Archive for Fruit recipe

08 Nov 2012
Appetizer • Fruit recipe • locavore log • Recipes

Deviled Eggs

 

Initially published in the Virginia Wine Gazette On-line…. but deviled eggs are always in season.

Bring out a platter of deviled eggs at a party and they disappear. They are the perfect party food: you can make them ahead and in quantity, they are easy and people cannot resist them – especially when made with eggs from pastured hens allowed to forage en plein air, eating grass and bugs: those yolks are bright, nutritious and taste like eggs should. Those shells are firm, making boiling a cinch.

Deviled eggs certainly leave room for plenty of variations:  you can make them as homey or as trendy as you care. In fact, I just heard of some made with curry powder and crushed pineapple. Are you still allowed to call them deviled if they aren’t spicy? I was told recently by a gentleman from Alabama that they simply call “dressed” where he comes from.

A few tricks that I use when making deviled eggs: Read more

sylvie | 2 comments | Tags:
04 Sep 2012
Fruit recipe • locavore log • Recipes • Snack

Fig Jam with Lemon & Sweet Wine

I have not made as much jam this year as last year – mostly because I still have lots of jam left from last year.

But when an offer to come over and pick ripe Brown Turkey figs came recently, I had no choice but make fig jam. The figs were really ripe and soft and were not going to keep.

Cut up and sugared figs, resting for the night

Figs are naturally very sweet, so I don’t use quite as much sugar as other jams. They are, however, one of the few fruits not acid enough to can using a boiling water-bath method without acidifying first (elderberries are another such). So I always use lots of lemon – and wine also adds some acidity.

So yes, it is sweet, but it still works quite nicely with cheese or cold meat.

But I am going to have to be careful: last year,  I made a lot  of fig jam. Or so I thought … so was handing jars left and right for the holidays… until I realized – way too late in January – that I had given them ALL away! I maybe fig-jam selfish this year!

Canned!

Fig Jam With Lemon & Sweet Wine Read more

sylvie | No comments | Tags: ,
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 | 7 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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sylvie | No comments | Tags: , ,
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: , , ,
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