Boston Pie Party

 

No pie tax without representation!  Oops, now the IRS is going to bust us.

Hold on to your socks…it’s time for the all-American classic, Boston Cream Pie!  Despite the title, this delightful dessert is in fact a cake and not a pie (as confirmed by Wikipedia).  It is also the official dessert of TAXachusetts (but only as of 1996 – Not on Mittens Romney’s watch). 

We found a good recipe for this cake from Cook’s Illustrated magazine, per usual.  It claims to be “fool-proof.”  We’ll see if we fools can pull this off!

First up is the filling.  Fancy-pants people call it “crème pâtissière,” but it is essentially a really good egg custard vanilla pudding.  No JELLO mixes here!  We start with 2 cups of half-and-half.

In a separate bowl, we whisked 6 egg yolks, some sugar, some flour, and a pinch of salt.  You know it’s going to be rich when there are 6 freaking egg yolks in it!

Eeeeeggggs! 

Some of the hot half-and-half (you ever had a hot half and half?  ) gets mixed into the eggs to raise the temperature a bit before it gets added back to the saucepan.   

Then there is a lot of stirring involved to help the mixture thicken but not cook too fast.  I’m talking like 10 solid minutes of stirring here.  I’m going stir crazy!  Sheesh!

But it’s worth it because it thickens into a nice pudding.  We also added some butter and vanilla to the mixture (because why not?!). 

Then it gets strained through a metal colander to get rid of any lumps.  No lumpy filling for this cake/pie!  That’s it for the filling.  It went in the fridge for about 2 hours to cool off. 

Onto the cake!  We greased 2 cake pans and lined them with parchment paper (to make it easier to get the cake out of the pans later).

Here’s some milk and butter heating up in a saucepan.  This will go in the cake batter later.

This is 3 eggs and some sugar being whisked together.  We’re making a sponge-cake, so the more air we can get into the batter the better. 

So then we added the hot milk and butter as well as flour, baking powder, and salt and whisked it all together.  Hot milk, coming thru!

 

And then it was divided between 2 cake pans.  Can you see the little bubbles in the batter?  That’s the sponge part!

The cakes had to cool for 2 tortuous hours after they came out of the oven.   (There is a LOT of cooling in this recipe.) But when it was time to take them out, they didn’t stick to the bottom because of the parchment paper.  You just peal that sucker off, and you’ve got a nice pretty cake!

On to the assembly!  We put one cake down and then topped it with the cooled filling mixture we made earlier. 

And then topped it with the second cake.

Ok, so the fun’s not over yet.  We still have to make the chocolate glaze!  Here is a 4 oz. bar of bittersweet chocolate that we had to chop up.  It’s slightly easier if you put it in the freezer for a few minutes before you try to chop it so that it doesn’t get all melty on you.  Still, chopping frosty chocolate is hard work.

This goes into a saucepan with some heavy cream and a couple tablespoons of light corn syrup.  The corn syrup will give it a nice glossy shine.

Stir away, and then you get this.  Yum!

The last bit of assembly!  The chocolate glaze is poured on top of the cake and smoothed out so that it drips “decoratively” down the sides.

Well it couldn’t be prettier!  The cake needs to cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours so that the glaze hardens and everything melds together.  Otherwise you’d probably have a hot mess (like Lindsey Lohan, amiright?) if you tried to cut into the cake at this point.

Three long hours later (more cooling), we got to try our creation.  The bittersweet chocolate offers a nice contrast to the sweet filling.  There were a lot of steps, but it was worth it!

 

Oh no, a mouse took off with half my cake! 

Cinco de Mayo: Holy Posole!

 

Ahh, it’s as if Chez Venza has woken from a long siesta, just in time for Cinco de Mayo!  The most famous obscure Mexican holiday.  Did you know that Cinco De Mayo is not Mexican Independence day and that we basically celebrate it because beer companies promote it as part of a labor-dispute settlement?

Anyhoo!  To celebrate, we made Posole Rojo, a traditional Mexican holiday stew and purported hangover cure.  We had sampled this dish at our local Chicken al Carbon restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed it.  We had to try our hand at it.

The lovely red in this dish comes not from paltry tomatoes, but from chilies!  Mas Chilis!  The more the better!  It’s fun to buy these at the store and basically have no idea what the different kinds are supposed to taste like or how hot they are.  We were supposed to buy anchos, but I think we got some New Mexican chilies (our grocery store didn’t really bother to label them).  The most ridiculous part of the recipe was when it told us to add 3/4 cup of chili de arbol.  Um….what?  How do you measure 3/4 cup of chilies exactly (see illustration above)?

After ditching the stems and seeds, the chilies get soaked in boiling water for about 30 minutes to soften them up.  Those sure are some hot chilies!  Get it?  Temperature-wise.

Then the chilies go into the blender with salt, garlic, and some of the soaking liquid.  Will it blend?  It will.

Bright red chili goodness.

The chili goo gets pushed through a strainer to get rid of all the skin bits and leftover seeds.  The result has got a good slow burn heat to it.  Not crazy, but crazy good.  We recommend at least doubling the amount of chili puree this recipe calls for (a la Sean Connery, “That’s the Chez Venza way”). 

Now, the meat.  You think a Mexican hangover cure isn’t going to be full of pork?  Pshaw.  This is a 2lb pork shoulder cut into chunks and seasoned with salt and cumin.

After browning some onions and garlic, the pork gets seared in the pan.

Then we drown it in add a bunch of homemade chicken stock, Mexican oregano, and about half of the chili mix.  For good measure, we also threw in the pork bone. 

Simmer, my pretties!  Simmer!

After about three hours of simmering, you’re left with a lot less liquid and a fair amount of grease.  I highly recommend making this at least a day in advance so you have time to chill it and extract the grease easily.

Then we add Hominy!   This stuff is weird, but cool.  They are a little larger than chickpeas, with a similar texture, but they taste slightly like buttered popcorn.  Also, it’s what grits are made of!

After more simmering, and shredding the fall-apart pork, we add in the rest of the good chili sauce we made earlier.  We also needed to add some water to loosen it up a bit.  Again, err on the side of more chili sauce!

Then, much like our Chiliquiles recipe (and many other Mexican recipes), the condiments are essential.  The spicy, hot stew is served with cabbage, cilantro, avocado, radish, and lime!    Viva posole, Amigos!