Winter citrus is as natural as can be, even though it seems like the fruit ought to be showing up in summer. Mingled among the honey tangerines, Satsuma mandarins and bags of trademarked Cuties is an unusual cross, the minneola. It’s a combination of the mandarin tangerine and a grapefruit.

The skin of the minneola is dark orange and nubby. Not perfectly round, its stem end tapers into a shape resembling a nipple. Minneola juice is darker than orange or tangerine juice. Its taste is rich but not very acidic.

I love using minneola juice in lots of things, such as for deglazing liquid for braised pork chops or chicken. My favorite recipe is an old-fashioned frozen soufflé. The recipe calls for several specialized cooking techniques, including making custard, using gelatin, and folding egg snows and whipped cream together.

For perfect custard bases, use a double boiler, preferably one that is enamel-coated and heavy enough to provide some protection to yolk-based mixtures. To avoid curdling, do not overheat custards. Curdling is an irreversible condition in which yolks are heated beyond their coagulation point.

Be sure to keep a strainer on hand. If by chance lumps form, strain them immediately. Do not return the custard to the heat.

Overbeaten egg whites are the downfall of many a soufflé. In cold soufflés, properly beaten whites act as a binder, while hot soufflés would not rise without them. Eggs separate more easily when they’re cold, but for the most volume, beat whites after they’ve come to room temperature. Wait until some foaming has set in before beginning to add sugar in a trickle.

Cold soufflés like this one usually contain whipped cream. This, too, should not be overbeaten. Nor, for that matter, should whipped cream be over-folded into a soufflé base. If, after folding for some time, tiny lumps of white still remain, let them show. And instead of using a rubber spatula for folding, try a wooden spatula. It’s got drag that pulls the mixture along, making it likely you’ll need fewer strokes.

Best of all, a cold soufflé is a make-ahead dish. Store in the freezer, then withdraw at the end of a dinner party, ready to go. Decorate with optional whipped cream flowers and candied pieces of minneola peel, remove the collar and dessert is served.

Frozen Minneola Soufflé

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 tablespoons gelatin

¼ cup water

About 7 minneolas

1 tablespoon finely minced minneola zest

1½ cups strained, fresh-squeezed minneola (or tangerine) juice

6 eggs, separated (you will need 6 yolks and 4 egg whites)

¾ cup sugar

⅔ cup additional sugar, divided

1¼ cups heavy cream

Whipped cream for garnish (optional)

Candied minneola peel for garnish (recipe below)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir the gelatin in the water. Set aside.

2. Take zest off about three minneolas using a 5-hole zester, or by scraping minneolas on the finest side of a box grater, or use a planer, until you have 1 tablespoon. Juice enough minneolas, straining the juice, until you have 1½ cups juice. Set zest and juice aside.

3. To make the minneola base, separate the yolks, reserving 4 egg whites. Beat the yolks and the ¾ cup sugar on high speed until pale yellow and thick, about 2 minutes. Transfer the yolks to the top of a double-boiler. Add softened gelatin, stirring until combined. Cook over simmering water until hot and thick, about 20 minutes.

4. With a rubber spatula, scrape this custard into a large bowl. Whisk in the zest and minneola juice, combining thoroughly. Chill, uncovered, stirring two or three times, until base begins to gel, about 1 hour.

5. Meanwhile, butter a 6-cup soufflé dish. Make a collar of a folded length of wax paper or parchment paper. Butter the collar. Wrap this collar around the soufflé dish, secure with tape, then tie tightly with string. Sprinkle inside the dish and up the collar with granulated sugar.

6.  Beat egg whites until foamy. Trickle in half the remaining sugar (⅓ cup) while continuing to beat whites to stiff peaks. Fold whites into gelled minneola base. Return to refrigerator.

7. Beat the cream, gradually adding the remaining ⅓ cup sugar until cream forms stiff peaks. Fold cream into soufflé base.

8. Scrape soufflé mixture into prepared soufflé dish. Freeze 4 hours or overnight. Snip string and peel off collar. Decorate with whipped cream piped from a star tip. Sprinkle with candied minneola peel.

Candied Minneola Peel

Ingredients

3 minneolas

¼ cup water

½ cup sugar, plus more for dusting

Directions

1. With a sharp knife, gently scrape away white pith from peels of minneolas. Cut peels lengthwise into thin strips, then into small squares.

2. In a small pot, bring water and sugar to a boil. Stir until sugar dissolves.

3. Add peel. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

4. Scoop pieces of sugared peel out of the pot with a small strainer to a sheet of wax paper. Roll warm peel in additional sugar for a light dusting.

You can make these a day ahead and store cooled candied peel in a small bowl covered with wax paper.

Minneola frozen soufflé. Credit: Elaine Corn

I don’t know anyone who wakes up on Jan. 1 cheering, “Woo-hoo, I can’t wait to go on a diet.” Most of us hate to diet. But as a rite of passing into a new year with well-intentioned resolution, The Diet is an annual dilemma that needs to be looked at a bit differently. In this first month of 2013, let’s resolve not to diet. Let’s anti-diet.

You can already see the ads on TV. Lose weight with this system, here’s an impossible-to-believe before-and-after shot of [insert you] after some charlatan’s weight-loss scam. We know most of these don’t work and don’t last. You’ve got the low-carb diet, the calorie-restriction diet, the açai berry diet — all cruel and unusual over a prolonged period. And not sustainable either.

This discussion is mostly for post-holiday bellies and diminishing a gut that’s bigger now than it was before Thanksgiving. It is not for anyone diagnosed as morbidly obese. For that you need medical advice. But anyone looking for a resolution you can live with should be thinking about wellness. And that means a new way of eating and of shopping, getting into a heartfelt ritual of improving the quality of the food you eat.

Here are five candid points that have helped me and could possibly help you.

1. Eat clean

This means getting habituated to eating better,  shopping for, and simply cooking, fresh fruits and vegetables and a piece of meat or fish for dinner. Stay away from what I view as unclean food, usually posing as low-calorie frozen dinners. They’re not lean on unnatural ingredients and certainly not anything resembling cuisine. Another example is a commercial spinach dip available at a big box member store. It’s got an ingredient label of biblical proportions. Sure, the dip’s got spinach and dairy, but it also includes hydrolized soy protein, high fructose corn syrup. What’s this stuff? Why not wilt some fresh spinach (or defrost frozen spinach) and mix it with some garlic, Worcestershire and real sour cream or thick yogurt? Dinner is perhaps a serving of fresh chicken with two vegetables. Those vegetables might be steamed peas and mashed sweet potato. That’s clean.

2. Stop eating crap

Yes, I said crap. The commercial spinach dip, mentioned above, is unnatural. Potato chips as a side dish with a sandwich are nutritionally ridiculous. Cheetos, as yummy as they are for salt addicts, are not food. Twizzlers aren’t food. Pizza has trick nutrition, because with it calories and fats can pile up fast. I recommend avoiding it while you’re getting started this year. Ignore nutritionists who encourage daylong snacking. I say stop snacking, and this should help a few pounds here and there melt away.

Don’t forget the  stop-eating-crap rule when you’re eating out too. Over the next couple of weeks, don’t get trapped in the salad-is-diet-food myth. There’s low nutrition in lettuce and lots of calories in dressing. When you find yourself out for lunch or dinner, make your own meal. Look over a menu to see what ingredients are on it, then ask the waiter to tell the chef you want the chicken breast out of the chicken sandwich and bring it with the side of chard that comes with the steak entrée. Sometimes the chef can be very obliging.

3. Get used to being a little hungry

This rule goes well with the stop-snacking rule. Some experts say hunger pangs send the body into starvation mode. Snacking your way to satiety is self-defeating.

A few hunger pangs are a sign your stomach is getting accustomed to less. Also, eat dinner early so you’re up more hours to burn calories. You may go to bed a bit hungry, but there’s always breakfast eight hours away.

4. Go to a farmers market

You’ll eat seasonally and you’ll be able to practice one of the best pieces of nutrition advice ever to come along: Eat your colors. Buy orange produce such as winter squash, yams, carrots and oranges. Go green with chard, spinach, kale, broccoli, even frozen peas. Get your red from beets, red cabbage and pomegranates. If you hate beets, don’t eat them. The variety from eating colors keeps boredom at bay. A farmers market will awaken your interest in fresh food, which obviously requires some skill to cook, and that brings me to the next rule.

5. Learn to cook

Zester readers may know more than the average reluctant cook about getting a meal on the table, but many people indulge their interest in food by eating out and making excuses for not cooking.

Microwaved chicken that tastes like baked. Credit: Elaine Corn

You won’t think that time spent cooking robs you of time spent doing other things if you decide that cooking is one of those other things. Taking charge of what goes into your body benefits you on many fronts: your budget, your nutrition and your control of all ingredients that enter your body. If you regard the knobs on a stove like they’re controls on a nuclear reactor, then cook in your microwave. About 99% of homes have microwaves. I’ve used the microwave to cook an entire meal that’s clean, nutritious and not too expensive.

Ultimately if you can make yourself a reasonable promise, you’ll feel better, you’ll lose that holiday gut, and you may well be on your way to some new good habits.

“Baked” Chicken From the Microwave

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 whole cut-up fryer, bones in, pieces rinsed and dried with paper towel

Salt and ground black pepper

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon oregano (leafy type, not powdered)

Few sprinkles paprika, for color and a bit of kick

Directions

1. To make the breasts of relative size to the rest of the pieces, cut the breasts in half crosswise. Arrange chicken pieces on a microwavable large dinner plate like spokes, with the plump ends along the rim of the plate and narrower ends toward the center.

2. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with oregano and paprika. Do not cover.

3. In a microwave equipped with a turntable, microwave on high, in 5-minute intervals, for up to a total of 10 to 15 minutes*, until meat is browned and no longer pink inside.

4. Serve with fresh microwaved green beans and half a sweet potato.

* Depending on microwave’s wattage power, your chicken may cook very quickly or slowly. At home, mine is done in about 12 minutes. At a friend’s house with an older model, the chicken was done in 14 minutes. You can stop the microwave at any time to check progress.

Microwaved Yam

Serves 2

This is the easiest type of produce to microwave.

Ingredients

1 medium-sized yam

Dab of butter

Directions

1. Halve yam lengthwise. Lay both pieces on a large dinner plate, flat side down. Puncture several air slits in the skin for steam to escape. Do not cover.

2. Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Test doneness by piercing with sharp knife. If it glides easily into the yam, the yam is done. If not, microwave 1 minute more.

3. Turn yam halves over, cut slits and top each with a small dab of butter. Serve hot.

Microwaved Fresh Green Beans With Butter

Serves 2 or 3

Ingredients

⅓ pound green beans (pick tender ones instead of big fat ones)

Sprinkling of salt

1 pat of butter

Directions

1. Trim stems off beans. Set beans in a shallow bowl with a tablespoon of water. Sprinkle with salt. Set dab of butter in center.

2. Cover the bowl with a plate. Steam-microwave for 90 seconds. If the beans are still too crunchy for your taste, microwave for another 15 seconds. Scoop the beans out of bowl with a slotted spoon and set on the serving plate with the chicken and yam.

Healthy “baked” chicken, green beans and yams from the microwave. Credit: Elaine Corn

It’s the seeds.

The average number of seeds in a pomegranate ranges from about 600 to 700 to sometimes 1,000, give or take a couple hundred up or down depending on the pomegranate’s size. That makes pomegranate jelly the most time-consuming jelly in jellyland.

But it must be done. Pomegranate jelly is difficult to find in stores.

The ruby-red pulp that clings to each seed makes the juice that becomes the jelly. The seed is beige and sliver-shaped, like orzo. There’s a short way and a long way to get the juice. After making three batches, it’s confirmed: the short way makes a more jewel-toned jelly.

Recently, I made all this pomegranate jelly as an act of compassion for a 30-foot tall tree in a neighbor’s yard. It was so loaded with fruit I felt it needed my assistance. My neighbor filled three plastic bags, about 10 pounds each, with just the low-hanging fruit. It was after 5 p.m. when we decided to pick the fruit. We don’t get on ladders during cocktail hour.

A craving with staying power

Call them sentimental or hormonal reasons, but I can’t get through winter without pomegranate jelly.

Pomegranate jelly is in the story of my only pregnancy. Toward the end, in December 1990, my little body was carrying a big baby boy who would be two weeks late in mid-January. I was close to 40 years old and could barely walk. The doctor’s orders were to stop working and rest at home.

Dinner was always the same demand for my chef husband: dark meat from a roasted chicken, peas with butter on them, and the pomegranate jelly brought over by my sister-in-law. That pomegranate jelly stood in place of cranberry sauce, but it was milder, softer and with a lighter jewel-tone color. I had to have it. It’s the stuff of a weird pregnancy craving that has lasted 21 years and may never recede. It should be no coincidence that my college-age son loves pomegranates and pomegranate jelly.

The test of two methods

Which brings me to this season’s [free] neighborhood pomegranates and the jellies I got out of them. To start you need  8 cups of juice, which will strain out to 4 cups, which is what you need to make the jelly. I tried two techniques, the virtuous long way and the slumming quick way, with surprising results.

Pomegranate jelly. Credit: Elaine Corn

Juice prep, technique 1: Quarter pomegranates, open them while they are submerged in a big basin of water and work out the seeds with your fingers. The pith floats and is discarded while the seeds go into a soup pot. Here, they are lightly heated and gently crushed with a potato masher until the beige seeds are forced out of the pulp. The resulting mash is strained many times, first through a fine mesh steel strainer, then through the strainer lined with two layers of cheesecloth, then through four layers of cheesecloth, and finally through a coffee filter. This is to clarify the juice of sediment. By the time the coffee filter is used, not much will pass through it. This sediment is tossed. This technique took 4 hours, gave me the necessary 8 cups juice, and resulted in a light jewel-toned pomegranate jelly.

Juice prep, technique 2: Halve pomegranates. Use an electric citrus reamer to juice the pomegranates until you have 8 cups juice. (Critics say this technique allows the bitter flavor of pith to enter the juice; sorry, this does not happen.) As you ream, save the seed pulp that clogs the machine in a pot; heat on low while gently pressing any excess pulp off the seeds with a potato masher. Strain the seed pulp, discard what’s left in the strainer, and add the strained seed juice to the reamed juice. Now strain all the juice through a fine mesh steel strainer, then through the strainer lined with two layers of cheesecloth, then through four layers of cheesecloth, and finally through a coffee filter. By the time the coffee filter is used, not much will pass through it. This technique took about 1½ hours and resulted in a clear, deeply ruby jewel-toned jelly.

Equipment

4 sterilized pint jars*

Water bath kettle with lid

Sterilized rings and screw caps

To make the jelly:

1 pouch Certo/SureJell pectin

4 cups strained, clarified pomegranate juice (from about 10 pounds pomegranates), see juicing techniques, above

⅓ cup strained fresh lemon juice

7 cups sugar

Directions

1. Snip off top of Certo pouch and hold upright in a glass convenient to the stove. Have water-bath kettle boiling. Add empty pint jars to the boiling water until needed; this will sterilize them. You’ll retrieve them later with tongs.

2. In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat the pomegranate juice on medium. Wait for a simmer. Now, add the lemon juice and sugar.

3. With heat still on medium, very slowly bring the pomegranate juice to a boil that can’t be stirred down.

4. Add Certo, pressing it all out of pouch. Boil 1 minute. (Set a timer!)

5. Off heat, use a large spoon to skim all scum from surface.

6. Ladle hot jelly into hot jars, top with caps and screw bands. Only hand-tighten, for best seal.

7. Transfer jars to the boiling water-bath. Process, covered, for 12 minutes.

8. Use pot-holder gloves that reach mid-arm. Using tongs, carefully remove jelly jars and set on a rack to cool. Every time you hear the pop of a seal, you’ll smile.

* For gifts, use 8 half-pint jars and process for 5 minutes.

Seed-laden pomegranate ready for jelly. Credit: StockFood

Trying to please everyone with one type of coleslaw is impossible. There are so many ways to change it, so many mothers to credit for passing down the family favorite, so many trends giving slaw a rebirth.

New slaws have apples, walnuts, wasabi, sunflower seeds, pickle relish, raisins, cilantro, peanut butter (peanut butter?) and even beets and blue cheese. And while cabbage may be slaw’s classic crop, it’s not the only one. Other cruciferous vegetables that now star in slaw are kale, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, broccoli stems and cauliflower hearts. Some slaws don’t even have cabbage. Instead, shredded zucchini, fennel and carrots make the base.

Because slaw is never consumed immediately after it’s made, it’s the ultimate make-ahead. Made ahead, slaw also has a tasty benefit. The miracle of food chemistry both enhances and mellows the taste as it sits, so it’s better the day after, and the day after that. Start a slaw this morning and it will be ready for its Day 1 version by dinner.

A well-balanced slaw, with a bit of sugar and bite from vinegar, is a palate cleanser, an intermezzo, the high note in your mouth. If your salivary glands are already experiencing an involuntary trigger similar to what happens when you think of eating a pickle, that’s what’s supposed to happen when you think of slaw. It’s happening to me right now.

Kohlrabi-Fennel Slaw

Kohlrabi is a member of the brassica family, just like cabbage. Here, it’s used raw, so you can pick up a kohlrabi without even knowing how to cook it. It’s bland and watery, a bit like  jicama. It can take just about any dressing.

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the slaw:

1 whole kohlrabi, peeled and shredded

2 carrots, peeled and shredded

½ red onion, very thinly sliced

¼ cup finely minced fennel fronds

Curls of zest from 1 orange or tangerine

For the dressing:

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ teaspoon pimentón (smoked paprika)

1 teaspoon sugar

¼ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup sour cream

¼ teaspoon salt

White pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Place shredded kohlrabi in a large strainer. Sprinkle with salt, toss, and let sit while you prepare the other ingredients. Squeeze kohlrabi of excess water. Combine kohlrabi with remaining slaw ingredients.

2. In a lidded container or jar, shake vinegar, pimentón, sugar, mayonnaise, sour cream, salt and pepper. Pour dressing over slaw, tossing well by hand.

3. Cover in plastic wrap and chill several hours or overnight. To serve, sprinkle slaw with a fine sprinkling of more pimentón.

Kale Slaw With Red Onion, Golden Raisins and Walnuts

Kale makes a surprisingly light slaw. I used fuchsia-tinged Russian kale.

Kale slaw. Credit: Elaine Corn

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the slaw:

1 bunch kale, leaves julienned (about 8 cups)

½ medium red onion, very thinly sliced

1 cup golden raisins

1 cup fresh walnut halves

For the dressing:

¼ cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon Dijon-style mustard

1 cup mayonnaise

½ teaspoon coarse salt

Ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Have kale ready in a large bowl.

2. In a lidded jar or container, shake lemon juice, honey, oil and mustard until honey is well blended. Add mayonnaise, salt and pepper and shake until smooth. Dressing will be slightly runny.

3. Pour dressing over slaw mixture. Toss to evenly coat.

4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill. Keeps a week.

Texican slaw

I first had this flavor combination in corn salad. To repurpose cabbage for the concept, it’s chopped. The acid from lime jolts the palate while the sour cream subdues the chiles. Addictive!

Serves 10

Ingredients

For the slaw:

3 fresh poblano (green) chiles, roasted, peeled and diced

1 head green cabbage, chopped in ½-inch dice

2 fresh jalapeño peppers, peeled, seeded and minced

1 jicama, peeled and chopped in ¼-inch cubes

For the dressing:

2 avocados

2 cups sour cream

¼ cup lime juice

1 tablespoon pimentón (smoked paprika), or to taste

¼ teaspoon salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Process avocado with all dressing ingredients in a blender or food processor.

2. Pour dressing over slaw ingredients. Toss to evenly coat. Taste, adding salt, pepper, pimentón or lime juice, as desired.

3. Cover with plastic wrap; chill overnight. Stir before serving. Keeps a week.

Top photo: Kohlrabi-fennel slaw. Credit: Elaine Corn

For butterscotch fundamentals, Teresa Urkofsky, pastry instructor at American River College in Sacramento, Calif., tells it straight.

“The essential ingredients are brown sugar and butter,” she says. “It can be light brown sugar or dark brown sugar.”

Urkofsky makes butterscotch pudding on top of the stove. She browns the sugar and butter, letting it lightly caramelize, then adds milk and cornstarch. “I like the low reaction temperature with cornstarch. You don’t have to cook out a flour taste,” she says.

She tempers in eggs, pours it into serving bowls and stashes them in the refrigerator.

There is no question that she loves it. “It’s such a round, beautiful flavor that might remind you of home.”

Where did butterscotch come from?

Memories of butterscotch may be a from-scratch effort, or the quick method from the boxed butterscotch pudding mix introduced by JELL-O in 1936. The origin of butterscotch is rather murky. Food historian Ken Albala, who teaches history at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., found an obscure, older origin of butterscotch.

“There’s a company called Parkinson’s of Doncaster, which is in southern Yorkshire, which started marketing their own brand of butterscotch in 1848,” he says. “I couldn’t find reference to the word in print until about 1852 or 1853.”

The very mention of Yorkshire in England scotches any belief that the “scotch” in butterscotch has anything to do with Scotland. Albala says the Scottish connection is an etymological myth. And Albala has one more butterscotch bummer.

“Of course, it doesn’t contain Scotch.”

There’s Scotch in this butterscotch

That’s right, there’s no Scotch in butterscotch, unless you’re talking about the butterscotch pudding at Sacramento’s Grange restaurant.

It’s made by pastry chef Jackie Phongsavath. She works in a basement dessert corner, and yes, she puts Scotch in butterscotch. She has to go upstairs to the restaurant’s bar to ask for it. The bartender usually gives her well Scotch, something like Dewar’s.

Don’t mess with a destination dessert

Grange’s butterscotch pudding has become something of a destination dessert. Typical of most staff at high-end restaurants, menus get tweaked too often. Once, the butterscotch pudding came off the menu — a marketing fiasco.

“I thought there was going to be a riot at the corner of 10th and J” in downtown Sacramento, recalls Chef Jackie.

So the staff brought it back. But this time it was retooled for a guaranteed consistency. A new, daring recipe it is, because it defies the essence of butterscotch. There’s no butter, brown sugar or thickener.

Without these traditional elements, how does Chef Jackie get to butterscotch?

With technical twists you can probably accomplish at home.

First, she separates 30 eggs for the yolks. “I’m probably not world champion, but I usually get that task done in about three minutes,” she says.

Recipe’s secrets revealed

She was allowed to reveal the new recipe’s two prevailing secrets. One is a shortcut: Guittard-brand butterscotch chips. Taste test after blind taste test proclaimed the chips gave the best taste and best consistency compared with the previous traditional stovetop version. With eyes open, the pudding had sheen.

But the second secret is more challenging. It’s exacting sugar work that brings sugar and water to about 230 F – still clear but beginning to caramelize.

Sugar work

“This is the fun part,” Chef Jackie says. “We just wait. You just basically want to bring your sugar to a stage of caramelization before it hits any brown color.”

With sizzling fanfare, cream hits the bubbling sugar, along with salt, vanilla and the Scotch. She adds the chips to the pot last, so they lay on the surface instead of sinking to the bottom, where they could possibly scorch. She whisks without end to prevent hot spots and keep it all smooth.

“You know it’s ready when everything is melted,” she says, “and you lift the whisk to make sure there’s no sugar, no butterscotch chips stuck to the whisk.”

Finally, the yolks are tempered into the base. A small amount of the hot butterscotch base is whisked into all the yolks, then the now-lukewarm yolk mixture is added back to the hot base and whisked with determination.

It’s important to strain the base. Sure enough, a strainer caught some cooked whites and unsmoothed yolk.

To bake, Chef Jackie fills 30 ramekins per daily batch. For a gentler ride through the heat, they bake in a pan with water added, called a water bath. She covers the pan with foil, making sure to crimp it well around the sides. She pokes a few steam vents into the foil. The pudding, essentially, bakes and steams.

The presentation

When they’re done and cooled, Chef Jackie heads upstairs to the dining room. Here, she presents each serving with a dollop of crème fraîche.

I got to sample the result with the pastry chef, and I thought I’d never tasted butterscotch so sublime. Chef Jackie could barely contain her own swoon.

“Mmmm,” the pastry chef said, feigning weakness. “Give me a minute! It’s a really rich dessert I would only eat once and I’d probably just fall over!”

Is it pudding?

Some might quibble this is not pudding. But it’s not quite pot de crème or crème caramel, either. Chef Jackie defends her glossy, spoon-soft result.

“It’s not a stovetop pudding,” says Chef Jackie. “It’s a pudding baked in a water bath. It’s pudding, but it’s a fancy pudding.”

With its smoky hint of Scotch, sometimes it pays to think outside the pudding box.

Grange Butterscotch Pudding

Serves 6

Equipment

Ingredients

Directions

1. Set six sturdy 4-ounce ramekins in a baking pan, such as a metal 9-by-13-inch rectangular cake pan. Preheat the oven to 300 F. Set a medium-sized double-mesh strainer over a medium bowl and have it ready on your countertop.
2. Separate the egg yolks. Reserve them in a bowl. Measure the butterscotch chips and have them ready in a bowl.
3. In a large measuring cup or pitcher, stir together cream, salt, vanilla and Scotch. Have it convenient to the stove.
4. Combine water and sugar in a medium pot. Heat over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves and boils gently, about 8 to 10 minutes (up to 220 F to 230 F on a candy thermometer), making sure the sugar does not darken.
5. With a whisk at the ready, pour the cream mixture into the hot sugar. (It will sizzle.) Whisk well to combine, going around the sides and across the bottom of the pot. Add the chips, continuing to whisk to prevent the chips from scorching. Turn off the heat. Continue whisking until no sugar or chips cling to the whisk and the mixture is smooth.
6. Whisk some of the hot butterscotch mixture into the egg yolks, whisking gently but thoroughly. Then pour the tempered yolks back into the main mixture in the pot, whisking well.
7. Strain the butterscotch through a double-mesh strainer into a bowl.
8. Ladle butterscotch evenly into the arranged ramekins.
9. Fill the baking pan with hot water so it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan well with foil and crimp it to seal well around the pan’s rim. Poke several holes in the foil to act as steam vents.
10. Set in the oven and bake 45 to 50 minutes or until just set in the center.

Zester Daily contributor Elaine Corn is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and food editor. A former editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Sacramento Bee, Corn has written six cookbooks and contributed food stories to National Public Radio.

Photos, from top:

The butterscotch pudding from Grange restaurant in Sacramento, Calif.

After it is prepared, the butterscotch pudding is poured into ramekins and cooked in a water bath.

Credits: Elaine Corn

Stressed about planning a family Thanksgiving dinner? Overwhelmed at the prospect of planning a menu? Stuck trying to choose the perfect green vegetable for the big dinner?

Take the guesswork out of your Thanksgiving planning and follow this step-by-step plan for dinner, complete with a timeline. We even have you covered with the perfect just-like-homemade dessert.

The menu:

• turkey
• gravy
• cranberry sauce
• stuffing (baked separately)
• sweet potatoes on the side
• broccoli, boiled or steamed
• bumpkin pie

• Take turkey out of refrigerator.
• Preheat ove.
• Make pie.
• Make stuffing to bake separately.
• Trim broccoli, wrap and save in refrigerator.
• Make cranberry sauce.
• Make sweet potatoes, will go in oven with turkey.

• Season turkey and put in oven.
• Put big pot of salted water on stove with steamer basket.
• Set up coffeemaker.
• Clean up kitchen, take a shower and get dressed for company.

• Turkey’s done, can sit one hour.
• Pour juices off turkey, let fat rise in refrigerator.
• Make gravy.
• Stuffing and sweet potatoes done, will stay hot 30 minutes.
• Put wine and other drinks on buffet or table.
• Bring broccoli water to a boil.
• Carve turkey.
• Put cranberry sauce on table.
• Put baked stuffing and sweet potatoes on table.

• Cook broccoli.
• Bring broccoli to table.
• Meal time.
• Enjoy meal.
• Flick on coffeemaker.
• Serve pies.

Bumpkin Pie

The biggest surprise to new cooks is that canned foods usually avoided by purists aren’t across-the-board offenses. One of the most reliable canned products is pumpkin pulp (often labeled as solid-pack pumpkin). Without a real pumpkin to peel, boil or roast, seed and mash, these pies come together quickly. You don’t even need a mixer, only a whisk.

Here’s a shortcut sure to horrify culinary elites: Go buy a package of pre-made pie shells. You can get good quality, even whole wheat pastry. Thaw them slightly. They’ll be just soft enough to re-crimp the edges with your fingers so they look homemade.

Ingredients

Directions:

1. Take crusts out of freezer to partially thaw. Preheat oven to 400 F. Set rack on lowest notch.
2. Get out a big mixing bowl. Whisk pumpkin, cream and milk. Whisk in eggs one by one. Whisk until smooth.
3. Whisk in sugar and spices.
4. Re-form pie dough edges with thumb and forefinger to remove tell-tale stamped-out fork imprints, so they look homemade. Place pie plates on a cookie sheet (to catch any drips).
5. Fill shells with pumpkin filling (each will hold about 2 cups)
6. Bake at 400 F for 8 minutes. Set a timer! Reduce heat to 350 F and bake 35 minutes more. Pies are done when a knife inserted into center comes out clean.

Zester Daily contributor Elaine Corn is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and food editor. A former editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Sacramento Bee, Corn has written six cookbooks and contributed food stories to National Public Radio.

Photo: Bumpkin pie, on Grandmother Shirley Siegel’s china inherited by the author.

Credit: Elaine Corn