Cooking corner: Dana Cree is a rising star

David W. Cowles

guest columnist

Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay and Paula Deen, move over! Emeril Lagasse, Thomas Keller and Wolfgang Puck, step aside! Dana Cree is a flower bud ready to open, a butterfly about to emerge from her cocoon.

“Who’s Dana Cree?”, you might ask. Cree is an attractive 29-year-old up-and-coming professional chef. She’s worked in such prestigious fine-dining spots as Veil, Eva and The Rainier Club in Seattle, and interned at the internationally acclaimed The Fat Duck in England and WD-50 in Manhattan.

Fully trained as a line cook, Cree is a young woman with versatile skills. Her specialty is pastries and all things sweet. Presently, she prepares the delicious ice cream sundae toppings and seasonal fruit compotes for Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream Shop in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood.

And, she is a co-author of the very interesting Internet food blog Tasting Menu.

Remember her name. I’m sure it won’t be long before you’ll see her face on television or her name emblazoned in lights on the front of a restaurant where it’s difficult to get reservations.

The following is a sample of Cree’s recipes. I think you’ll enjoy them. For more of her recipes, visit www.tastingmenu.com.

The cherry pit ice cream has a delightful almond-like flavor.

ORANGE-RHUBARB COMPOTE AND CHERRY PIT ICE CREAM

PIE INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons butter

1 pound rhubarb

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons orange liqueur, such as Grand Marnier

zest of one orange

DIRECTIONS

Trim the rhubarb of the ends and split it lengthwise down the center. Cut across into one-quarter inch and one-half inch slices, leaving you with little cubes of rhubarb.

In a large bowl, toss the rhubarb with the sugar, orange liqueur and orange zest. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the sugar-coated rhubarb.

Cook, undisturbed, for about two minutes. When the rhubarb starts to release juices, gently stir.

Continue cooking the compote over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the juices are all released, then begin to thicken.

Cook about 10 to 15 minutes total, until the compote becomes thick and the rhubarb is tender.

Note: Many of the cubes will break down from cooking, but some of the larger ones will remain as little tender lumps, offering bursts of tart rhubarb flavor in your mouth and a pleasant texture on your tongue.

If you prefer, you can break all the rhubarb apart with aggressive stirring, using the spoon to break the rhubarb up. You might even puree it and pass it through a sieve if you want a smooth compote.

The less you stir, the more chunks you will leave intact.

ICE CREAM INGREDIENTS:

3 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

1 cup granulated sugar

6 egg yolks

Pits from 50 to 70 cherries

DIRECTIONS

Crack the pits open and extract the kernel inside. Discard the hard shell.

An easy way to do this is by folding them inside a dish towel and hitting them with a hammer or the bottom of a small, heavy pot.

In a food processor, pulse the sugar with the kernels until the kernels are ground to a fine texture. Alternately, chop them with a knife, then mix with the sugar.

In a medium saucepan with a heavy bottom, bring the cream and milk to a boil and stir in the cherry-pit sugar. Remove the cream from the heat and allow it to steep for an hour — longer, if you want a more intense flavor.

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer and reheat it.

Whisk one-third of the hot cherry-pit cream into the eggs. Return the mixture to the pot of cream, stirring with a heat-proof rubber spatula.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and reaches 170 degrees.

Immediately, chill over an ice bath. When the ice cream base is cooled, transfer to a storage container and refrigerate overnight, allowing the flavors to marry.

Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Reach David W. Cowles, the Fastest Chef in the West, at dwcowles-gateway@comcast.net.