a party snack

P
repare yourself for a warm and wonderful one-two punch of flavor—salty, crunchy, and smoky at first, and then blissfully sweet. Dried apricots come in two types: the thin, very tart kind that are halves, and a thicker, plumper, sweeter type that are whole apricots with their pits removed, known as Turkish apricots. For this recipe, you want the Turkish type. Look for them at natural foods stores, good produce markets, and specialty grocery stores. The best setup for this is a rectangular rack (the kind you cool cookies on) set onto (or ideally into) a foil-lined baking tray with sides (often called a jelly roll pan). This will allow the bacon fat to drip down and away from the bites, keeping them crisp. If you don’t have these items, just bake the bites directly on a foil-lined baking tray, and then drain them on paper towels before serving.

1.
Adjust the oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a shallow-sided baking pan with foil, and set a cooling rack on top. Spray the rack with nonstick spray.

2.
Cut each slice of bacon in half crosswise to make 12 pieces, each about 4 inches long.

3.
Wrap each apricot or prune with a half-slice of bacon, covering as much of the fruit as you can. The bacon will overlap a bit, but it shouldn’t go around twice. Place each piece,
seam side down, on the prepared rack. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the bacon is crisp on the bottom.

4.
Use tongs to carefully turn the bites over, and insert a toothpick into each one to secure the bacon ends. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the bacon is evenly cooked and crisp all over.

5.
Remove the baking tray from the oven, and leave the bites on the rack to cool for a few minutes before serving. (The sugar in the fruit will have become very hot.)

BACON BASICS

Bacon is easy to cook—just be sure to ventilate your kitchen as much as possible in the process.

Allow 2 strips (1 ounce) per serving. Lay them flat, in a single layer, in a skillet or frying pan, then put it on the stove over medium heat. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, turning once or twice with tongs (and being careful not to let them burn!). When the bacon is
almost
as crisp as you want it, transfer it to a plate lined with paper towels, and let it sit for a few minutes to crisp further.

Let grease cool in the pan for a few minutes, and then
very
carefully pour it into a dry can or heatproof jar and put it in the refrigerator, where it will cool and solidify, and then discard it.

A microwave also does a very good job of cooking bacon. Lay strips flat on a plate lined with paper towels, and then place another paper towel on top. Cook on high power for 2 minutes, and then check for doneness. Cook for up to 1 more minute if necessary. (Your microwave might end up smelling like bacon, so mop it out with warm soapy water afterward and then leave it open to air out for a while.)

luxury potato bites

Makes 24 bites, about 6 servings

H
ere’s proof that humble boiled potatoes can go totally uptown. This is the place to splurge on those expensive ingredients that you love but can afford only once in a great while and in small quantities. (We’re talking caviar, crème fraîche, pine nuts, and the like.) A little bit will go far, and your potatoes with assorted toppings will be breathtakingly beautiful, especially if you present them on a dramatic platter of salt. To do this, fill a deep platter or shallow-sided gratin or baking dish with a ¼-inch-deep layer of large-crystal salt. The potato halves will nestle into the salt and not tip over for serving. Or you can skip the salt and trim a tiny slice off the bottom of each potato half to make it sit flat.

1.
Place the potatoes in a large pot and add enough water to cover them by a few inches. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife.

2.
Put a colander in the sink and drain the potatoes thoroughly, then let them cool until comfortable to handle.

3.
Cut each potato in half and use a melon baller or a very small spoon to hollow out a small well in the center of each cut side. (Save the scooped-out potato to throw into a salad or soup—or just to snack on as you work.) Trim off a very thin slice from the rounded side of each half so it will stand upright—or skip this step if serving the potatoes on a platter of salt (see headnote).

4.
Fill with your desired toppings and serve warm or at room temperature.

The Sweet Truth

I’m always surprised to discover that there are fine cooks who never bake—or make any kind of dessert, baked or otherwise. So clearly it is not necessary to be a dessert maker in order to be considered a good and knowledgeable kitchen culinarian.

However, desserts are a whole lot of fun to prepare, and they make people happy. Dessert knowledge will give you something uplifting to do on a rainy Sunday. It will provide a great collection of ideas for memorable, affordable homemade gifts (think Buttermilk Banana Bread, packed in foil and tied with lots of ribbons, or a tin of Chocolate–Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies delivered in person to someone whose joy is really important to you).

That’s the sweet truth about desserts. Most people, even those of us who love baking, wouldn’t whip up a nice dessert just for ourselves. We know instinctively that there’s something about being baked
for
that makes people feel really loved and cared about. By its very definition, dessert is an edible gift, something designed to share and enjoy with someone else. And that’s a very good thing to have in your repertoire.

To get you going on yours, I’ve chosen ten recipes, carefully selected to give you maximum satisfaction and pride of accomplishment with minimum fuss and preciousness. These recipes give you a nice variety. Only four of them contain chocolate (that’s variety in my book). Some are classics, like real Hot Fudge Sundaes, Apple Crisp, and Intensely Chocolate Brownies. Others are a bit more unexpected, like clafoutis, a super-easy French-style batter cake studded with cherries, or a simple bowl of Balsamic Strawberries. I see this as a “greatest hits” of sweet.

Technically speaking, I’ve tried to steer clear of fancy equipment. That said, you will probably appreciate having a handheld electric mixer, which is really the best way to beat butter to the fluffy state that makes all the difference. As with most of the other highly recommended tools in this book, you can probably find an affordable mixer at a garage sale or thrift store, or from a favorite relative who might be upgrading. In the meantime, all of these desserts can be made by hand. I also highly recommend you become the proud owner of a 9-by 13-inch baking pan, called for throughout this book and especially useful here.

Finally, here’s an eleventh dessert idea: Don’t forget that you can always just buy a few pieces of perfectly ripe, peak-season fruit, cut it up, and serve it with a few fantastic cheeses and maybe some chunks of equally fantastic chocolate and some toasted nuts. That’s an edible gift anyone would appreciate.