I am devoting my Saturday and Sunday to the beach. The weather looks to be gorgeous and I know there will be precious few more days to bronze myself for the pale months to come. However, in order to avoid the crushing traffic I anticipate on Monday, I will stay closer to home, and closer to my kitchen (though my mother and I were promised a personal shopping experience at the greenmarket were we to show up on Monday).
I'm definitely going to make my belated attempt at daring bakitude, I need to jam my sugarplums, and I a friend's birthday is on Tuesday, so I think I'll be whipping something up (and just now as I wrote that the final idea presented itself - yippee!). But there are some things from this week's tagging that might also find their way into the agenda (I'm looking at you plum crumble).
Caramelized Tomatoes on Gnocchi - this looks like a great dinner I could even whip up on Sunday night or something. It will necessitate another trip to the market this afternoon to supplement my tomato stocks, but I like a good gnocchi as much as the next girl.
Grilled Merguez with Prune Chutney - I do have a lot of plums hanging around - I just wish the chutney would last longer. Do you think it would freeze? The merguez is a little more difficult to source as I've only ever found it at the market on Saturday, and I hate going to the market on Saturdays (especially when it interferes with waning beach time), so maybe I'll make the chutney, experiment with freezing it, and pick a rainy Saturday to find the sausage.
Plum Crumble - The man of the house is a big defender of crumble. It is the primary bargaining tool I have when looking up at him with my puppy dog eyes and suggesting a full day of apple picking. He's not the biggest of plum fans, but perhaps the crumble will sway him.
Apricot Chestnut Tart Tatin - I have halved and frozen the last of the Red Jacket apricots. I don't see how this recipe would suffer by using the frozen fruit and I'm always looking for something to do with my chestnut flour (when I'm not being overly ambitious and making chestnut fettuccine or something like that). If I do decide to use the frozen apricots, I can hold off on this recipe for a bit.
Strawberry Dessert Quartet - No recipes here, but it's gorgeous. I don't have a lot of interest in eating dinner at Jean Georges (I've heard from trusted sources that it could be better), but now I want to go for dessert and have this (it will somehow make all the times his people have beaten me to the market for strawberries seem, if not ok, then barely tolerable).
Showing posts with label Strawberries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strawberries. Show all posts
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Can This - Day 1
Refrigerator...so...crowded
Cannot...buy...more...things
An out of the ordinary Monday morning market trip (made in order to get greengage plums which were nowhere to be found, despite insider information to the contrary) convinced me that the time had come to do something with the sixteen tons of produce already taking up space in my fridge.
Completely unsuitable salad tongs in hand, I commenced an afternoon/evening of canning.
Step 1: Strawberry Preserves
Using the pectin that has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and the two overflowing pints of strawberries that can be classed as past their prime yet edible. I made my first ever jam. Obviously, if, in several months' time, you hear one of those cautionary reports on CNN "New Yorkers found dead of freak home canning botulism incident," you'll know I was unsuccessful. In the meantime, I'm keeping the dream alive.
Step 2: Roasted heirloom cherry tomatoes
Using nothing more than a brownie pan, olive oil, and sea salt, I transformed these perfectly edible tomatoes into a swirling mass of future bread topping.
Step 3: Find inner Martha
Some time ago Martha Stewart reminded us of how much fun it could be to make things at home and put labels on them. I scoffed at the time, and then found myself this evening, futzing with Photoshop to create something kicky to affix to my ball jars.
Step 4: Plan ahead
One may be stopping at the Container Store tomorrow to pick up additional glassware so that one might preserve ones really cool peppers, create apricot and peach preserves, and generally feel like a person for whom the thought of scalding hot water and food toxins is exhilarating.
Cannot...buy...more...things
An out of the ordinary Monday morning market trip (made in order to get greengage plums which were nowhere to be found, despite insider information to the contrary) convinced me that the time had come to do something with the sixteen tons of produce already taking up space in my fridge.
Completely unsuitable salad tongs in hand, I commenced an afternoon/evening of canning.
Step 1: Strawberry Preserves
Using the pectin that has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and the two overflowing pints of strawberries that can be classed as past their prime yet edible. I made my first ever jam. Obviously, if, in several months' time, you hear one of those cautionary reports on CNN "New Yorkers found dead of freak home canning botulism incident," you'll know I was unsuccessful. In the meantime, I'm keeping the dream alive.
Step 2: Roasted heirloom cherry tomatoes
Using nothing more than a brownie pan, olive oil, and sea salt, I transformed these perfectly edible tomatoes into a swirling mass of future bread topping.
Step 3: Find inner Martha
Some time ago Martha Stewart reminded us of how much fun it could be to make things at home and put labels on them. I scoffed at the time, and then found myself this evening, futzing with Photoshop to create something kicky to affix to my ball jars.
Step 4: Plan ahead
One may be stopping at the Container Store tomorrow to pick up additional glassware so that one might preserve ones really cool peppers, create apricot and peach preserves, and generally feel like a person for whom the thought of scalding hot water and food toxins is exhilarating.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
More carnage in the kitchen
I often lament that certain delicious things look like chunder when photographed, which is why there will be no picture of the apricot and strawberry clafoutis I threw together last night. Suffice it to say, it would be difficult for such a simple recipe, using such ripe sweet fruit, to produce an untasty result. The apricots overpowered the strawberries a little, but the bites in which both fruits were included were stupendous. I served it to myself with a scoop of the aforementioned apricot ice cream (which could be creamier actually - more fat next time to combat the liquidity of the pulped apricots) and to my more conservative partner in crime with a scoop of his preferred Philadelphia-style vanilla.
Please forgive the imprecision in the following recipe adapted from Julia Child's Cherry Clafoutis recipe (adaptation also responsible for non-metric measurements):
1/3 c. + 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 c. whole milk
3 large eggs
1 tsp. (or so) pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
12ish apricots
1 pint strawberries
butter for greasing the pan
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter your oven-safe pan (I used a loaf pan which is a mistake as the cooking time is greatly extended due to the depth of the pan, use something a little shallower). In a blender, or bowl, using a handheld blender, combine the flour, 1/3 c. sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla and salt until smooth and without lumps. Pour enough of the batter into the pan to have an even 1/4 inch on the bottom. Cook until a skin has formed.
Remove pan from oven and add the fruit (chopped into whatever you consider a bite-sized piece) sprinkling the 1/4 c. of sugar over it. Add the rest of the battr and return to the oven. In a shallow pan, check after 40 minutes, though expect to wait up to an hour. If using a loaf pan like me because you like leaving your oven running, expect to wait two hours and then pull it out before it's done anyway. The clafoutis is done when a knife comes out without dripping hot raw batter.
Please forgive the imprecision in the following recipe adapted from Julia Child's Cherry Clafoutis recipe (adaptation also responsible for non-metric measurements):
1/3 c. + 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 c. whole milk
3 large eggs
1 tsp. (or so) pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
12ish apricots
1 pint strawberries
butter for greasing the pan
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter your oven-safe pan (I used a loaf pan which is a mistake as the cooking time is greatly extended due to the depth of the pan, use something a little shallower). In a blender, or bowl, using a handheld blender, combine the flour, 1/3 c. sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla and salt until smooth and without lumps. Pour enough of the batter into the pan to have an even 1/4 inch on the bottom. Cook until a skin has formed.
Remove pan from oven and add the fruit (chopped into whatever you consider a bite-sized piece) sprinkling the 1/4 c. of sugar over it. Add the rest of the battr and return to the oven. In a shallow pan, check after 40 minutes, though expect to wait up to an hour. If using a loaf pan like me because you like leaving your oven running, expect to wait two hours and then pull it out before it's done anyway. The clafoutis is done when a knife comes out without dripping hot raw batter.
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