gina depalma would’ve been proud of my rendition. especially after my last fiasco. and mario batali would have happily served this at babbo with a scoop of their mascarpone gelato…

this cake was decided upon for a few reasons. but mainly it was the result of a "compromise". you see, the 13 year old, wanted chocolate. as in cake. or brownies. or perhaps a carrot cake. with cream cheese icing. and well, i didn’t. i wanted to make a galette. something rustic and simple with maybe some of the beautiful nectarines i’ve been seeing around. but she, the 13 year old, was so not interested. she was all like, "no thanks". so i seized the moment, approaching it as a learning opportunity and explained to her that seasonal mattered to me and that we could compromise. and when she looked at me quizically, i explained that a compromise basically would mean that neither one of us would get what we wanted… and she was all like "whatever", and went to watch the 12th season of the simpsons, now available on dvd.

and then while flipping through a few books i saw this. and it felt right. a perfect summer into fall cake. the tail end of the almost never ending zucchini, the brightness of lemon, along with the depth of toasted walnuts, cinnamon, ginger and clove – and olive oil – the clincher. i’m a big fan of cakes made with olive oil. the concept unleashes my inner italian-ness.

so i got right to it. and after the batter was prepared i called the 13 year old into the kitchen to lick the paddle, warning her it wouldn’t be your typical cakey/buttery/smooth batter – and she gave me the thumbs up. a good sign. but then i found myself looking down at the bowl and thinking, "there’s no way that this cake is going to set up", because the mixture appeared oddly thin. and yet through the nagic of HEAT, somehow after 45 minutes or so in the convection oven – suddenly i had perfection. and it was exactly as it should have been. and believe me when i tell you that no one is ever more surprised than i am when the cake turns out smashing… because the whole baking process ‘thing’ is always questionable around here. i’m not much of a baker, but i often bake very good things. and you know why? BECAUSE I CAREFULLY FOLLOW THE RECIPE. i know. imagine that…

but we’re talking bundt cake. and the glaze was nothing more than fresh lemon squeezed into sugar and whisked with a fork. so sure, this was easy as can be. but the final result was truly great. and the undeniable reason is merely the list of ingredients… thanks gina…

zucchini olive oil cake with lemon crunch glaze

dolce italiano – desserts from the babbo kitchen
by gina depalma

1 cup walnut pieces
2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 teasppon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teasppons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup GOOD extra virgin olive oil (i’m liking the ‘murray’s cheese’ oil a lot these days)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)

for the glaze

1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup confectioners sugar

preheat oven to 350 and position rack in the center.grease a bundt pan and then flour and tap out excess. you can also use that bakers spray that i always forget to buy.

place walnuts in a single layer and toast until golden brown and aromatic, 12-14 minutes. cool completely and finely chop in the food processor and set aside.

sift the flour baking soda, baking powder and salt and spices into a medium bowl. in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (have you seen these?), beat the eggs, sugar and olive oil until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, then beat in the vanilla. scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition (unless you have one of these). beat in the dry ingredients all at once until thoroughly combined, then switch to medium and beat 30 seconds. beat in the zucchini and walnuts on low speed until completely incorporated.

pour the batter into the pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time to ensure even browning. the cake is done when a tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the sides have begun to pull away from the pan.

when the cake is baking, prepare the glaze: in a medium bowl whisk together the lemon juice and granualted sugar, then whisk in the confectioner’s sugar until the glaze is completely smooth.

allow the cake to cool in the oan for 10 minutes then carefully invert onto a wire rack. using a pastry brush, immediately brush the glaze over the entire surface of the warm cake, using all of the glaze. it will adhere to the cake and set as the cake cools. allow the cake to cool completely and the glaze to dry completely.

transfer the cake to a stand or serving plate and if desired lightly dust with confectioners’ sugar. any leftover cake may be wrapped in plastic and served the following day.

oh and hey, i garnished with some chopped up basil. i had some and well, i must tell you that the addition of fresh herbs to olive oil cakes? a natural…

a sampling of some fresh picked wine berries, huckleberries and wild blackberries – a gift from my friend jack on my birthday last month

it’s not that i’m not cooking. because i am. there are gatherings of friends and just plain hungriness resulting in well, dinner. i even sometimes whip out the nikon and snap a few lame shots but these days not so much. and i’m not sure what’s come over me. but just the thought of posting on ceF was beginning to feel like ‘work’ and god only knows we wouldn’t want that to happen to a nice woman like me… after all, my lack of ambition is my greatest luxury. (i stole that line from my friend emily and have been using it ad nauseum but only because it is SO TRUE.)

but we’ve been to chicago and then i went to cleveland. dallas is this week and seattle comes next. i’m doing the 4 day cooking gig again come the first of october and then i’m off to nyc…  and all i want is to go back to italy. is that asking so much? IS IT? but honestly, i’m not complaining. it’s a charmed life. the past week or so has pretty much revolved around trips to the park in much appreciated cooler than normal temps, so after a 9 week hiatus i’m back on the bike and fighting the fat (albeit somewhat of a losing battle).

but mostly – if i could just say, i’m so deeply grateful for this amazing life that i get to live that i could cry. for those of you that read the sunday ny times magazine section yesterday, we are the fortunate ones…

ok – back to food…

presenting… a summer dinner. grilled corn with flaky maldon salt and a squeeze of lime. grilled tomatoes with thyme and a farro salad with a slightly overcooked poached egg on top. i’ve got just a vague recollection of what was in the farro salad but i’m thinking it was pequillo peppers and goat cheese – and something else but remembering is difficult…

best beans ever. rancho gordo cannellini’s with grape tomatoes, basil, thyme, lemon zest and juice, some potlikker, finely minced anchovy, a very good olive oil, salt and pepper. i think that was it but i’ve no idea because i can’t recall a damn thing.

lamb meatballs with a cherry sauce over whole wheat couscous finished with mint leaves. a lot of ingredients went into that sauce until it was nicely balanced and pretty damn impressive tasting. but i’m not sure exactly what i did – because of my memory…

all cary ever really wants for his birthday are two (2) angel food cakes with his grandmother’s ’7 minute boiled icing’. the icing becomes slightly hard on the outside and then yields to a slightly marshmallow like goo on the inside. ruhlman’s angel food cake from his bestseller ‘ratio‘, takes this cake to where it needs to go – from spongy and boring to totally delicious. in my opinion it’s all in the weighing of the flour and then using both lemon juice and vanilla. for your viewing pleasure i give you 4 pictures as they were all so awful i just couldn’t choose… this is the whitest cake in america and despite the absence of any fats and the overabundance of sugar, somehow it just works.

my icing technique is legendary. obviously.

moving on…

i phone pics before i bought the 3Gs. but this is the wonderful donnie madia pictured at his flagship restaurant blackbird. for my money, he and eduard seitan are the best restaurateurs in chicago with blackbird, avec, the publican and the newest addition, a tacqueria opening very soon. donnie’s attention to every detail is second to none with a modern sensibility that slays me, as i am highly susceptible to such things. with executive chef and partner paul kahan at the helm of the kitchen, it continues to be a recipe for greatness. we were in chicago for only 4 nights and ate at avec, then publican and then blackbird – finishing up with an anniversary dinner at tru, a gift from my mother. and for a whopping $425 that included only one glass of wine, it paled in comparison by such a long shot that i can’t even begin to explain the differences in the food except to say that in the end, blackbird kicked tru’s ass – big time. tru is supremely elegant and the room is lovely. it’s quiet and serious and the servers are ON IT. but dinner at blackbird was once again phenomenal. oh AND best negroni ever – hands down.

so, a few things… and please again – forgive the poor photo quality.

salad of endives with crispy potatoes, basil, dijon, pancetta and poached egg = sheer perfection. not kidding. this salad was incredible in every way.

chilled cuttlefish noodles with green garlic, red onion jam, trout caviar, nasturtiums and buttermilk = amazingness. i loved it.

wood-grilled california sturgeon with english peas, braised peanuts, crispy bacon and bourbon caramel = seriously impressive.

cary had the organic pork belly and crispy sweet shrimp with chinese broccoli, preserved green tomato and black pepper. he started with the pistachio gazpacho with ahi, watermelon confit, sea beans and cocoa. both were smashing.

this was my idea. sorry.

desserts were wonderful. donnie brought us three and each one was greatness. ricotta fritters with compari, rhubarb and pine nut ice cream, pistachio panna cotta with a raspberry consommé and brown butter ice cream and a torn black sesame cake with pineapple that looked a little something like this that was  – out. of. this. world…

avec, a bit more down to earth, is my favorite restaurant in all the land. and at the publican, albeit a bit on the loud side, we had an abundance of seriously excellent food. beer, oysters, fish and pork. just splendid.

chicago is such an extraordinary food town… thank you donnie.

south west of chicago. mies van der rohe’s masterpiece – the farnsworth house. i wept in its presence. it is genius if not impractical.

no tinkering with picassa was going to help this photo taken through the door of my oven. it was shredded zucchini and yellow squash with minced garlic, chiles and ricotta. i stole the idea from city house restaurant here in nashville. their’s was far better and i’m going to work on this because it was frustrating that i couldn’t replicate it. i need to call chef tandy wilson and ask for help. plus my chiles were so strong that they almost hurt. so, fail, although not in an epic way…

the project – buy 20 lbs of balaton cherries from earthy.com and use 10 to make some cherry bourbon hooch. i’ll get back to you in 6 weeks on how it turns out and if you’re on the short list, it’s what’s for christmas, so no surprises here. the other 10 lbs. became a salted cherry vanilla bean balsamic compote.

oh, and jack’s arm after blackberry picking. the things friends do for friends…

when you make something that has only 4 ingredients, that all get crushed together, with no heat applied whatsoever, what can possibly make your dish stand apart?

using pesto in your cooking, if only on occasion – is pretty much obligatory. it’s a flavor bomb. a crowd pleaser. pesto works on nearly everything one might imagine. we all like it. we all make it.

and i am here to tell you why mine is better…

1. olive oil – use ligurian. why? ligurian olive oil is not looking to overpower. it is light and fruity, unlike the more powerful tuscan and sicilian oils – and if you use a stronger, heavier, spicier oil, it’ll kill the flavor of your pesto. better to buy the light bertolli from your supermarket that tastes neutral. come to think of it, a spanish oil might work well here due to the gentler, buttery nature of those olives. regardless – think light. or just pick up some ligurian oil.

2. basil – fresh from the garden, picked minutes before using and soaked in water for a few minutes – otherwise it is too strong.

3. pine nuts – mediterranean. not chinese. these are long and slender. not the squat triangular version. they are lower in fat and higher in flavor. and they’re hard to find. and wildly expensive. but then, you’ve come to expect this of me…

4. cheese – i use mostly parmigiano, sometimes mixed with a little pecorino

this time around, i didn’t use a mortar and pestle, but i wish i had, if only to get the creamier texture. and i added some garlic – although not too much – that this saturday when i make it again, i won’t. and the pasta, the shape is called casareccia – a curving twisted tube that holds the pesto beautifully. although it’s a stellar italian dried pasta, this will be replaced with freshly home-rolled thin sheets made with a blend of ap flour, 00 flour, seriously farm fresh eggs and white wine.

the black tomatoes bought at my local farmers market the day before, were roughly chopped and thrown in raw, right on top. the pesto was thinned with some of the hot pasta water and then it all got tossed together. i regret not taking an ‘after’ shot. this dish is my kind of rustic, beautiful food.

all in all it was a perfect lunch on a sunday summer afternoon, accompanied by a wonderful bastianich rosé.

but this coming saturday night’s pesto? it might just kick this one’s proverbial ass.

stay tuned…

(the perfect pesto) <— for your viewing pleasure

ok. this was good. as in very good. as in i won’t go all yoplait ad on you, but this was another definite do-over. and the sooner the better.

i take very little credit as this plate of pasta was nothing more than a blend of: the latest post from rachel eats‘ blog, along with the addition of some murray’s cheese mail-ordered burrata. i’ve since found out – and to my surprise, that trader joe’s carries "burrata", but my obvious thoughts on that were although it’d most likely do in a pinch, there’s no way it could be even close to the same quality as these delicate cream filled mozzarella balls made in italy on monday, and at my door on wednesday…

because you deserve a closer look…

it’s hot as hell in nashville. we’re on day 10 of 90+ degrees with the usual humidity issue, and well, cooking is only so appealing. the ovens are off limits but i will boil a pot of water and saute some onions – and happily.

but here’s what i won’t do. although i preach high quality ingredients and authentic preparation, here’s another ceF ruling to go along with the whole ”i don’t do pastry crusts" thing. so now you can just go on ahead and add to that – "i don’t slip the skins off tomatoes". because honestly, it just seems SILLY. yet despite this blatant admission, i still struggle with the fact (if only ever so slightly) that this conscious oversight would be sneered upon by better cooks than me. i mean the italian nonas do things for GOOD REASON. but then i quickly rationalize the whole thing – i honestly don’t think it changes the experience. and i’m at peace with tomato skins – though i have succumbed to certain other kitchen practices such as always trussing my chickens.

adding to the list of ‘do’s', i also have claimed the red onion as my personal onion of choice for nearly all cooking purposes. i just like them better. and they look beautiful on my counter.

an important component of this dish is that you barely cook the tomatoes. for the record, mine were not home grown, as those are not quite yet available in nashville, but joyously coming soon. still, what i’d picked up at TJ’s were juicy and tomatoey. i used a fair amount of chopped basil from my herb pots, adding it the same time i added the chopped tomatoes to my pan of slowly sauteed onions, thinly sliced into half moons. you salt, you pepper and you’re done in 15 minutes. if that.

and then i strayed away from the recipe because I AM A REBEL and cut a creamy burrata ball in half and plopped it on top along with some more fresh basil. it’s a perfect dish. it just is. even with the aforementioned skins still thinly present…

but by far, the best part of dinner was the company. we had new friends over – emily and kevin. they brought extra tomatoes (in case), bread (i had none), wine (2 bottles of pino grigio) and a glazed lemon almond poppyseed cake that was quite good and tangy. and while we all sat there happily digging in to our respective slices, emily took her first bite and i watched as she sat there wrestling the flavors and consistency in her brain, thinking out loud about all of the things she perhaps could have done for it to have been better – and how she could improve upon it the next time.

and i thought to myself, i’m going to love this chick…

update  – with 3 reports now in on trader joe’s burrata, i am strongly recommending that you stay far away. my good friend heidi robb who i trust implicitly says, "Take a big hearty PASS. Their Mandara buffalo mozzarella is more burrata like than this insipid stuff."

the flan was created due to sheer necessity. i had read a post over at ‘the pie lady’ and could NOT get it off my mind. like at all. like i really tried. yet it haunted me. even taunted me, until i could no longer resist the urge. but brittany’s recipe called for the wonderful and bitter seville oranges – and in nashville, that’s a tall order. but i did find a really good looking bag of organic tangelos and well, that was going to have to do.

flan is one of my favorite things. really, it’s just my obsession with all things custardy. but at least flan is just milk, sugar and eggs. there’s no cream or butter to feel all that awful guilt about. yet let me be the one to tell you that these babies still weighed in at about 500 calories a piece, easy. but in their defense, they were pretty big and therefore perfect for sharing. which is what i did. i shared. all 5 of them. yes, i got to share 5 WHOLE TIMES in just 48 hours. doesn’t that show my willingness to be abundantly generous? i freakin’ shared my flan in the name of kindness and calories. 5x. please don’t do the math. i am well aware…

so there were tons of eggs and yolks and milk and sugar and 2 vanilla beans along with the grated rind of my tangelos. and i followed the recipe and well, talk about FRETting. i was getting nervous because i couldn’t get the flan to set. so i switched to convection, upped the heat a bit and within no time flat – they were dreamy.

that right there? 2500 calories. not including the tangelos. and then? divide by 2. because i shared.

i am telling you… so damn good…

but you’re probably wondering why i bruleed my flan. which really, is a very fair thing to wonder… and honestly, it just happened. it wasn’t planned or well thought out. no dear readers, it was off the cuff and original – even spontaneous. and perhaps i also veered partially because although brittany’s flan was my inspiration for this delightful confection – i didn’t want to totally rip off a professional pastry chef who could then turn around and sue me.

unlikely? i’d say so… BUT STILL.

when the flans were unmolded there was still a fair amount of hardened caramel in the ramekins. so i popped that in the microwave for about 40 seconds until it became a viscous molten substance and quickly poured it over the flan. hot sugar really is a wonder.

and i kinda felt like i was onto something…

(grace – totally not FRETing…)

since i believe in the law of averages, and my last post was a novella (bless those of you that read…), i give to you the grilled peach in 100 words.

i sat these georgia beauties cut side down in some olive oil and then sprinkled them with a good flakey salt. after a trip to the grill, my peaches were dressed with creme fraiche, tasmanian honey and some pan toasted almonds.  because it’s what was here. 

it seems like all the cool people are using mascarpone and pistachios.  but let me tell you, this was truly not shabby. 

at all.

(inspired by proud italian cook)

              

my rss feeder broke.  and i didn’t realize it for 3 months.  mostly because i (still) don’t even understand what exactly an rss feeder is, or what it does – talk about being oh so techno savvy… but my stat’s were dropping off and well, try as i might to just ignore the cold hard numbers, i started to take it personally.  was it something i said?  something i cooked?  where did so many of my bleaders go and why would they leave me after all we have meant to each other? 

but before i called my therapist, i called mark from simpler computing! and he quickly came to my rescue – again.  thank you mark.  you solved the mystery and now once again you are so totally my blero. 

so listen up – all you techno losers out there that just like to cook and write and take a little photo here and there, but do not want to bother your pretty little heads with html and templates and embedding and wordpress editors that suck and the like, call mark.  today.  he can tweak your blog into submission.  AND he likes to cook… (btw – ceF is still under construction as i type so please bear with…)

speaking of liking to cook… here’s the deal.  i cook a lot.  but sometimes it’s just dinner.  and sometimes it’s not my idea of a blog worthy post.  and usually it’s just that i’m too lazy to write.  but it’s totally me, not you.  you, i adore.  you make my life better, adding an entirely new fangled dimension that did not exist just 16 months ago. but still, i am often unmotivated, or perhaps even more often than that, i’m just reading OPB’s…

so what happens is that some of these dishes fall by the blogosphere’s wayside.  but i thought since we were dealing with feeds and feeding, i’d show you what gets fed around here to my immediate world.  so i’m going to hit you with a fair few of what i’ve not bothered to bother you with until now, along with some pictures. take a deep breath – here goes…

look familiar?  this one was made with the half and half, as per ripert’s recipe.  was it better?  yes.  did i LOVE it?  not so much.  it’s ok.  kinda brunchy, not desserty.  i like custard.  life is good.  and eric, you’re totally cool and sexy and hot and all those things.  but my tony still has you beat, big time. i hope you can understand…

ok so i realize i am blogger #4721 to make jim lahey’s no knead bread.  but i did it.  quietly.  and it was a good and crusty loaf of bread that if nothing else looked very, very impressive. 

i baked it in my romertopf that i dug out and dusted off.  although it stays unused and because it looks so beautiful – i keep it.  i’m sure you understand such things.  so, i soaked the terracotta in water and then baked the bread as per the direction for a dutch oven.  i felt my dutch oven was too big and i didn’t want a 2" high bread.  somehow, this worked out quite nicely.  so take a chance, dear readers – bake no knead bread.  oh, and have i made this again since?  nope.  will i?  maybe, probably not.

this was made quite awhile ago.  it was panko encrusted chicken livers served over what i think was swiss chard and finely sliced ‘delightful tiny purple potatoes’ and shallots sautéed with pimm’s and port.  what?  you think they may not have been tiny and delightful?  you are sooooo wrong….

i present to you… delightful. tiny. purple. potatoes.  i only wish i could have been in the room when the marketing team thought of that.  can you imagine what the discussion would have sounded like?  i only know they were republicans with bad haircuts.  after that, i know nothing.

so now you ask, what the hell is that?  that, my dear readers is a watermelon salad with mint leaves, chili oil and feta – topped with a very anti-locavore piece of barramundi from costco via australia.  in a previous life i lived down under (husband #1) and ate this fish regularly.  perhaps i didn’t need to sit the barramundi on top of the watermelon, but it seemed like a good idea at the time… and it was our dinner that night and we were happy enough.  so stop smirking.  thank you.

i made this last weekend and it was good and rich and saucy and chicken thighey – all that with trofie pasta thrown in for very good measure.  it’s what patricia wells eats when she’s at home in provence, a recipe that i picked up from feeding groom.  oh and it’s got sherry vinegar and garlic cloves and dijon mustard and lots of tarragon and minced sundried tomatoes… it’s more wintry than it is septembery in nashville, but i had 4 chicken thighs in the freezer and suddenly this just happened…

ok are you ready to hear what this was supposed to be?  what it almost was… what i wished it might have been and what it could be if i ever decide to take it on again?  salted butterscotch pudding with chocolate covered bacon.  thank you and goodnight.  the end.  by claudia. 

except it never really thickened properly.  and benton’s bacon is crazy salty.  so salty that i forgot just how salty it was therefore making it an out and out wrong bacon choice.  because it seems that is actually possible.  to make a wrong bacon choice.  you’d think not, but what this dessert needed was a thin cut good bacon that crisps up in a curly, artsy strip, and only then could it be dipped into lindt chocolate and put into a pudding recipe that WORKS.  because this recipe did not.  and another blogger tried it and it didn’t work for her either.  so. oh well,  we all drank our pudding and chucked the wayyy too salty pork.  seemed sinful but we got over it.  we lived and learned, moving onwards and upwards – with the comforting knowledge that bacon rarely ever lets you down…

so not even a little pretty.  AND the wrong color bowl.  but it was just a simple dinner of fresh crowder peas with bacon.  the bacon did just as it should, redeeming itself from the previous mishap.  there was something else served with this but really, i have no idea… i think it was grilled tilapia.  unexciting, quick and easy and not exactly memorable – but hey, not every night can be foie gras…

OK – EVERYBODY STAND UP AND STRETCH.  NO REALLY.  BECAUSE I AM NOT DONE.  BATHROOM BREAK?  GO ON.  I’LL WAIT….

oh, hi, you’re back.  wonderful, because i was worried… ok, just a few more…

this was lazzaroli’s sweet potato and ricotta ravioli.  i dressed it up with a side of kale, done in a sauce of olive oil, cream, honey and sage, and then dusted the pasta with nutmeg and parmegiano.  again – super fast and easy.  (tommy noodles, you are a nashville godsend… thank you for giving me an option that is first rate and still allows me to get creative.)

yes, i too jumped on the bandwagon thanks to michelle from thursday night smackdown and all the rest of you that grilled the hell outa a bunch of pizzas…  except michelle was the one who took my call on a saturday night so i could get very specific information about the whole pizza grilling process.  this particular pizza was taken from her post and it was damn fine.  i cooked down some swiss chard in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and used copious amounts of minced garlic and ricotta.  i also sliced up a big ripe yellow tomato with red stripes running through it (we will miss you beautiful heirloom tomatoes),

awesomeness, no?  well yes – but… from here on in i’ll stick to the pizza stone with my oven set to broil and 550f… because grilled pizza is too damn white on top.  and flipping it before the toppings go on doesn’t allow the cheese and sauce to bake into the dough and well, my grill runs hot (it’s infrared) so even on the lowest setting it never got the top brown and i kept having to turn the flame on and off so as not to scorch the bottom and was nervously moving it to the top rack and well, i like my pizza stone in my oven.  so if i had a real charcoal grill which i don’t and do not plan on getting because it’s too much work and i am not willing (go on – think of me what you will but there are extenuating circumstances… like a boyfriend who is also happy with oven baked pizza’s), maybe that would be better.  but as it stands, and i repeat – i am a pizza in the oven kinda gal – set to broil on super high heat with the stone on the very bottom rack.  but i made the obligatory grilled pizza.  yes i did.

i present to you… voodoo mac and cheese

do you read gild the (voodoo)lily?  if not, you need to read gild the (voodoo)lily…  heather is very smart and very funny and this bitch can cook.  and i mean that in a good way.  heather is another one of those foodcentric people that seriously knows how to put ingredients together.  like if you turned your pantry over to her, she’d blow your mind.  and you’d be thinking all, why didn’t i think of that?… and the answer is because she KNOWS MORE THAN YOU DO.  plus she’s a botanist.  a freakin’ botanist... so she’s always growing and foraging and well, it’s a little bit intimidating.  heather could totally kick your ass and never even touch you…

anyway, back in july she made something called garden mac.  for her it was merely a ‘clean your fridge out’ kinda dinner, and i’m thinking – mac and cheese with roasted tomatoes in a bechamel base?  sign me the hell up. 

the ingredients i used were as follows; mostaccioli pasta, the 4 cheeses were – asiago, parmigiano reggiano, st jerome and fontal.  and for the garden part – fresh thyme and heirloom tomatoes, kale, onion, squash and zucchini.  i drove all the ingredients about an hour south, down to my friend shannon’s house and we spent the day cooking and drinking wine and talking and laughing and then we sat out on the porch overlooking her farm and had a late lunch…

and for the grand finale i give to you an extremely abbreviated version of my veal stock mission…

bones arrive from snook’s.  i tried for weeks to find a local source.  nada.

20 lbs.

because i am awesome…

i made brown and white stock.  i followed the ruhlman way.  it is the only way. (great version here)

otherwise when you die, you go to culinary hell where you are forced to live on nothing but shoney’s buffets. (please click on the shoney’s link.  there are no words…)

and hey, thanks so much for reading.  i realize this post was a commitment. 

you can go now…

it’s called galaktoboureko, and the moment i laid my eyes on this post from peter at kalofagas, the recipe went directly onto the short list.  because this is what i dream of. not fame, nor fortune, but a big, thick wad of not overly rich, smooth and creamy custard.  and no one pulls this off like the greeks.  and from the sound of it, peter is about as greek as a man can get.

so i ventured off into the esoteric world of one worded six syllable desserts.  and it was all good, except for this one thing.  and let me sum it up for you in two words.

phuck phyllo.

because i gotta say, the whole phyllo aspect of this dish was not pretty.  we wrestled.  we wrangled.  and then i resorted to swearing at the pastry.  i mean, did you hear that?  i swore at store bought pastry.  repeatedly.  how phuking ridiculous is that?

now, i can totally understand hating ‘from scratch’ pastry – my #1 culinary nemesis.  because ‘from scratch’ pastry is beyond hateable.  even if you get it to look right, it’s NEVER flakey and delicious.  ever.  i see all you food bloggers at thanksgiving making pie after pie with your helpful hint after hint.  but i’m bold enough to say, i’m not buying it.  i happen to know that truly excellent pastry skills soley relies on the baker having a rare and defomed dna gene.  

so anyway,  this should have gone smoothly and did not, and is therefore the perfect example of why i should never touch pastry of any kind.  and yes, i bought the best i could find.  and yes i let it thaw properly.  but it stuck togther in spots and broke to pieces in others.  and i was not having any fun.  not even a little.  and just for yucks, you really should have seen my kitchen floor.  it looked like a ticker tape parade had just come through. 

but i will say two things about it all.  first and foremost – in the end, i was victorious.  and secondly - raw phyllo with butter shmeared all over it is strangely delicious…

it looked so promising… as though this would be a pastry walk in the park… but nooooo…

the custard – cooling off while hurting no one’s feelings, unlike the phyllo

Galaktoboureko (γαλακτομπο?ρεκο)
recipe from kalofagas

the only minor change i made was to add salt to the syrup and i also added some orange blossom water because it was right in front of me and in that moment i figured it would add that certain je ne sais quoi (which i wish i could say in greek but the only greek i speak is menu - and the word opa!).  if i were to make this again, which is tempting i would definitely add both those ingredients to the syrup.  that’s how good i am at this. but besides that, i changed nothing.  it’s a great recipe.  thanks peter.  oh, and phuck phyllo.  amen.

7 eggs, room temp.
10 cups of whole milk (room temp.)
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of fine semolina flour
1 heaping Tbsp. of butter
zest of 1 lemon
1 package of commercial phyllo
2 sticks of melted butter (for brushing)
14" X 11" Corningware baking dish

Syrup
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
juice & zest of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tspn of salt
2 Tbls of orange blossom water (optional)

Place a large pot over medium-high heat and add your eggs, sugar and semolina and mix constantly over medium heat until incorporated.

Add the milk, zest and butter and now continue to mix using a potato masher until your custard is slightly thick, yet not runny. Place a tea towel between the pot of custard and the pot’s lid, cover and reserve (off the heat).

Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Butter the baking dish. Count how many sheets you have in your package of phyllo and divide in half. One half will go on the bottom, the second half will go on top.

In the bottom of the pan, layer your one half of phyllo, leaving the edges hanging over the sides of the pan. Brush each sheet generously with the melted butter. Pour the custard mixture over the bottom phyllo layers.

Fold the excess phyllo over and into the pan and evenly distribute the remaining sheets of phyllo to entirely cover the custard. Again, ensure that each sheet is brished generously with butter.

With a very sharp knife, score the phyllo (just penetrating) to make your desired size and shapes of your Galaktoboureko pieces (this makes it easier to cut later and this will also allow the syrup to penetrate the pie better.

Bake in the middle rack for 35-40 minutes or until the top is nice and golden-brown. Allow the Galaktoboureko to cool to room temperature.

To make your syrup, add the sugar, water, juice, salt and zest and bring to a boil and count 10 minutes for your syrup to develop.  stir in orange blossom water.

Using a ladle, pour your syrup over the Galaktoboureko (1 ladle at a time) until your syrup has been absorbed.

Carefully complete the slicing of your pieces (tracing your initial cuts), allow to cool for approx. 1 hour and refrigerate uncovered over night to set. Serve cold or room temperature.

photogenic little number

the only catch was, i made the galaktabouriko that day – for that night.  i neglected to read the directions to the end, as in "refridgerate uncovered overnight".  oops.  it stayed pretty hot right out of the oven (this pan weighs a ton as it’s loaded with custard) but finally at 5:30 after cooling for about an hour or so, i threw it in the refrigerator, despite my fears of every meat and dairy product i owned spoiling, and by 9 pm when i cut into it, it was pretty firm and held together nicely,  but yes, it was better the next day.  and the next day.  and even the next.  it makes 16 large pieces.  and i never got tired of it. 

and suddenly while looking at this photo, i am desperately longing for more γαλακτομπο?ρεκο…

there are times when the mere thought of whipping up a dinner is just more than i can bear.  and although you may have guessed this about me, the act of cooking  – just being in my kitchen and creating something delicious – is in my world, one of life’s most wondrous pleasures. 

but still…

instead of a full blown production including a trip to ‘whole foods’, there are those times that dinner begins with a simple charcuterie plate. these days it’s mostly all about d’artganan’s saucisson sec and duck prosciutto. but i’ve also become somewhat enamored  with this smoked liverwurst - and with an exceptional cheese or two and some white truffle honey - coupled with the latest greatest cracker find, what more could you ever ask for?  oh, except these crazy olives that i somehow fell upon last year… i urge you to try them.  they are meaty and addictive and most definitely unique

or maybe instead,  a bowl of some interesting artisan pasta with some amazing olive oil and the best parmegiano you can lay your hands upon, grated liberally with perhaps an anchovy or two thrown in with some very finely minced garlic.  or that same pasta with a tin of really amazing smoked piquillo peppers stuffed with tuna, the can thrown into the boiling pasta water to heat.  i’d happily take either of these alongside my favorite salad of romaine, arugula, walnut oil and – well, the best salt that you can lay your hands upon…  it’s all about the pantry, people.  it’s the power of the pantry.

i look forward to these simple dinners more than you might expect.  they are borne of the immediate options at hand, with the added bonus of a light cleanup, all the more reason that they most definitely have their place within a life that is sometimes a bit too busy, sometimes a bit too lazy – often numbering a few times a week around here. 

but, quite honestly, another aspect that motivates me is that i’m perpetually curious about what extraordinary products exist in the universe.  and it can be overwhelming.  so much great food, so little time… the grocery bill goes relentlessly over budget, guiltlessly spilling into the restaurant allowance.  as it should…

recently we had a pantry dinner and afterwards, i was craving something sweet.  so i dug deep into the ‘way back’ – and came up with some italian organic candied orange peel and a bar of pralus single note chocolate.  nothing unusual.  nothing complicated.  but for me, it’s as good as nearly anything…

i may not be jetting off to europe this spring, but my pantry is quite the culinary wonderland.  and you know, i feel pretty damn good about it all…

but not on purpose.

you see, i followed the rick bayless recipe word for word, but i used my tan colored organic all natural sugar – and well, i’m pretty certain that may have been the problem.  the small saucepan of simple caramelized syrup felt wrong from the get go.  it never did what it was supposed to do – as in truly caramelize – and then it was really thick and even at a dangerously hot temperature the stuff wouldn’t swirl much.  so i now had a glug of it stuck on the bottom of each small white dish.  then i made a second batch that was marginally better – and put that on top of the darker ‘glug of sugar’ and coated the sides… but this was just not right – and i knew it. 

but hey, no prob.  because after ignoring my intuition, i  went on to rationalize that when i place the 6 little ramekins in their hot water bath and then bake the custards in the oven – it’ll all melt and get liquidity, right?  nope.  when it was time to ‘unmold the suckers – they were not budging.  so out came the big guns – meaning the handy dandy kitchen blow torch.

and do you know what happens when you flip a ramekin upside down and hold a blow torch to it for say 2 minutes?

i wish i’d taken a picture.  i almost did.  but i was so disappointed in my lack of culinary acumen, that i just let it all go, deciding against the photo op – my final bad call in the saga of ‘the flan gone wrong’.. 

i gotta say that the explosion truly was a bit unsettling and although my ego was ever so slightly bruised, luckily we all escaped unscathed from the flying shrapnel.

i’m over it now.

yes. it’s true. there it is. and it doesn’t have to be beautiful. because when you are "THAT FREAKIN AWESOME" looks just do not matter one little bit. unless you’re a woman.

this ice cream is brought to you by michael ruhlman who told michael symon who inspired david lebovitz. or something like that. but no matter who told who – from here on in it is now all mine. and i would just like to ask you, dear readers – just one thing. how in the hell could you ever possibly improve on this? you can’t.

sorry.

the coffee ice cream was david lebovitz’s recipe (plus one extra egg yolk) from ‘the perfect scoop’.  it’s a great book, go buy it. because the warm weather is approaching and it is time to make fabulous ice creams and sorbets and david will teach you how.  his blog has the post regarding the candied bacon ice cream which of course includes the process of candying the bacon.  except i wound up first doing it his way and then feeling the need to redo it the next day with another batch of bacon, a very different way.  because i was striving for perfect pig candy.  and my first batch was kinda lackluster – probably my fault – but i learned and moved forward with the second batch while the first batch now sits in my freezer anxiously waiting to get mixed into some sweet potato pancake batter. now there’s a reason to live…

so, first i put the bacon on a rack over a sheet pan with some foil – shiny side down at about 350f and let a fair amount of the fat drip off – about 10 minutes or so – although the ‘niman ranch’ bacon i used was not very fatty at all – for bacon. then i removed it from the oven and coated one side with brown sugar and placed it back on the rack and let the sugar caramelize on the meat for about another 10 minutes. then i removed it from the oven and spread another sheet of foil over the drippings and placed the bacon candied side down and sugared the second side – same deal. once that was done i removed it from the oven and cooled it on the wire rack. it was more steps then i’ve seen done – but it came out flawless – and while the bacon was getting candied, i was making the custard for the ice cream.

needless to say. it was a hit.

i promised a cake and well, this would be the one. it’s a total hybrid, born of two disjointed thoughts. i’d been thinking about the orangette post featuring edna lewis’s ‘busy day’ cake. because i truly love and appreciate cake. it’s is one of my favorite things. and i like a really good plain cake with something interesting going on around it. and since it’s the tail end of winter, instead of the ‘creme fraiche with warm crushed berries’ option, i thought the underlying nutmegy flavor of this cake would go well with a spiced wine sauce of dried fruit, similar to what i’d had last month at ‘otto‘ in nyc, a batali joint.

so i baked up this simple cake and then proceeded to empty a half bottle of red wine into a small pan with some sugar, cloves, cinnamon stick and orange rind – along with dried cherries, black mission figs and raisins. i added salt and black pepper and reduced the liquid until it was a syrup. and then it was plated with the creme fraiche… perfect. i substituted 1% milk because it’s what i had in the house. don’t. get in the car and go. buy. whole. milk. i think it was a detriment to the end result. not dramatic, but a subtle ‘something’ that perhaps took the cake down a small notch. so thanks again to both molly at orangette and of course to my mario for the wonderful elements that inspired my mollie-batali cake.

it’s very much my kind of dessert…

simply cary’s favorite. give the guy a quart of this, set the tv to msnbc and he’d be a happy man. except much to his dismay, i went and tainted this batch with some of my italian candied orange peel. so for him it was ever so slightly substandard and for me it was a little burst of lovliness. i like to think of it as a compromise, being that i had just made him a plain batch the week before. you might be wondering about the bay leaf. it’s subtle. barely there. but it lends a really nice flavor that no one will be able to quite grasp, if notice at all. everyone will just be wondering, how is it that rice pudding – the lowliest of desserts can suddenly be so very good?

arborio rice pudding
adapted from smitten kitchen, who adapted it from gale gand

(i do want to mention the option of the egg yolk addition to the recipe below. i have used this method because i am an egg fiend and the addition of a yolk is quite wonderful. so if you are so inclined, crack a yolk into a small bowl and beat it with a small fork and then slowly and carefully add some of the heated milk to the yolk, being careful that it doesn’t ‘cook’. then when you have a smooth mixture, slowly add that back into the pot.)

1/2 cup arborio rice
4 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split
1 bay leaf
dried fruit such as raisins or orange rind (optional)

in a large saucepan, place all the ingredients except the fruit, if you’re using any. bring it to a low boil and then turn it down to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking to the bottom, for about 30 to 40 minutes. taste the rice to check for doneness. the rice should be very soft and plump. then remove from heat and stir in some dried fruit – if using – and allow it to sit for 5 minutes or so. remove the bay leaf and serve in individual dessert bowls.

serve steaming hot, plain hot, warmish, cold or even frozen on a stick.

or tarte tatin. but say it 3x fast after a bottle of cabernet using an affected bad accent – and it’s totally ‘ta tata’…

so this is a very, very good thing to have in your repertoire. an old french standby – circa 1889. have cast iron pan, will tarte tatin make. it’s 3 ingredients plus the pastry. golden delicious apples, (vanilla bean) sugar and (plugra) butter. and then get this – after using all those beautiful high end ingredients – i went and bought the frozen pepperidge farm puff pastry. yup. because i don’t do pastry, remember? it is too much work. too messy. too prone to go wrong. screw it. just buy it. there you go. see how easy that was? told ya… (btw – the brand ‘dufour‘ is better than ‘pf’ but as far as i can tell, not available in nashville).

julia child does a wonderful version in ‘the way to cook’. ‘cooks illustrated‘ has a version too that i looked at closely. you can also find a couple on ‘epicurious‘. basic tarte tatin recipes are everywhere and they’re all very similar. but i did lightly sprinkle some salt granules on top of the tarte as soon as it was released from the pan. buttery caramel apples with just a touch of good salt, preferably guerande – but any fleur de sel will do – well, i think it brightens the flavor. makes it more interesting. the thing about a tarte tatin is to just go ahead and make one. and then make it again and again until you get the feel for it. then you can whip one of these babies up any time and on short notice (frozen pastry anyone?) with very little effort and be a huge hit amongst the plebeians.

because secretly, isn’t that what we really want…

i know just what you’re thinking… you look at this and you wonder, where’s the bacon? and really, i’d have thought the very same thing. and i even had some speck in the freezer and bacon in the fridge – and well, i just didn’t. because this was dessert. and yes, i know what you’re thinking now too. but i forgot to make/buy some vanilla ice cream. apologies all around. hey. wow. i just this second thought about a chocolate with bacon ice cream served right alongside this dish. chocolate would be good here … and i’ve heard ‘ruhlman‘ talk about maple bacon ice cream – but i already had the maple thing covered. and i am saying C.o.v.e.r.e.d. enter: BLiS

BLiS Bourbon Barrel Maple Syrup is aged in specially selected twelve to eighteen year old single barrel bourbon casks. The intense flavors of butterscotch, vanilla, charred oak and the seductive bourbon take maple syrup to new heights. Celebrated chefs around the world use this unique product, and of course it s one of Oprah s favorites.

ok. feel free to scratch that last line, but DAMN! what a friggin description! and i too have had ‘BLiS’ in a few high end restaurants over the past two years in little bits on various meats and desserts. but never have i had a bottle to call my own, to use unabashedly on whatever turned me on. the makers produce whatever they produce and then it gets sold and you wait for the new batch. twice i got caught in the availability grey area, and i am just telling you that this is one of those instances when to perservere is worth it – and using more ‘BLiS’ really is – more. and much more is aok too. and here is where i may disappoint you. my pancakes are not "homemade". i’ve talked about one of my guiltier pleasures before. bruce’s sweet potato pancake mix. this storebought, pre-packaged product is a big hit around here. cary loves it. it’s even close to rice pudding in his book although he prefers the stuff in its lesser (imho) waffle format. and now i ask you this, i mean does EVERYONE who writesthesegreatblogs i read – do you all EVER just grab a mix? cause i don’t. except this one. and you should too. i get ours at ‘the fresh market‘. just add water. love it. next time with chocolate bacon ice cream. or at the very least, ‘BLiS’ whipped with ricotta cheese and chocolate sauce drizzled on top.

pinky swear…

on sunday, day 3 of a 5 day quasi-fast that consisted of tea and agave with an occasional tangerine,  i decided on a whim to make my guy some chocolate sorbet.  it’s about his second favorite thing to eat, rice pudding being way ahead of just about anything else on the planet.  i knew i had all the right ingredients on hand – it only takes a few - and that it’d be a pretty simple thing to whip up.  my ice cream maker bowl was in the freezer wrapped in a plastic bag and ready to go.  and this kind of thing is easy for me to make when i’m not really eating.  no strong smells.  no onion or garlic.  no roasting meat.  or even worse, that boiling pasta smell that turns me on…

this is all it is.  this and some water.  oh and sugar,

which then turns into this…  a velvety smooth liquid that gets chilled for a few hours in the fridge.

which then turns into this. 

it’s liebovitz’s recipe from ‘the perfect scoop’.  after making his salted caramel ice cream, he’s my go to guy for all things frozen.  i used what i’d consider to be pretty fine ingredients.  the retail value on this quart and a half of sorbet was enough to kinda make me giggle in a wondrous kinda way because i can buy a pretty good rendition for about a fourth of the price.  cary said mine was less grainy than our fave market brand ciao bella but after accepting the complement and thinking on it, suddenly i realized why.  mine had a ton of fat in it from the cocoa butter in the pralus chocolate bars while ciao bella’s version is 100% fat free using only the dutch processed cocoa powder. 

so this sorbet, made with some of the finest chocolate money can buy falls under the category of sheer decadence.  it’s holiday sorbet.  certainly not yer every day sorbet…  nope, this is top notch restaurant sorbet.  thomas keller sorbet.  yeah thomas, how ya gonna beat this?  i can’t imagine one upping this icey confection.  for what it is, a plain, pure unadulterated chocolate sorbet, we’ve hit the pinnacle.

wow

the pinnacle…

wow

you peel them.  you cut them in half.  you spritz with fresh lemon juice.  you dot with butter. 

you sprinkle the sugar, the cinnamon.  you put in a few tablespoons of water and a drop of vanilla. 

you roast at 400 for an hour, basting and turning as needed.  upon serving, you top them with some creme fraiche.

and then you immediately comment on orangette’s post.  because she was the inspiration and you’re too tired to write much more than this.

but lastly, you revel in the fact that for so little work, the payback was sublime…

if one were to google ‘pumpkin bread pudding’, you’d immediately see right before you two epicurious.com recipes.  the first, a ‘bon appetit recipe from 2000‘ and the second a ‘gourmet recipe from 2007‘.  then if you looked down the list just a bit more you’d see that ‘deb at smitten‘ did it too, using gourmet’s version and adapting it wisely.  much less fat and the addition of bourbon.  right on sistah!

so like that made it easy…

i varied not one bit from her adaptation except for the idea of the caramel sauce from bon appetit’s recipe.  so a few days ago when the 5 year old love-of-my-life was visiting and he was wanting something desserty – and i had nothing even resembling kid stuff around (just a few bars of french dark chocolate and that wasn’t going to cut it) i eye-spyed something in my pantry that i thought might just do the trick.  i reached for the jar of argentinian dolce de leche that had been hanging around for a month or so.  it totally worked for the kid. and the rest of us.

and now at this very moment, how amazingly fortuitous!  this was the perfect pairing…

upon plating, i sprinkled the pudding with a touch of my guerande salt and then on went a small dollop of the dolce de leche.

in a word – winner.

italian prune plums.  every august they show up all too briefly and then they’re gone again – you know the drill. it’s the same with our beloved tomatoes and corn.  i bought a bag earlier in the week with the intention of making something fabulous, but like the decadent fresh figs that i’ve been continually buying these past 2 weeks they just got eaten au naturale.  and then poof.  see you next year. 

yesterday after our usual saturday morning trip to the farmers market we headed to wild oats and i bought probably 3+ lbs of these little guys which at $1.99 per lb. i thought was a pretty decent deal.  it’s nothing for me to pop 6 or more of these little purple orbs, one after the next – multi times a day.  they’re definitely in my top 10 fruits along with anything berry, mango’s, figs, fuyu persimmons, pineapple, blood oranges, watermelon, honeydew and tomatoes – making the list by a technicality as i just see them as a vegetable and always will.

and i keep swearing off baking because i just do not need to be eating cake and truly i am not even much of a baker - but this time i really mean it – starting right now.  but last night (which is so like not right now) i dug through some recipes and decided upon the ‘cook’s illustrated’ rustic plum cake from their august issue. 

i ran into 2 glitches.  first, i had the wrong size pan.  i am the proud owner of not one but two beautiful high end french nonstick 10″ springform pans which comes in handy during the holidays when i’m cooking for large gatherings which is rarely if ever these days.  the recipe called for a 9″ and this size has somehow evaded me, so i just decreased the baking time and all was fine although it obviously made a thinner cake than i’d have liked.  second, i put the plums in upside down damnit, but realizing my error relatively quickly i pulled it from the oven and flipped the plums over leaving them slightly batter covered resulting in a not nearly as beautiful rendition of what can be a very impressive looking austrian cake.  hey, i can live with that.  i didn’t even bother with the dusting of confectioner’s sugar.

but despite myself, this was absolutely delicious – a great recipe - which is what i’ve come to expect from anything ‘cook’s illustrated’ puts forth. and for me, it’s just a perfect cake.

rustic plum cake
from ‘cook’s illustrated’  aug ’08 edition

2 T red current jelly or seedless raspberry jam
3 T brandy
1 lb  about 10-14 italian prune plums – halved and seeded
3/4 cup unbleached white flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup blanched slivered almonds
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
6 T unsalted butter – cut up – softened but still cool
1 large egg plus one egg yolk
1 t vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract – optional

cook jam and brandy in 10″ nonstick skillet over medium heat until reduced to thick syrup about 2 to 3 minutes. remove skillet from heat and place plums cut-side down in syrup. return skillet to medium heat and cook until plums shed their juices and thick syrup is again formed, about 5 minutes, shaking pan to prevent plums from sticking. cool plums in pan, about 20 minutes.

adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350. grease and flour 9″ springform pan. process sugar and almonds in food processor until nuts are finely ground, about 1 minute. add flour, baking powder, and salt; pulse to combine. add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse sand, about 10 one second pulses. add eggs, vanilla and almond extract and process until smooth, about 5 seconds, scraping bowl if needed. batter will be very thick and heavy.

transfer batter to prepared pan; using offset spatula, spread batter evenly to pan edges and smooth surface. stir plums to coat with syrup. arrange plum halves, skin-side down, evenly over surface of batter. bake until cake is golden brown and wooden skewer inserted into center comes out with a few crumbs attached, 40 to 50 minutes. run paring knife around the sides of cake to loosen. cool in pan on wire rqck until just warm or room temperature, at least 30 minutes. remove cake from pan and dust with confectioners sugar.

i’d make this again and again if only my waistline would allow.  using the wrong pan, sloppy looking plums, with no powdery white dusting to dress it up.  it’d be just fine with me.

afterall, what is essential is invisible to the eye…

i’m kinda drunkish <yawn>

my best friends came over tonight and cary’s working late.  he doesn’t ever drink anymore.  as the story goes he drank his share and then some early on – prior to us meeting.  so i drink much less these days.  which is a good thing.  but tonight i drank and now i’m a little drunk.  and when i’m under the influence i just wanna go to sleep.  yes, that’s me – fun fun fun.  but before my head hits the pillow, i wanted to write about this summer pudding.

i was reading through the recipe’s on david lebovitz’s blog – again.  this one caught my eye as i love puddings and berries and it was beautiful and david claims it to be his favorite which coming from him would be saying quite a lot… 

so i was able to get my hands on the last of the local blackberry’s and i totally lucked out.  i got a gallon for $4.  not a typo – huge score.  and they were at the peak of perfection – sweet and plump and perfect.  the raspberries were a deal too.  1.5 quarts for $10 – and organic.  the recipe calls for red currants but all i could come up with was little purple champagne grapes that claimed to be currants – but they were sweet, not really tart at all.  here’s ‘david’s recipe‘.

firstly, when unmolded, it’s a wow in all of its berry colored lovliness.  very very pretty pretty.  but i have to say that the bread part was a little ummm, dense or gooey or something.  perhaps it was the bread i used which was what i would have guessed to be a pretty decent version of ‘pain de mie‘ – a kind of sweet thin crusted loaf of white from a local bread baker.  still, it was kind of like eating soggy bread drenched with the freshest most delicious syrupy berry juice imaginable.  lastly, bruce hand whipped the sweetened cream which really was the crowning glory to each piece.

it was good.  not great.  we liked it.  not loved it. 

people, i gotta lay my ever so slightly spinning head down now. 

please don’t remember me like this…

i was an ice cream making virgin. and i’m not counting that time at girl scout camp when we were hand-cranking a machine out in the woods and the rock salt bled into the ice cream rendering it inedible and well – i’m not counting that, ok? it was a classic adolescent near miss… and i’d love to expound on that metaphor, but let’s just keep it pg-13.

so i borrowed a machine, bought the ingredients, and with all the help in the world from david lebovitz, i did it. i made his salted butter caramel ice cream or as i so fondly care to refer to it as, ‘caramel fleur de sel glace’ because it sounds so much more affected and this recipe took some real work and i want it to come across tres impressive. but people, you go on and call it whatever you want – it makes no difference because this is so damn good that the stuff should be illegal. outlawed. or at the very least eaten in singular small scoops – as the french do – unlike our embarrassingly ridiculous american supersized portions of well, everything.

for those of you wondering how i could possibly go there due to my last FRET, i would like to formally announce that tonight i will be having my one very european scoop with a touch of bittersweet chocolate sauce. and that will be all.

so far i’ve only tasted it in it’s softer state, right out of the machine. but after a night in the freezer, it’s looking like full on ice cream. earlier today i went and bought one of those little cool scooper things with the quick release squeeze handle. so i’m ready for action. i also bought david’s book and it’s wonderful – a must have if you’re going to delve into the world of icy confections. so now after all these years of buying ice cream and having no idea what it was all about, i feel relatively caught up on the subject and would not feel out of place at an ice cream social where everyone had to BYOIC. and until it’s gone, which will no doubt be too soon – or not soon enough, depending on how you’re looking at it – when anybody shows up at my door i will greet them like my grandma often did…

with spoon in hand saying, "here bubala"