Archive for Fruit recipe

05 Jan 2012
Fruit recipe • Recipes • Snack

The Eighth & Ninth Days of Christmas (Meyer Lemon Marmalade)

Still working through my citrus boxes.

On the Eight Day, the Meyer lemons poached the previous night got squeezed, sliced, briefly simmered with sugar, and rested overnight again. It’s important that the rind softens as much as possible or the marmalade will have an unpleasant texture..

Marmalade before its rest

On the Ninth Day, it get boiled, jarred and processed in a water bath for long-term shelf life. Voila, beautiful marmalade fit to rival traditional Seville orange marmalade (which I could not find.) Particularly good with Butter Cookies from Brittany. You know, if we are going to go sweet, we are going to go sweet! (but a little bit goes a long way – this is a potent marmalade)

Meyer Lemons, Meyer Lemon Marmalade & Brittany Butter Cookies

This recipe illustrates that you may can all year long, and in small quantities too!

Meyer Lemon Marmalade Read more

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30 Dec 2011
Fruit recipe • locavore log • Recipes • Side Dish

The Fourth and Fifth Days of Christmas (of Breads and Limes)

The Fourth Day of Christmas was mostly spent cooking dinner for a group of hungry hunters, out for a pheasant shoot. It is the second time I have cooked for that group. It’s always a good thing when a client wants you back!

On the menu:

Alsatian Tarte Flambée and hot gulf shrimps with a spicy sun-dry tomato sauce. I love making that Alsatian Tarte Flambée – it’s easy and it’s always a winner! How can it not be? Slow cooked onions; bacon; crème fraiche. For informal groups like this one, I make a big rectangular tart on a large rimmed cookie sheet or a large free-form pizza. For smaller plated dinner, I make small individual perfectly round tartelettes served with a mache or frisée salad.

Free-Form Alsatian Tarte Flambee

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sylvie | One comment | Tags: , ,
28 Dec 2011
Desserts • egg recipe • Fruit recipe • Recipes

The Third Day of Christmas

We make Meyer Lemon curd. Lots of it.

It takes less than 30 minutes to make a quart of it, and since it freezes beautifully, you may as well make a few quarts… provided you have eggs and lemons. And we do.

meyer lemon curd

Jars of Meyer lemon curd for the fridge and the freezer

 

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sylvie | 3 comments | Tags: , ,
27 Sep 2011
Desserts • fruit • Fruit recipe • Wild Food

More on Pawpaws

This post first appeared – with minor modifications and without pictures – as an article “In season now: our fascinating native pawpaw” in the September 22, 2011 issue of the Rappahannock News.

Pawpaw puree

My favorite banana custard involves no cooking whatsoever. No, it doesn’t involve opening a package of store-bought “custard” either. In fact, it requires a stroll along the creek with my nose up in late summer: I am looking for native wild pawpaws (Asimina triloba) that are ripening now and in early fall, sometimes as late as October – depending on the tree and its location. They aren’t showy, but they are easy to recognize: small understory trees with large vaguely-tropical-looking drooping leaves that turn a bright pure yellow in mid-fall. They grow mostly along bottomland creeks, forming ever expanding thickets, often at the edge of the woods. Read more

sylvie | 5 comments | Tags: ,
31 Aug 2011
Desserts • Fruit recipe • locavore log • Recipes

End of Summer Cake

Nectarine & Almond Cake cooling on the window sill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You only need to know a few cake formulas to be able to look smart in the kitchen. Because once you understand the recipe, you can tweak it ad infinitum to vary the result: change the fruit, change the flour, change the flavoring or spice, change the filling, change the icing, change the pan shape… and suddenly the three or four basic cake recipes that you can do (almost) in your sleep become 40 different desserts. That’s why I call them “formulas”.

Witness this recipe for Italian plum cake.

In the spring, use cherries or apricots. In summer, replace the plums with slices of yellow peaches or nectarine. Or slices of sauteed apples or roasted quince or pears in early fall. Or a mixture of fruit. In winter, use rehydrated dry fruit or halved bananas. I more and more use less refined flours like whole wheat or spelt – they accentuate the rustic aspect of the cake. I bet any flour would work! When using stone fruit like peach, I also like to add a little cornmeal (or corn flour) as well as a few nuts. Almonds are great but so are pine nuts if you have them or chopped pecans. Or whatever you’ve got! (or none if you don’t have any).

It’s not a sophisticated looking cake, like, oh say, a Reine de Saba, but is a satisfying not-too-filling dessert, moist, with a little crunch and lots of fruit – great for breakfast too. Best of all,  it’s an easy recipe to memorize, and by playing with it, it will look like you know 10 different recipes!

End of Summer Cake (with nectarine & almonds) Read more

sylvie | 2 comments | Tags: , ,
11 Aug 2011
Fruit recipe • locavore log

Peach Chutney

If you need one reason to can, peaches is it. Perfectly ripe and luscious peaches are as much a treat now as they are when I open a homemade can of peaches in the dark months (or next spring before the first seasonal fruit, strawberries, ripen in May).

They are not quite as perfect  as a fresh juicy fragrant peach now… but not far. Not far.  They will certainly taste better then almost any fruit you can buy in winter.  Canned peaches are in effect poached peaches and if you can them au naturel like I do, you can use them for all kinds of preparations: naked, with yogurt, in smoothies, tarts, on top of your morning pancakes or waffles, mashed for a quick chunky sauce, mixed with other canned or dry fruit for a winter fruit salad, or puree as a base for ice-cream or sorbet.

Nonetheless, we do have – ahem! – quite a few jars of peaches canned already. And faced with the end of a bushel of ripe peaches I did not really feel like  more “canning”. Call me lazy!  Pickles, jams and chutneys only require 10 minutes in a boiling water-bath, in my smaller canner too since I use 8-oz smaller jars. Why not another condiment? This seems to be the year when I am experimenting with sweet/sour as I have made fennel agrodolce, tomates aigres douces, peach mostarda, peach barbecue sauce, pickled peaches and peach chutney using a recipe from Christine Ferber in Leçons de Confitures. Christine’s Summer Chutney uses peaches, dry apricots and poppy seeds. It was very pleasant and encouraged me to play some more and try my hands at making chutney with what I had available at the moment in the house.

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25 Jul 2011
Desserts • Fruit recipe • locavore log • Recipes

Tequila Yellow Plum Sorbet

I am canning. Jamming. Pickling. Wining. Infusing. Freezing. Chutneying. Syruping. Cordialing. And otherwise having great fun in the kitchen. And the garden is calling most insistently: “Yo! When are you picking that corn? Have you checked the cabbage lately? The beans, the beeeeans…” and “It’s hot. I am thirsty. Where’s the water?” and always, always “Weeeeeedds!!!! Squash bugs!!!!! Mexican bean beetles!!!!”  So… I have not gone away… just busy in the garden and the kitchen.  Glad you asked!

Seriously, despite the most recent heat wave and lack of rain (a predictable complaint… since I so whine every July), it’s been a good harvest so far. And the harvest needs processing. We eat a lot of fresh veggies and fruit, but I also process a bit for the dark months. While a few of those recipes will follow in future post (pickled zucchini maybe? or Tomates Aigre-douces? or peaches pickled with basil and balsamic vinegar? or peach chutney?), I am posting a simple immediate-gratification dessert here – so that I have at least one post in July! Tequila Yellow Plum Sorbet! Just what’s needed when it’s 105 outside…. or after a canning session.

Tequila Yellow Plum Sorbet

  • Yellow Plums (never weighted them – all the leftovers from a peck that we’ve been munching on all the prior week), to yield 3 C puree
  • Mild honey, 2/3 to 3/4 C (depending how sweet the plums are)
  • Simple sugar syrup 3 T (as needed)
  • Tequila, a shot

Prick or slash the plums. Put them in a non-reactive heavy bottom pan with a little water so they don’t stick and cook on medium to low heat until they are very soft and have completely lost their shape (20 to 30 minutes; adjust the heat as needed). Let cool until you can comfortably handle, then squeeze the plums with your hands to clean the pits of flesh as much as possible. Discard the pits (ALL the pits!).

Puree the plums in the blender until very smooth.

While still warm: For each 3 cups of puree, add 2/3 C honey. Taste, as needed add the rest of the honey and the 3 T simple sugar syrup. Blend to mix completely. Let cool completely. Chill if you have the time.

Whisk in a shot of tequila. The larger the shot, the creamier and the boozier your sorbet. But don’t go overboard or you’ll have a slushy plum margarita. I would say no more than 1/4 cup (I used 2 tablespoons… more or less).

Process in your ice-cream maker, following manufacturer’s instruction.

Enjoy as is or with fat juicy blackberries and a few fragrant peach slices. If you aren’t driving anywhere, give the fruit another shot of tequila and a sprinkling of sugar and let marinate up to an hour at room temperature first.

aaaahhhhh…..

Locavore Log: yellow plums from Jenkins Orchard in Sperryville and our honey

 

 

 

sylvie | One comment | Tags: ,
18 Jun 2011
Desserts • Fruit recipe • locavore log • Recipes

Sour Cherry Cake

I’ve picked lots of cherries this year. How much exactly?  87 pounds to date both sweet & sour, over a few weeks in 3 different places. This past  Wednesday  morning I picked 40 pounds from about 7:45 AM until 10:00 AM on a hill top orchard: 20 pounds were mine to keep and 20 was the owner’s share. I love those “shared” deals!

Anyway, when you pick so much, you really cannot eat them all “as is” (no matter how many cherries you can eat at one sitting …. which when it is me, it not negligeable). You’ve got to process them. I have mentioned already the easiest recipe (Cherry Liqueur), and yes, I jam & freeze (and make ice-creams & sorbets. Of course!)

I spotted this recipe for Hungarian Sour Cherry Cake in Saveur Magazine last year, tried it, and after a few modifications (including the not inconsiderable change in cooking time), it’s now part of the dishes I make: it’s easy and adaptable and flavorful. I also make it with other fruit, especially blueberries. Read more

sylvie | 3 comments | Tags: , , ,
05 Jun 2011
Desserts • Fruit recipe • locavore log • Recipes

Fresh Strawberry and Ginger Rhubarb Tart

tart, strawberry & rhubarb 007

I don’t do pies. I just don’t. Maybe you have to grow up with pies and learn to make them with your mother or your grandmother…

Tarts, however, that’s another story. Maybe because they are easier to make than pies? I mean, you certainly can gussy up a tart, but as its most basic it’s fruit, a bit of sugar and one layer of pastry shell. The pastry can be an all-purpose short crust, a sweet short crust, or puff pastry. or whatever you can get together. The filling is nothing more than fresh seasonal fruit sprinklered with sugar and baked, or a slim layer of fruit jam or fruit compote baked and topped with fresh fruit. You could even use custard or creme patissière that can be flavored ad infinitum (That’s getting into gussying it up, by the way). The fruit can be cooked or uncooked. The dough can be prepared well ahead… You can even turn them upside down! How flexible is that? Read more

sylvie | One comment | Tags: , ,
26 May 2011
beverage • Fruit recipe • locavore log • Recipes

Strawberry Liqueur

liqueur-strawberry-2011-05-080

Time to make more strawberry liqueur! The 2009 batch is almost all gone – the liqueur gets a little darker as it ages.but retained its fragrance. It’s a nice drink to sip by the wood stove in winter or – slightly chilled – on the porch in summer, watching the fireflies.

The original entry was made in May 2009, the recipe is just repeated below

Homemade Lemon-Verbena Strawberry Liqueur.

  • 4 cups, washed, hulled and quartered strawberries, any bad spot removed
  • 3 cups vodka *
  • a 1/2 cup of fresh lemon verbena leaves, loosely packed
  • 1 heaping cup sugar

In a large lidded glass jar, combine all 4 ingredients. Stir well. Cap. Stir daily for 2 weeks until the sugar is fully dissolved. Then place in a cool dark place for 6 weeks and let age. Strain strawberries through a clean butter muslin cloth. Let drip for several hours. Discard solids. Repeat straining to have liquid as limpid as possible. Bottle. The cloudy part of the liqueur may settle. Decant into new containers. The cloudy part is fine to cook or drink – it’s just not as pretty.

* Note: in those states that allow the sale of pure grain alcohol (180 – or so – proof), you may replace the 3 cups of vodka with 1.5 cup of grain alcohol. After aging and straining the liquid, add 1.5 cup distilled or unchlorinated well water.

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