How the Professionals do Tacos al Pastor

Okay. For $4 per taco in NYC (!!?!), Stupak's Empellon Al Pastor puts forth delicious fare - MUCH better than the ones I made.

Part of the difference was in the meat - more moist and flavorful than my attempt. Note picture of their process (Santa, hint, hint...).  Another huge difference was each of the several sauces, which I need to research.

New York Cheesecake recipe from Cook's Illustrated - Hybridized

I've been making variations on the 2002 Cook's Illustrated New York Cheesecake recipe* for quite a while.  The recent Cook's Illustrated magazine (Jan. / Feb. 2015 issue, yes, the 2015 issue) put forth an update, which I like very much !  I've made three cheesecakes with a variation of the two recipes already (in less than three weeks - FUN !).

The hybrid uses the OLD recipe mostly, except for two departures.  One is the crust is changed to add flour, etc., to the OLD graham cracker crust to make it more pastry like.  This is to help ensure that the wet cheesecake batter doesn't make the crust soggy over time.   I like this concept, but I just didn't want to change that piece of my go-to recipe right at Christmas (under pressure to produce).  ;-0

SO, the other piece that has changed how I do cheesecakes is the upside-down process.  Formerly, the baking in the oven started out at 500 degrees F for a short period to brown the top of the cheesecake, then the temperature was turned down to 200.  The identified problem was the variation in the time it took various ovens to go from 500 to 200 - many NEW ovens, being better insulated, took much longer, resulting in dry / burnt cheesecakes.

The NEW process starts with the 200 degree oven (pre-heated), and takes the cheesecake to 165 F (use the lower rack).  Fine, if you have a thermometer.  They approximate 3 to 3-1/2 hours, if you're not measuring the temp (The one that I did yesterday took 3 hrs. and 9 minutes to come to temp, and that was with batter out of the fridge that I made the night before.)

AFTER you take the now-set cheesecake out, and change the rack to the top, change the temp to 500.  When it reaches 500, put the cheesecake BACK in for from 4 to 10 minutes (yesterday's was in for 5 minutes).  Note the two attached pictures.  The uglier of the two is an earlier effort, where the top got black and spotted.  This was from longer in the oven AND not rotating the cheesecake by 180 degrees at the estimated half-way mark.  The less ugly of the two is from yesterday.  SO, NEXT TIME, I'm actually going to try 450 degrees instead, rotate it halfway, and watch closely.  I'm looking for consistent nut-brown top, but, HEY, there's always whipped cream for the top.  OH, and I toasted macadamia nuts, cooled them, and put them in the graham cracker crust and it was really good.  :-)

Most recent effort - Better !

Not so good aesthetically (still yummy though !)

*I suspect this whole recipe is, by now, Google-able...

Their picture of a French Apple Tart

The November/December 2014 Cook's Illustrated had a French Apple Tart recipe. Four hours later, on a Sunday afternoon, I had produced a version. This, for me, is special occasion fare. It's simple, delicious and beautiful with their recipe.

So, for future reference* -

13.32 oz. AP Flour

   4.5  oz  Sugar (I used my home-made vanilla sugar.)

     1   tsp  Salt

 20     T.   Melted unsalted Butter

Preheat oven to 350.  Mix the dry ingredients.  Pour in the melted butter, and mix until Play-Dough-ish.  Skip the wrapping and chilling and rolling, and just pat it in the pan.  Try to be consistent about the thickness, and especially the joint area between the bottom and the sides.  They suggest using a meat pounder.  I just used my hands and it worked pretty well. Author Andrea Geary suggested putting the crust on a baking pan with a wire rack on it, and using the bottom rack.  I followed her suggestion, and it came out beautifully ! (30-35 minutes, rotating once half-way, removing when golden brown...)  Her tests indicated that you can make all of these components up to 24 hours ahead of time, assembling at the last minute.  Keep the two apple components separated.

For the "top" apples - in skillet over medium heat, add 2 T. butter until foaming.  Add sliced apples  and water.  Cover and cook 3-5 minutes, then spread out to cool. (reserve 5 skinniest ones to make the rosette curve in the middle)

For the "bottom" apples, get Smucker's Apricot Preserves.  Microwave gently until fluid.  Using a wire mesh, separate solids and save them.  Reserve about 3 T. to coat top later.  Add apples with butter, apricot solids and strained Preserves.  Cook and cover about 10 minutes, over medium heat.  Break them down.  A potato masher works great here (after I found it).  The pastry blender worked pretty well until then. !?  Dry them out more, about 5 minutes.

Smooth them into the crust.  Top with the slices.  Cook for about 30 minutes on lowest rack.  Then, brush with the reserved apricot preserves.  Broil, watching carefully (!), for about 3 minutes.  Cool for about 1-1/2 hours.  Cut with a chef's knife to try and keep the crust from breaking.  Very yummy and rich !

SO, after all of that, I had what my Wife described as the "...most beautiful thing [I] ever made...". (!)  I'm not sure I will ever do this again - there are certainly some ways to put together all of the good-tasting stuff without adding the fru-fru (sp?) overhead of rosette-ing the top.  BUT, here's my final product (below), along with my favorite knife that my little sister gave me.  Make this tart at least once !

* Their recipe was for a 9" tart pan. My pan is a 12" one. Without doing the math (did it later though), I decided to double the ingredients for the crust, and make 1-1/2 times the filling. It worked out almost exactly right. (!?)