Save Me the Plums

So simple and delicious! Putting these recipes from Ruth Reichl's Save Me the Plums into my rotation.

Ruth's spicy Chinese noodles 

Ingredients

½ pound Chinese noodles, dried egg noodles, or spaghetti

Peanut oil

½-inch-long piece of fresh ginger

2 scallions

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons Chinese black bean paste with garlic

1 tablespoon Chinese bean paste with chili

½ pound ground pork

Sesame oil

Directions

1. Cook the noodles in boiling water until al dente (the time will vary with the type of noodle). Drain, toss with a half tablespoon of peanut oil, and set aside.
2. Peel and mince the ginger (you should have about two tablespoons).
3. Chop the white parts and slice the green parts of the scallions.
4. Mix the sugar and the two kinds of hot bean paste, and set aside.
5. Heat a wok until a drop of water skitters across the surface. Add a tablespoon of peanut oil, toss in the ginger, and stir fry for about half a minute, until the fragrance is hovering over the wok.
6. Add the pork and white scallions and stir-fry until all traces of pink have disappeared. Add the bean sauce mixture and cook and stir for about 2 minutes.
7. Stir in the green scallions and noodles, and quickly toss. Add a drop of sesame oil and turn into two small bowls. This makes a perfect snack for two.

---

Thanksgiving turkey chili

Serves 8

Ingredients

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

3 canned whole chipotle chilies in adobo

1 bottle dark beer

2 pounds tomatillos (husked, rinsed, and quartered)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 large onions (chopped)

½ cup fresh cilantro (chopped)

2 teaspoons fresh oregano (finely minced)

2 jalapeños (diced; if you don't like heat, remove the seeds)

3½ pounds ground turkey

1½ cups chicken broth

8 large cloves of garlic (peeled but left whole)

Salt

1 bay leaf

2 cups cooked white beans

1 4-ounce can diced green chile peppers

Cream sherry

Balsamic vinegar

Sour cream 

Directions

1. Toast the cumin seeds in a dry skillet until they're fragrant. Allow to cool, then grind to powder.
2. Puree the chipotle chilies with the adobo.
3. Put the beer into a medium-sized pot, add the tomatillos, bring to a boil, and turn the heat down to a simmer. Cook for about five minutes, until the tomatillos are soft. Strain the tomatillos (reserv­ing liquid), and puree in a blender or food processor. Pour back into the pot with the beer.
4. Slick the bottom of a large casserole with a couple of tablespoons of oil, and sauté the onions until they're translucent. Add the ci­lantro, oregano, jalapeños, and cumin and stir for a couple of minutes. Break the turkey into the mixture and stir until it just starts to lose its raw color. Add the pureed tomatillos and beer, the chipotle puree, the chicken broth, and the garlic, along with a couple of teaspoons of salt and the bay leaf, and simmer the mixture for about an hour and a half.
5. With a large spoon, smash the now-soft cloves of garlic and stir them into the chili. Add the white beans and diced chile peppers and taste for salt. At this point I like to start playing with the flavors, adding a few splashes of cream sherry, a bit of balsamic vinegar, or perhaps some soy or fish sauce. Heat for another 10 minutes.
6. Serve with sour cream. 

While dousing these apple pancakes in rum and setting them on fire is optional, it makes for a truly dramatic presentation. The recipe comes from food writer and former Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl, who grew up eating a version of the dish at Lüchow's, a legendary German restaurant in New York.

Adapted from Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl, published by Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Yield: serves 6

Time: 1 hour

German Apple Pancakes

• 2 Granny Smith or other tart cooking apples (15 oz.), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, plus more for drizzling
• ½ stick (4 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, divided
• ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 3 large eggs
• ¾ cup (4 oz.) all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• sugar for sprinkling
• ¼ cup dark rum or cognac (optional)

Peel the apples, core them, and slice thinly. Shower with lemon juice. 

Melt half the butter (2 tablespoons) in a medium skillet, and stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the apple slices and cook over medium-high heat for about 8 minutes, until they've become quite darkly carmelized and smell impossibly delicious. Remove them from the heat.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs. Gently whisk in the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the milk. The batter should be thin.

Melt a couple of teaspoons in butter in an 8-inch skillet, and when it's hot, pour in a third of a cup of batter, tilting the pan so that it covers the entire surface, making a thin crepe. Cook until just set, about 2 minutes.

Evenly distribute a third of the apples over the crepe, pour another third of a cup of batter over the apples, then turn the pancake (this is easier if you use 2 pancake turners) and allow the bottom to brown. Turn onto a large plate, sprinkle generously with sugar, and roll the pancake up like a jelly roll. Sprinkle with a bit more sugar and, if you like, a splash of lemon juice.

Repeat this until you have three plump rolled pancakes. If you want to flame your creations, lightly warm a few tablespoons of rum or cognac for each pancake in the pan, add the pancakes, spoon the liqouor over top, and set the pancakes on fire.

Jeweled chocolate cake

Adapted from Café Mezzo

Ingredients

1/3 cup cocoa powder, plus more for dusting pan (not Dutch process)

3 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate

6 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup neutral vegetable oil

2/3 cup water 

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Butter a deep 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the paper and dust it with cocoa powder.
3. Melt the chocolate with the cocoa, butter, oil, and water over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and whisk in the sugar.
4. Cool completely, then whisk in the eggs, one at a time.
5. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, and whisk into the chocolate mixture. Shake the buttermilk well, measure, and stir that in.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn out, peel the parchment from the bottom, and allow to cool completely.

Praline ingredients

½ cup slivered blanched almonds

½ cup blanched hazelnuts

¼ cup water

¾ cup sugar

Directions

1. Toast the nuts in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes. (If you're us­ing hazelnuts with skins, put them in a towel and rub the skins off, but don't bother being fussy about it. Whatever comes off easily is fine.)
2. Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil without stirring un­til it begins to darken, swirling the pan until the mixture turns a beautiful deep gold. It takes a while for the mixture to darken, but once it does it goes very quickly, so don't walk away or it will burn. Remove from the heat and stir in the nuts.
3. Pour onto a baking sheet that you've lined with foil, parchment, or a Silpat, spreading evenly. Use an oven mitt—a burn from hot sugar can be very painful. Allow to cool completely.
4. Break into pieces, put into a plastic bag, and smash with a rolling pin until you have lovely crushed pieces you can sprinkle over the frosting, adding both crunch and flavor.

Frosting ingredients and directions

Mix 2 tablespoons of sugar into a cup of mascarpone. Spread the frosting on the cooled cake and heap the praline bits on top.

•