Anne Exclaims Over Her (Duck) Breasts; Tyler’s Pears Kiss The Baking Sheet And I’m Convinced That (Part Of) Garlic Is Evil

The Food Network’s ratings really only started taking off when they introduced competition shows into primetime; "stand-and-stir" demonstrations were sidelined in favor of competition shows. I prefer to watch chefs cook, but it's okay, because I’m happy not to have Must-See Food TV on weeknight evenings.

And as much as I complain about the Food Network, there is still some very credible teaching that goes on. I saved a couple of not-so-recent shows of Tyler’s and Anne’s on cooking duck breasts. I wanted to see if there really was more than one way to sear a duck breast.

Anne Burrell's Duck Breast with Clementines and Tuscan Kale

Tyler Florence's Duck Breasts with Roasted Pears and Cold Sesame Noodles

I started with Anne. I loved it when she said (repeatedly), as she was scoring the fat, “We go down TO the flesh, but not THROUGH the flesh.”

That’s a great way to remember that you have to cut through ALL the fat, but stop when you get to the meat – TO the flesh, but not THROUGH the flesh.

Anne SHOULD watch what she says, though. She exclaimed, “I have HUGE breasts here.” And that wasn’t her only reference to breasts that sounded as if she were bragging.

Now this is interesting. Anne starts the duck breasts in a COLD pan and cooks them LOW AND SLOW. That way she renders all the fat without an explosion of fat globules covering the stove, chef and floor. I love that!

I adore duck breasts, but I usually have to gear myself up for the clean up, so cooking them without a lot of high-heat spattering appeals to me. Anne isn’t kidding when she says LOW and SLOW. Her method has the duck on the stove for 30(!) minutes and THEN in the oven for about 8.

Anne makes sure the fat side is browned after the low and slow part. Then she turns it over and quickly browns the flesh side before it goes into the oven.

Her duck came out beautifully rare, so she obviously wasn’t kidding about the LOW part. And it had a beautiful color. “Brown food tastes good,” she chirps. More about her sauce later.

On to Tyler’s duck searing…First, he’s getting little seckel pears ready to roast as an accompaniment. He rubs the pears around in sesame oil and salt and pepper and puts them cut side down to cook. He says they’ll get great color from “KISSING” the baking sheet. Don’t talk like that, Tyler. It gets me distracted, although this IS a show about what to cook on a first date.

Then he moves on to a sesame sauce for noodles, which will be served with the duck. Talking about the ginger, Tyler says you don’t have to cut it super-sexy, because it’s going to be puréed anyway. BTW, he peels his ginger with a teaspoon. Excellent trick.

For the sauce, Tyler smashes and peels the garlic cloves and they go into oil.

I’m sorry, but I would have to do my garlic thingie of removing the center, often-green stem from the garlic clove. I just can’t help myself. I’m convinced that center stem is evil and has to be removed to ensure there are no ill effects from garlic. It IS a pain, I know, but I never skip this step anymore.

This next step in the duck preparation is important, although Tyler doesn’t make a big deal of it. Tyler scores the skin in one direction. (His scoring is much more delicate than Anne’s.) THEN instead of making the second row of scoring at a 90 degree angle, he does it at a 45 degree angle. This makes diamond shapes instead of little squares. SO much more attractive.

I also use that rule for any kind of lattice, whether I’m piping a whipped cream lattice or weaving a pastry lattice on top of a pie. The first line goes on straight across. The second one goes on at a 45 degree angle. This is even nice when you’re slicing brownies.

Before Tyler even takes the duck breasts out of the fridge, he turns his pan on to medium low. (Anne’s pan was cold, remember.) He looks at the yellowish fat on the breasts and tells us that this indicates that they’ve had a good grain diet.

Tyler also says to cook them “low and slow”, but his “low and slow” duck will only be in the pan for half the time of Anne’s “low and slow” - about 15 minutes.

Here's another good point from Tyler. He pours out the oil that’s building up in the pan, because he doesn’t want the duck to boil and he wants it to have really good contact with the pan.

Take my advice that BEFORE you pour out the fat, take out the duck first or you may have splashing duck breasts skidding across your stove (or floor). Just dedicate a dinner plate to setting the duck breasts on while you pour out the fat.

I’m leaving Tyler now, because although his sesame sauce sounds good, I’m going back to Anne’s Clementine Sauce recipe, because I have a boatload of clementines.

Three more points:

1. Clementines make the most awesome juice. Really, really terrific. Squeeze extra to have as a treat. SO GOOD.
2. I didn't have the patience to do Anne’s 30 minute “low and slow” cooking, but I didn’t cook them as quite as fast as Tyler did. I took the middle road.
3. I skipped Tyler’s noodles. It looks like a great recipe, but I HAVE to have Forbidden Rice when I cook duck breasts. To me, it’s a match made in heaven. To go with the rice, I like to make much more sauce than Anne does. Anne’s sauce is more of an accent to the dish than something to be served separately.

Seared Duck With Clementine Sauce (serves 4)
Printable recipe here

(With a shoutout to Anne Burrell because I love her idea of using clementines and to Tyler Florence, because he’s so cute and cooks duck so well)

4 duck breasts

1 cup fresh clementine juice

4 clementines, sectioned and each section cut into half

2 cups stock

1 tsp. dried thyme

2 tbls. cream

For garnish:

2 clementines, peeled with a knive and sectioned without pith

Score the duck breasts. Place them in a cold sauté pan. Turn heat to low. After 5 minutes, turn up to medium low and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Whenever the fat builds up in the pan, remove the duck to a plate and pour out the fat. Return duck to pan.

Raise heat to medium and cook until fat side is nice and browned, maybe another 4 minutes. Turn over and cook on medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes until browned. Remove from pan and cover with foil. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes.

Deglaze pan over high heat with clementine juice. Boil for a minute, then add clementines, stock and thyme. Bring to boil and simmer gently for 4 minutes. Add cream, if using. Bring to boil and taste for seasoning. If not adding cream, boil a bit more to thicken slightly. Taste clementine sauce for seasoning.

Slice duck. Spoon over a bit of the sauce. Garnish with clementine sections. Serve with Forbidden Rice and remaining clementine sauce.

Note: Here’s another duck recipe that I love with (ah!) fresh cherries.

Paula Helps A Little Boy And Cooks Up A Fine Lunch

Paula's Best Dishes with Paula Deen

Brown Baggin It

Paula's Italian Pasta Salad

Sweet Tea-Brined Fried Chicken on a “biscone”

Scooped Out Cupcake Tarts

Paula did a nice thing the other week. Oprah had a young boy on, who started a cookie baking business as a way to honor his twin brother, who had been lost to cancer. Aaron, the cute little baker boy, gives a lot of his proceeds, as well as many of the cookies, to charity.

Oprah was telling his story (via Nate) and she asked Aaron who his favorite chef was. He said Paula Deen. Darned if she didn’t walk out all bright and shiny as new penny and wrap him in her arms. It was must-see TV.

Paula is a national treasure. The larger-than-life persona, that shock of white hair, the signature laugh…it all must be striking in person and I’m glad that little boy got to feel a little of her magic.

The family is also getting a trip to Savannah to see the behind the scenes of her restaurant business to help Aaron develop his own business plan. So I was feeling all warm and cozy about Paula when I watched last week’s Paula’s Best Dishes.

Paula’s in the kitchen with buddy, Cheryl Day, owner of Back In The Day Bakery. Oh my, she’s making Sweet Tea-Brined Fried Chicken On A “Biscone”.

Let’s see. You’ve got your sweet; you’ve got your savory; you’ve got your fried and you’ve got your breading - ALL served on extra bread too. What else could you want?

After we hear about the chicken dish and the pasta salad that Paula is going to make, Paula says to Cheryl, “I better see something sweet come out of this kitchen ‘sides you.” The “Scooped Out Cupcake Tart” will take care of that.

By the by, amazingly Paula’s recipe of Sweet Tea-Brined Fried Chicken is NOT the only one on the Food Network website. And I had never heard of it before.

Cheryl makes a big pot of sweet tea and Paula admits she’s never heard of this dish (either). That makes me feel less clueless. Cheryl adds a quartered lemon to the tea. Well, at least she’s using something from the fruit group that hasn’t been jellied or preserved in sugar.

Next she turns the tea into a brine by adding salt. Cheryl says brining takes the chicken to a whole new level. And she says she uses “gallon sized” tea bags. Of course, she does. Everything in this recipe is over the top.

Cheryl loves how the brine keeps the moisture in the chicken. She also tells us that she found this old family recipe on the back of an envelope.

Cheryl adds ½ cup of Kosher salt to the tea and lets it steep for five minutes. Paula adds the sugar and stirs it in.

They cool down the brine by adding a cup of ice. Then they cover it and put it in the fridge. (WHY is it covered if it's supposed to be cooling?)

Hey gals, you could make the brine the day before and you wouldn't have to add the ice cubes.

Cheryl drains Paula’s bow ties. Cheryl does the prep work. She dices some green pepper, measures out Kalamata olives and slices cherry tomatoes in half. (Are you tired of my RR tip yet?)

Paula says she likes her pasta salad a bit on the sweet side, so she adds part of a CAN of sliced mushrooms. I definitely don’t follow the mushrooms equaling sweet, but then I don’t follow using canned mushrooms either. A Southern thing? Dunno. (It’s funny. I’m as unfamiliar with this cuisine as I would be if they were cooking Maharggwe from Burundi or something.)

Paula makes the dressing. Sorry, she MEASURES out the dressing, which is one cup of a store bought “vinegar-ette” dressing. She says she likes the sweetness.

Ahem! How easy would it have been to whisk together oil, balsamic vinegar and a little sugar? Go for it if you want it to be sweet, but don’t use bottled dressing.

Paula adds a 1/4 cup of mayo to the dressing with 1 tablespoon sugar. Cheryl tosses the chopped vegetables with the pasta. Paula adds “a little” salt and pepper, freshly grated Parmesan and sets the pasta aside. (It is undressed at the moment.)

Cheryl says this will be a good accompaniment to their sandwiches. Funny, I kind of thought each dish could stand alone…based on their individual calorie counts.

Cheryl adds boneless chicken breasts to the brine. I love Paula for saying again that she never heard it before. Cheryl says both her mama and Paula’s mama would have made wonderful sweet tea, but that doesn't explain where the idea for the brine came from.

They move on to Cheryl’s cross between a biscuit and a scone - a “biscone”. It sounds positively luscious with a Southern accent.

Cheryl whisks together 3 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of baking powder and salt and pepper. Then she cuts in 2 sticks of cubed butter with a pastry cutter.

Meanwhile, Paula readies the stuff for dipping the chicken. She has a heaping cup of flour in a rectangular dish. (THAT looks like 4 cups.) She has added 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and one teaspoon of her house seasoning. In another dish, Paula mixes buttermilk and hot sauce. Paula says hot sauce is the secret ingredient to the fried chicken at the Lady and Sons.

Paula has the fryer set to 350° F. Back to Cheryl, who adds 1½ cups buttermilk and 1 cup of parmesan cheese to the “biscone” batter.

Hey y’all, Paula takes the chicken out of the brine. She dusts it with flour, dips it into the buttermilk and puts it back in the flour. Paula fries up the first piece of chicken to decide if she wants that extra coating of flour.

Cheryl says to keep the “biscone” mixture in the bowl and that it’s not necessary to turn it out to knead it. It can all be done in the bowl.

Paula decides to dip the chicken only once. She tries a single-dipped piece and likes it.

Cheryl shows us how she finishes making “revolutionary, one bowl, no roll biscones”. She uses an ice cream scoop to form them. Paula says that’s how they make their biscuits at the restaurant too – no rolling and they use an ice cream scoop too. Not so revolutionary, I guess.

Cheryl puts the “biscones” on parchment paper and brushes them with an egg wash. They go into a 375° F oven for 18 to 20 minutes.

The chicken and the scones come out and Cheryl has an important question for Paula. To make the sandwiches, should they cut each scone in half or use one whole one for each side? (Think DD cup size).

Paula says “Oh, Cheryl!” I thought that meant, use 2 for each sandwich, but I guess not, because Cheryl is cutting them in half. She gives each half a schmear of scallion butter.

Paula layers the chicken on, saying it’s so dark because of the tea. Paula pronounces the sandwiches out of this world.

That got me to thinking what Paula Deen's Food Pyramid would look like. All the food groups are represented – Pork, Fat and Biscuits!

Paula is still chomping on her sandwich, while Cheryl starts dessert. 3 sticks of butter get creamed with 2 1/3 cups of sugar.

Cheryl separates 3 eggs. Cheryl says she does this in a separate bowl, UNLIKE Paula. (WELL! Cheryl should remember that Paula saved her 900 calories using only one “biscone” per sandwich.)

Paula is off in the corner eating away on her sweet tea brined mountain of a chicken sandwich, when she says between (actually during) mouthfuls, “Is this rude, Cheryl?” NOT AT ALL, Cheryl says. “I’m just glad you’re enjoying it.”

They add the egg whites to the batter for dessert. No yolks? I guess they’re conserving fat calories, although they might have started by cutting down on that that 20 ounce “biscone”.

Cheryl sifts together 3 cups of cake flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt. She adds that alternately with 1 1/2 cups of room temperature buttermilk.

Cheryl sprays a muffin pan with Pam and scoops one scoop of batter into each hole. She bakes them at 350° F for 18 to 20 minutes.

Cheryl cuts out the center of the cupcake. She likes this batter, because it bakes flat.

Paula and Cheryl agree that you can put anything in them. Today it will be whipped cream with fruit. They spoon in the cream and then put (a dot of) fruit on top.

Paula grabs some mint and says, “We’ve got our vegetable.” She IS funny. They each taste a cupcake and agree they’re wonderful.

You don't have to cook Paula’s food to enjoy watching her. In fact, if you DO cook too much of it, probably watching her is the ONLY thing you’d have energy for. She is so delightful and chipper that SHE should be prescribed for the winter doldrums. A dose of Paula and you’d be cured.

Cablevision Restores Food Network

Well, Cablevision and Scripps reached a settlement on Thursday and now beleaguered Cablevision customers in the Tri-State area have the Food Network and HGTV back. That’s great news, since they’ve been without those two channels since January 1st. We don’t know what agreement was reached, but it was good enough to allow Scripps to restore access to its programming.

Frankly, I would still be mighty po’ed if I were a Cablevision customer. I wonder if they’re issuing refunds for the loss of those two stations for almost a month. Hamilton Township, NJ Mayor John Bencivengo thought they should do something of the kind.

I won’t hold my breathe that a refund (or an apology) from Cablevision is on its way, but I’m glad that my fellow Food Network fans have their network back…and how they lived without House Hunters all this time, I’ll never know.

Will Emeril Be The New Rachael?

This is so interesting. Rachael Ray, backed by the Oprah machine, has been very successful – double Emmy-winning successful – with her talk show. Now Emeril, backed by the Martha machine for the past two years, is embarking on his own journey as the host of a talk show.

There are big differences, though. The hour-long Emeril Lagasse Show will be on once a week and will mix cooking, music and famous guests. There will be a live band and it will air on Sunday’s at 8 pm starting March 28th on the ION Television Network.

But like Rach, Emeril will have a live audience and the show will include taped pieces to take advantage of its New York City location.

I’m guessing (and praying) that his show will not be the “service” type that Martha’s and Rachael’s are. Hopefully, there will be no decoupaging* segments and he’ll stay as far away from PMS, as possible.

Good luck to Emeril. He has a kind of lousy timeslot, plus I’m not even sure if I get ION, but I am willing to give him a chance. I’ve actually never loved his food, but I like him and I think his accent is a gas.

So what do you think?

*These ARE actually really cute ideas.

Note: Em, if you fill in Coco's name, I'll know it's you!

Ina’s Test Run For A Magazine Plus Roasted Soup AND Roasted Shrimp

Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten

Feature Flavor

Lemon Pasta with Roasted Shrimp

Maple-Oatmeal Scones

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and Curry Condiments

Ina is writing an article for Food Network Magazine. It’s about flavor. Her first recipe is a ROASTED butternut squash soup with curry condiments.

I LOVE this idea. I’ve been making curried butternut soup for decades, but I never thought to ROAST the butternut and I never thought to serve it with traditional curry garnishes. Not revolutionary, but these are fabulous ideas that will be fun to try.

Ina adds 1 quart of chicken stock to a pan. Then she gets butternut squash, apples and onions ready for roasting. (Oh, I put apples in MY soup too!) She cuts 3 or 4 pounds of butternut squash into 1 inch cubes and puts them on a sheet pan with 2 cubed yellow onions, 2 chopped Macintosh apples and 3 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper.

Ina divides the mixture into 2 sheet pans so the vegetables are in a single layer and cook evenly. She roasts them at 425°F for 35 to 40 minutes.

(Those ingredients are identical to the ones in my soup, but the method is sooo different.) Ina purées the cooked vegetables in a food processor with a bit of the chicken stock and then adds them back to the pan. She likes to roast the vegetables because it gives so much flavor. I love that Ina smiles at the mixture as she purées it. I think it’s important to treat your ingredients courteously.

There IS a problem brewing here, however. I’m concerned that the curry powder will just be thrown into the soup without having been cooked in a bit of oil…with onions is always good. Oy, I was right. Ina adds a ½ teaspoon curry powder without so much as a by-your-leave.

When I use curry powder, onions are usually involved, so I after I’ve softened the onions, I stir in the curry powder and cook it on the lowest heat there is for 2 to 3 minutes and then proceed with the recipe.

Another problem, I like to purée the soup in a blender, because nothing else will get the soup as smooth. Ina is just stirring the stock into the slightly chunky purée.

Ina starts on the condiments. She slices a banana. She chops scallions - she likes the color with the soup. Next Ina sautés cashews for 5 minutes in a dry pan and then rough chops them. She also dry sautés coconut for 5 minutes over low heat. This is sounding good.

Ina tells us there’s a whole team in New York waiting for the recipe to be finished. The team includes photographer Quentin Bacon, food stylist Cyd McDowell, and prop stylist Philippa Braithwaite. Ina says her soup better be good enough for them to photograph. She puts together a bowl with all the condiments. She takes a picture and sends it to the team. Her soup is MUCH chunkier than mine. I like it much smoother.

Ooh, this IS fun. We see the whole team in NY styling the shoot for the Food Network Magazine. We see them receive Ina’s photograph and then making the soup. They’re styling it. I think THEIR soup is smoother than Ina’s.

Next Ina is making oatmeal scones for her article. She measures 3½ cups of flour in a bowl, while remembering that her mother added maple syrup to oatmeal when she was little, so she’s doing that for the scones. She adds 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 1 cup “good“ Irish oatmeal and 2 tablespoons of baking powder and the same of sugar plus 2 teaspoons of salt. (That’s A LOT.)

Ina adds FOUR sticks of butter on low speed with 1/2 cup of buttermilk, ½ cup of GOOD maple syrup and 4 beaten eggs. Ina likes to use a measuring cup as a mixing bowl, because it has a handle and a spout.

The Barefoot One adds all the wet ingredients on low speed JUST until mixed. She says it’s a really wet dough. She dumps it out onto a floured board and it IS really sticky. GOSH, she could make 200 scones!

Ina rolls the dough out to a three-quarter inch thickness. She likes 2½ to 3 inch wide scones. She says to remember to flour the cutter first.

Ina tells us that when she was running The Barefoot Contessa shop, a New York Times reporter asked her about the different flavors of scones she carried. Ina lied and said she made lots of flavors and so she had to quickly come up with many more varieties.

This is interesting. She would cut them out and cover them and then bake them the next day. Before baking, Ina mixes an egg wash with water, milk or cream and brushes the scones (JUST on the top) before baking them at 400°F for 20 to 25 minutes. They’re huge.

For a glaze (yum), Ina mixes 1¼ cups of confectioner’s sugar, ½ cup of maple syrup and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until smooth. After the scones have cooled for 5 minutes, Ina spoons the glaze over and then sprinkles just a bit of oatmeal on top. That’s smart, it makes them LOOK healthy. Oh, we’re at the shoot again…They place the scones in a red napkin-lined basket.

The last recipe is definitely a redo of an old Ina recipe. She takes 2 pounds of peeled and deveined shrimp and tosses them with olive oil, salt and pepper. She roasts them at 400°F for 6 to 8 minutes and says that roasting results in perfectly cooked shrimp.

Ina adds lots of salt to a big pot of water and then 1 lb of capellini goes in for 3 minutes. She heats 4 tablespoons of olive oil, 4 tablespoons of butter and the zest and juice of two lemons in a big pan with 2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.

Ina adds the drained pasta to the pan. She likes making the sauce in a BIG pan so she can add all the pasta at once. Hey, Ina, how’s about some parsley? Ina adds the shrimp and its juices to the pasta. It REALLY needs parsley. She zests a little extra lemon and takes a picture. The magazine folks take pictures of their rendition of the pasta and they really want to eat what’s left. They ALSO added no parsley. Shows what I know…

Ina takes questions from viewers. The first is from Marcy. She wants to know how to prevent Parmesan from going bad. Ina says to cut it into 2 pieces and wrap it in plastic wrap. She says to put one piece in the fridge and store one in the freezer. The next question better be more riveting.

Janice King, the next questioner, says she doesn’t care for cilantro. Ina says she doesn’t either and that there are two kinds of people – people who like it and people who hate it. Ina says to just leave it out or use parsley.

Tom wants a marinade. Ina suggests one that is like a vinaigrette. She says to mix ½ cup lemon juice, 2 tablespoons Dijon and 1 cup of olive oil. Then add herbs and some kosher salt and pepper.

This is the mini recipe, Ina gives him. Sprinkle chicken with salt and then pour over half the marinade for an hour or overnight. Then bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Pour the other half of the marinade over the warm chicken. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Good answer.

The photo shoot folks say thank you to Ina for the food and say they hope she likes the pictures. She loves them and next time, she wants to be there. Me too.

Links for Haiti Relief

The pictures and the stories of the earthquake are more than heartbreaking, but I’m so encouraged by the President’s response. So much help is needed. These are all places that I feel comfortable donating money to. First is the link to the organization, followed by the donation page.

American Red Cross

• Donate to the American Red Cross

CARE

• Donate to CARE

Doctors Without Borders

• Donate to Doctors Without Borders

Save The Children

• Donate to Save The Children

Unicef

• Donate to Unicef

William J Clinton Foundation

• Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief and Recovery Efforts

Other sites with good information:

WhiteHouse.gov

CNN Impact Your World

EARTHQUAKE HAITI on Facebook

Haitian Earthquake Relief on Facebook

Shortcrust Pastry From Scratch

I love, love, love Giada, but AGAIN this week, she didn’t make her own pastry (OR pancake batter*). Lys was looking for a good pastry recipe and this is one that I’ve used for years (decades, actually).

I make this quantity of pastry for any size pie shell and, truthfully, it’s a bit much for a 9 inch shell, but I like the proportions. If I have too much dough, I just trim it and keep the extra in the freezer. I use it if I ever need to cut out leaves or other shapes.

Shortcrust Pastry

1½ cups flour

6 tbls. unsalted butter, cold

2 tbls. Crisco (or lard, if you have the nerve)

2 to 3 tbls. ICE water

Add the flour to a food processor. Pulse once.

Cut the butter into small pieces. (I quarter the stick lengthwise and then cut it into small pieces.) Add that to the food processor with the Crisco. Pulse on and off until the fat is uniformly broken up.

Add 2 tablespoons ICE water and process for about 30 seconds, just until the mixture begins to come together. If it doesn’t come together, add the 3rd tablespoon of water. (I almost always use all 3 tablespoons.) Pulse a few more times until the mixture begins to form a ball.

Remove dough from processor and knead just long enough to make a smooth ball. Pat it out into a flat round.

At this point, I lay 2 sheets of plastic wrap out on the counter. I put the dough on top and cover it with another sheet of plastic wrap, so that I’m rolling out the dough between the sheets of plastic.

I roll the dough to the size I need and then line my pie dish. THEN I refrigerate it. The plastic wrap makes it possible to roll out just-made dough easily and you don’t need any flour. I cannot stand rolling out chilled dough.

If I’m freezing the dough, I line the actual pie dish with the dough as soon as I make it and then freeze THAT.

Some recipes call for prebaked shells. Baking a shortcrust pastry shell without a filling is called baking it blind.

To bake the pastry blind, line the unbaked pastry shell with parchment paper or waxed paper. Pour in pie weights (I’ve had the same ones since the 1970’s) or dried beans or rice to weight down the shell. Bake in a preheated 375ºF oven for about 15 minutes or until just golden. Cool on a rack. (I like to chill the lined pastry shell for 20 to 30 minutes before baking blind.)

Note: To make by hand, cut fats into flour with a pastry blender or two table knives until mixture resembles coarse oatmeal. Add the first two tablespoons of water and mix in using only your fingertips, which will keep the dough cooler. Add the additional water, if necessary, and knead quickly to a smooth ball.

*My pancake recipe is from The New York Times Cookbook and takes about 30 seconds to put together. (No mix needed.) It's not my recipe to post, but email me if you want this really good basic recipe.

A Little Something For Everyone - Giada Cooks For Firefighters

Plus Do You Know The Difference

Between Almond Paste And Marzipan?

Giada at Home with Giada De Laurentiis

Smoke In The House

Breakfast Tart with Pancetta and Green Onions

Almond Pancakes

Citrus Cream Smoothie

Giada AND Firefighters! Where Do We Look First?

Oh, it’s not as challenging as I thought it would be. These firefighters are certainly heroes that would save your life, and THAT makes them hot, but not necessarily the types that would appear in a calendar. I couldn’t have taken that much beefcake on top of…whatever it is Giada has. Actually she toned down a bit for her visit to the firehouse but she still looks gorgeous and they still are heroes, so it’s all good.

Giada visits an LA fire station to work out a strategy for their annual Pancake Breakfast. Firefighter Darnell is working with Giada. They go into the firehouse’s really nice, HUGE kitchen.

Giada inspects the pots and pans and is quite pleased with what she finds, including blenders for breakfast smoothies and lots of tart pans, which gives her the idea for a breakfast tart. (Are we sure those weren’t planted there?)

Back in her own kitchen, Giada starts on a breakfast tart that includes Pan–CHITTT-Tah. Sorry, I can’t help it. It does sound funny, but I should stop remarking on her authentic Italian. At least, she knows what she’s saying unlike all those Top Chefs folks mispronouncing French words.

Giada puts a 9 inch pie crust into a tart shell. Did she make it? She cuts off the overhang. Did she make it or not? I just checked the recipe and it says to use a Pillsbury pie crust. C’mon!!! Don’t firefighters deserve REAL pastry?!! WHY did she go to the Cordon Bleu if she’s using garbage pastry? Her Cordon Bleu instructors would not approve!!!

Giada pricks the crust and then brushes it with a beaten egg white to seal it, so the filling doesn’t seep out. Not a bad idea. She bakes it at 400º F for ten minutes.

For the filling, Giada beats 5 whole eggs. (She cracks them on the edge of the bowl, not the counter. Good move.) She whisks them with a half a cup of room temperature mascarpone. WHY does her fridge looks like it has 3 foot tall grass growing out of the bottom shelf. Oh, that’s the window next to her glass door fridge. It’s so pretty out there.

Giada heats vegetable oil in a skillet. She chops 3 ounces of pancetta into cubes and adds it to the pan to get crispy. To the beaten egg and mascarpone, she adds 2 cups of grated Gruyère cheese. Giada says it’s a milder Swiss cheese and melts beautifully. Then she adds 3 or 4 chopped green onions with pepper and salt. That DOES look good.

Giada takes out the not-homemade pie shell, reminding us that it has to cool before it’s filled. She drains the pancetta onto a paper towel. (Remember I like to get away with using just one paper towel by using a stack of newspapers underneath.)

They’re showing the cute Dalmatian from the firehouse.

Giada adds the cooled and crispy pancetta to the tart. This may not be revolutionary, but it will be good! She pours it into the tart and bakes it at 400º F for 18 minutes until the top is golden and the eggs are set.

Oh, we see the gorgeous ocean out the window as she fills a water pitcher. WHAT are we doing in the Northeast?!! Or anywhere else for that matter, except sunny southern California? Oh yeah, California is going to hell in a handbasket.

Giada starts her pancakes. She pours one and a half cups of water in a food processor. She adds 1 tablespoon of sugar. Hold on, I have NEVER heard of WATER in pancakes! Oh wait, she’s adding half a cup of mascarpone cheese, which is incredibly rich. Is that the reason for the water?

Giada adds 2 teaspoons of almond extract. I love opening the bottle and smelling it. She also adds 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

OH!!! NO!!! She’s adding 2 cups of pancake mix. THAT’S the reason for the water. I’m not happy. WHY, G., why? These big burly men can handle measuring a bit of flour and leavening in a bowl and adding eggs and milk.

I love her flavoring ideas, but not the mix. I would just add the extracts and substitute the mascarpone for some of the milk to any pancake recipe.

Now this interesting. Giada is adding almond paste to the processor and pulsing it. She wants it to stay in chunks. I like that idea. (Do you know the difference between almond paste and marzipan? Don’t click on the link until you answer.)

Giada heats a couple of tablespoons of butter to a nonstick griddle. She likes the color and flavor it adds to the pancakes. She uses a 1/4 cup measure to the batter (from a mix). They look good and perfect! (My first batch is always for the cook.)

Firefighter Darnell comes over to taste everything. Boy, is he lucky! Before Giada lets him dive into the pancakes, she makes him help her with the smoothies. Give the guy and break and let him eat the pancakes while they’re hot!

Darnell pours some sugar syrup to Giada’s really fancy blender. It looks suspiciously like a Breville blender. Incidentally, in case you’re interested in some of the other things in her kitchen, you may find them here.

Darnell adds 3 cups of Greek yogurt, 1¼ cups orange juice and a couple of teaspoons of vanilla to the blender. I LOVE Greek yogurt, but it’s sooo expensive, I’m thinking tapped out fire houses probably won’t include it very often on their shopping lists.

Darnell tells G. that he cooks once a week and his favorite dish chicken parmesan. (Sorry, Rach, HE called it that.) He zests an orange while Giada slices a banana. Darnell blends everything together with a cup of ice. WOW, I want that (with a little rum, perhaps.)

Darnell pours the smoothies after Giada garnishes the glasses with slices of oranges. She serves him pancakes (only two) and the breakfast tart (pretty small piece) and garnishes the plate with raspberries. (Giada! Raspberries AND Greek yogurt? California has a 19 BILLION dollar shortfall. This firehouse may not even there next year!)

Darnell loves all the food.

It’s the day of the pancake breakfast. The firefighters go to Gelson’s with the shopping list Giada made. Including flowers??!!! (I sure hope they donated the food.)

The firefighter cooks get to work. Darnell puts a big vase of sunflowers on the table. Giada arrives. She looks suitably dressed down, but still gorgeous with only about two inches of cleavage happening. The firemen (no women, except Giada) are all wearing rubber gloves to prepare the food. I really love a man who can not only handle an axe, but observe food sanitation as well.

The community comes in. It all looks really good. Darnell made the pancakes BIG. I LOVE that the syrup is in half gallon pitchers. THAT’S the way I take my syrup too.

Giada brings a table of kids to the breakfast. Oh, there’s a picture of the firefighters with Giada. And we learn that the Pancake Breakfast is benefiting The Los Angeles Firemen’s Relief Association and its The Widows, Orphans & Disabled Firemen’s Fund. It is really great that Giada is highlighting this.

Firefighters, food and fundraising. What a worthy combination! If anyone deserves pastry and pancakes made from scratch, it’s these guys.