China Crumpet

It was my husbands birthday yesterday, and since we are in complete havoc with the launch of our new company image only days away, making a big night out of it was completely out of the question. Also, the Beijing air yesterday was so thick you could cut it with a knife, not really conducive to a celebratory spirit. But as usual, I  seemed to manage to spend a couple of stray minutes drooling over yummy looking recipes on my favourite foodie websites. It was (as has been the case a lot lately) Food & Wine, with the recipes you’ll find a little further down the page, that made me decide that it would be absolute SIN not to do something a little special. Why not at least make a little cozy home cooked meal? They do say after all that the way to a man’s heart (or was it wallet??) is through his stomach!

For my birthday last year we feasted on game birds and buttery polenta, so I thought it would be fun to make a little tradition of it and serve pigeon as the main course. With it, we had a rich onion compote and golden corn cakes, courtesy of chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. To start, we had zingy little chickpea crostinis and to finish, a rich and absolutely wicked red-wine chocolate cake. The meal delicious and surprisingly easy to make – I found myself humming around completely stress free while cooking, not a normal sight while attempting to cook without hubby’s master knife skills around in my miniature kitchen.

I am listing these recipes in the order I cooked them, not in the order we ate them – obviously. Although, it was tempting to eat desert right when it was done!

THE DESERT

I began from the finish by baking the red wine chocolate cake. For this delectable treat (seriously, you need to make this) you will need:

2 cups (5 dl) flour
3/4 cup (2 dl) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
225g unsalted butter, softened (yes, tones and tones of butter)
1 3/4 cups (4 1/2 dl) sugar (uh huh, tones and tones of sugar too)
2 large eggs
1/2 vanilla pod, cut in half and seeds scraped out (you could use vanilla extract or a potent vanilla sugar)
1 1/4 cups (3 dl) dry *cheap* red wine
Icing sugar, for dusting (more sugar, to be sure)
Whipped cream, for serving (oh kill me now…)

Preheat the oven to 175°c. Butter and flour a large cake pan. In a bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk the butter with the sugar semi-violently until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat for 2 minutes longer. Working in two batches, alternately fold in the dry ingredients and the wine, until you get a lovely, gooey, dark brown batter that smells like a drunk pastry chef.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes (or while you shop, no sweat), then turn it out onto a rack to let it cool completely. Dust the cake with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream.

While the cake was cooling, we actually went shopping for a little gift. It ended up being very food related, and we will probably both use it. But I am glad hubby was as glad as I am for his brand new hand mixer.

THE MAIN

When we got home from shopping, I got started on the birds. They are small and a little finicky to deal with but the end result is sooo worth all of the work. Basically, just butterflied the birds after cleaning them and seasoned them with salt and pepper. Couldn’t have been easier.

They need to go high up in a 200°c oven for about 30 minutes or until the skin is golden and crisp. When the birds are done (this is for 2 pigeons, about 500g or 1lb each) and are out of the oven, sprinkle them with:

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon curry powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

This will give them a really nice spicy finish.

THE SIDES

The corn cakes are a great side and completely surprising. Definitely a keeper recipe for the Mauritzon household! You will need:

fresh corn kernels from about 4 ears (in a pinch, use canned corn – a bit more than 1 1/2 can)
1/2 cup (1 1/2 dl) milk
1/4 cup (3/4 dl) heavy cream
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 1/4 cups (3 1/4 dl) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

In a blender (or with a new hand blender!), combine 2/3 of the corn with the milk and puree until smooth. Add the heavy cream, eggs and egg yolks and blend. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and whisk in the flour, baking powder, salt and the remaining corn kernels.

In a large nonstick skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Spoon rounded 2 tablespoon-size dollops of batter into the hot skillet and cook over moderately high heat, turning once, until golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer the corn cakes to a rack and keep warm. Repeat to make the remaining corn cakes, using the remaining 1 tablespoon each of butter and olive oil; adjust the heat if necessary. Serve hot.

Before I started frying the corn cakes though, I started up the onion compote. It bubbled away while I fried the corn cakes and was perfect by the time everything was finished. It needs a little bit of love and a stir every now and again to make sure it doesn’t burn but other than that it is easy peasy. I love onions and this is a great way of serving them and making the otherwise humble veg a star.

You will need the following for 2 servings:

3 large onions
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons water
salt
pepper
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

Slice the onions. Melt the butter in a large skillet and add the onions, cook on a low heat until very soft, about 10 minutes. Add water so that they do not dry out. At the end of the cooking time, season with salt, pepper and the lemon juice.

The final plating looked like this:

Onion compote on bottom, topped with corn cakes, topped with the pigeon. For an even better looking plate, lightly dress some greens in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and pile around.

But before we plated and ate the main though, there was of course the starter, which I started cooking last.

THE STARTER

For this tangy chickpea crostini you will need:

2 large shallots, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon minced rosemary
1/4 cup (1/2 dl) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
One can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons water
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar or white wine vinegar
4 five cm-thick Italian bread slices, toasted

Heat a skillet with a glug of oil and add the shallots. Cook until a little soft but not brown. Add the rosemary and the chickpeas. Add the water and cook/mash the mixture until you get a thick, chunky mash. Season, add the vinegar, cook for a few seconds longer and then pile on to the toasted bread slices. Drizzle some olive oil over the crostinis to finish.

There will be some chickpea mixture left over once you finish but it’s all good, it is a delicious mix to munch on with a bread slice when the need for a yummy little snack kicks in. The mains kept warm while we ate these little flavor bombs and the cake was delicious room temperature with a dollop of whipped cream.

THE END

Et voila! A romantic and delicious 3 course dinner is created in under an hour.

This was a great a meal to cook as it was to eat and I am so surprised that things in the kitchen went so smoothly! I guess all it needed from me was a little reverse thinking and planning. A good recipe probably helps too!

What do you do to make things less hectic when cooking? Do you have any fun birthday dinner traditions?