August 2008

Aug

31

Daring Baker’s Challenge – Eclairs in August

baked goods / Challenges / desserts / salsa / sauces  Posted by / 2 comments

 

p8270194 Daring Baker’s Challenge – Eclairs in August

Jasmine really loved the chocolate glaze.

The Challenge: Chocolate Eclairs from Pierre Hermé’s book, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé.

The Hosts: Tony Tahanand/Meetak

Many, many thanks to our wonderful hosts this month. What a wonderful recipe they chose and how supportive and marvelous they were. (Insert applause here).

Hurry up Autumn, I’m getting a little tired of baking in a 100 degree kitchen and worrying I’m going to drip sweat into dough or something. This month’s challenge was Pierre Hermé’s (swoons  because I worship the pastry laden, rose petal Isapahan ground he walks on) luscious chocolate éclairs.

Did I stay true to my idol’s recipe? Um well, I changed one little thing. The cream filling was not chocolate but something summery and lighter. Lavender-orange pastry cream. The rest was true to Mr. Hermé’s recipes (is it not wonderful that he is not only a pastry God but has the same last name as that vintage buttery leather 72k handbag on ebay)? I’m just saying. Pastry, Birken…ecstasy, heaven. Okay, okay get on with the recipe. No one cares about my obsession with Hermé, both the bags and the chef. And yes, I know the bag is Hermes but its close enough for me.

Marissa dropped the kids off early and we washed up and got ready to bake. The first thing we started with was the pastry cream. It turned out perfectly, smooth, thick and lucious until i put it into its ice water bath. I turned to grab ingredients for the chocolate sauce and Aiden took the opportunity to add about a quarter cup of ice water INTO THE CREAM! Yeah, so. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t. He’s three, he thought he was creating something wondrous and being helpful. I wanted to fix it, but I couldn’t. It was his little creation. So we had runny cream filling, so what?

 

p8270195 Daring Baker’s Challenge – Eclairs in August

This is when he did it

I took several deep breaths and moved onto the chocolate sauce, which was divine. Mmmmm chocolate. Jasmine and I made the glaze together. She looked at me and said, “Grammy, you’re going to put chocolate in chocolate?” and looked puzzled. When I said yes, she beamed and squealed something about chocolate and more chocolate. I agreed. Chocolate on chocolate is a marvelous thing. When it was all done, I reached for a bowl to pour it in and Jasmine quickly grabbed her favorite Barbie bowl instead. Beaming proudly, she said “Grammy that yummy chocolate can use my bowl.” So it was that Pierre Hermé’s sleek, sophisticated chocolate glaze ended up in a 99 cent pink plastic Barbie bowl. I won’t get into my militant feelings about Barbie because Jasmine can read now.

p8270222 Daring Baker’s Challenge – Eclairs in August

Next up the Pâte à Choux. Yeah oooooooooh. I was dubious about the whole cooked dough thing and I could tell Jasmine was too. She wanted to know why it wasn’t going straight to the Kitchen-Aid but I just shrugged and started heating the milk. When it was boiling, I handed her the cup of flour and nodded. “All of it Grammy?”, she asked. I nodded. She looked at me, her little eyes wide and then shrugged and dumped it in. Wow. I started stirred and we had a big lump of golden dough. I kept stirring to dry the dough and it did create a little crust on the bottom of the pan. Once it had been dryed enough, I transferred it to the Kitchen-aid and started mixing.

Now the crap part they don’t tell you about. Pâte à Choux is sticky, way sticky. Getting it into the pastry bag was a mess. Working with it was tough. I thought I had done something wrong, so I took a minute to chat online with a chef friend. “Is Pâte à Choux supposed to be stick?” Answer: “it has been every time I’ve worked with it” Great. Back to work. Aiden kept eating the sticky dough and I couldn’t get the gunk off my hands but managed to pipe some éclair-like blobs onto the baking sheet. I popped them into the oven and did the oven door wooden spoon trick later in the baking. They came out beautifully and puffed up proudly. Things were looking up.

 p8270234 Daring Baker’s Challenge – Eclairs in August

Jasmine and Aiden were so excited they couldn’t stand it. I could barely fill the mini-eclairs and cream puffs fast enough. The lavender-orange filling was so good with all that chocolate. Marissa came home and ate several in quick succession and we both decided for the sake of our butts to take the rest of the platter over to That Yarn Store for David and the gang to munch on.

We had so much fun making these and I can’t wait till the weather is cool and we can do it again. Next time though, I’ll make cream puffs only. They held much more pastry cream and were easier to pipe.

 p8270204 1 Daring Baker’s Challenge – Eclairs in August

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by
positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with
waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough.
Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers.
Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff.
The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the
handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the
oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue
baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking
time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:
1) The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the
bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40
degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of
the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the
bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms
with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream
and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:
1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water,
stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create
bubbles.

2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium
and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very
quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You
need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough
will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.
You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do
not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you
have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:
1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking
sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the
piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by PierreHermé

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy?bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice?water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice?water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice?water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

[bNotes:[/b]
1) The pastry cream can be made 2?3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:
1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly
in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water
• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy?bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10-15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:
1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

 

Aug

18

Arroz con pollo

chicken / family recipes / main dishes / rice  Posted by / 5 comments
p8180073 Arroz con pollo

Arroz con pollo

p8180072 Arroz con pollo

delicioso!

I’ve been craving my grandmother’s arroz con pollo for a couple of days now.  I’ve been a little obsessed actually.  I can’t remember when the last time I had it was, but it had to have been when I was in my teens.  I tried making it a couple of times when I was married, but it just didn’t work out.  Neither did the marriage.

Today, Marissa and the kids came by and I decided to give it a shot.  I pulled out rice, onions, garlic, red peppers, the Bijol (a Mexican spice blend), saffron and oregano.  I didn’t have peas but Marissa doesn’t like them anyway, so I figured we were good to go.

I handed Marissa the camera and got to work chopping onion into nice thick squares, slivers of garlic, rounds of red pepper.  Jasmine and Aiden started to get excited and Aiden helped pour out the oregano.  I only know my grandmother’s recipe, which is no recipe – it’s a handful of this, a bit of that, un poquito aqui, un manito aya.  I hope my readers can figure it out from the pictures and the story because this time, this time it was like my memories of a fluffy mound of golden delicately flavored rice that melted on the tongue and the tenderest, chicken falling off the bone and flavored with the soul of the crocus.  It was magical.

Arroz con pollo/Chicken with rice

One cut up chicken
Enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a large frying pan
1 onion
five cloves of garlice, sliced thinly
chopped red peppers (not the hot kind)
dos manotes de arroz (two big handfuls of rice)
a manito (little handful of oregano) I think this ended up being about a tablespoon
un poquito de saffron (a little bit of saffron) like a pinch
un poquito de Bijol (about a ¼ tsp)
salt and pepper to taste
peas (optional)
chopped tomatoes (we were out of fresh so I used a 16 oz can of stewed)
water

Coat the frying pan with olive oil and let it heat on the stove.  Not too high a flame, you don’t want smoking oil.  Just get it nice and hot.

Wash the chicken pieces and pat them dry.  Season with salt and cracked pepper.

Add the chicken to hot oil and let fry till crispy brown on one side, then turn and do the same with the other side.  It takes as long as it takes.  Use a lid or it will pop all over.

Once the chicken is browned completely, scoop it out and set it aside on a platter.

Drain the oil from that pan and pour it into another large skillet (one that has a tight fitting lid).

Add the oregano, garlic, saffron, and peppers to the same pan and deglaze it with about a cup of water.  Set that aside.

Heat up the oil in the second skillet.  Add in the onions and about two cups of long grain rice and let brown completely, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

When it’s all browned, add the water and spices from the deglazed pan to the rice. Add salt to taste, I’d say about a teaspoon.

Add the chicken pieces one by one, skin side up around the pan.  Add just enough water to be about a half inch from the top of the pan.  Cover, lower flame to the lowest it will go and then simmer for about 40 minutes.  The rice should be fluffy and golden and the chicken so tender it falls apart at the touch of a fork.  All the water should have been absorbed by the rice.

Serve and enjoy!

Buen provecho.

Aug

16

Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

desserts  Posted by / 5 comments

p8160024 Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

Oh,…I looked out the window and what did I see,
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.
Spring had brought me such a nice surprise, popcorn popping right before my eyes.
I can take an armful and make a treat, a popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn’t really so… but it seemed to be… Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

Aiden learned this song in his nursery class at Sunday School during church last week and he’s been humming it ever since.  Jasmine wanted to know the words, so I sang it to them this morning and spent most of the morning teaching them the words and finger motions to it.  Then all of a sudden Jasmine says, “Grammy, what’s a popcorn ball?” and I about died.  I couldn’t believe I had been so remiss as to not make popcorn balls with the grandkids. Yikes!  There was nothing for it, but get out the aprons and head for the kitchen.

I popped popcorn and tried to get shots with the camera while it was popping but didn’t really get good photos.  I did however, manage to decorate the just mopped floor and demonstrate to the grandkids why we must never take the lid off as a stray popcorn missile hit me in the arm with its heat.

p8160008 Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

Once that process was done, we set the popcorn to cool in a baking dish and I went about making syrup, keeping the kids safely outta the kitchen.  I decided on a whim to flavor the syrup with cardamom and vanilla and it turned out really well.

Aiden was having a hard time waiting for the syrupy popcorn to cool but he spent the time decorating himself with butter. He was a shiny, greasy bundle of love by the time the popcorn was cool enough to mold.  We made a few popcorn balls and that was it, we were done.  We ended up with a few balls, lots of gooey caramel corn and two sticky, hyped up grandkids.  Now that’s a Saturday!

Cardamom-Vanilla Flavored Popcorn Balls

Ingredients:

A couple of apron-covered kids like these:

p8160005 Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

Chefs J&A

Freshly popped popcorn, we used two cups un-popped for this recipe
Butter
Syrup (recipe to follow)

Add popcorn to buttered baking dish and set aside till syrup is done.

Cardamom-Vanilla Syrup

6 tbsps.of butter
1 c. corn syrup
3 c. confectioner’s sugar
3 tbsp. water
1 c. marshmallow cream
1 tsp.cardamom
1 tbsp.vanilla

In a saucepan, combine the butter, corn syrup, water, confectioner’s sugar and heat over a medium flame, stirring slowly but constantly.  Once it’s to a boil, add in the marshmallow cream and cardamom.  Lower the flame and keep stirring till well-mixed.

Remove from heat and add the vanilla.

Stir.

Slowly pour over the popcorn in the baking dish, mixing gently with a wooden spoon until the popcorn is thoroughly coated.

Add syrup to popcorn and let cool till it’s warm enough to work with your bare hands but not too cool.

Butter your hands so the popcorn doesn’t stick.  Mix all the syrup and popcorn well, then shape into balls of whatever size you like.  Let cool and wrap in plastic wrap.  That’s it!
Well, Jasmine wanted pink sprinkles on hers and I got to thinking about dipping them in chocolate but restrained myself (barely).

p8160022 Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

Hard at Work

Aug

13

Orangette, Oranges & Grandma Lupe

desserts  Posted by / 2 comments

orangette2 Orangette, Oranges & Grandma Lupe

Orangette

My memories are drenched in food.

Coming from a Mexican family with an amazing group of cooks for aunts, grandaunts, second cousins and my phenomenal grandmother Lupe meant that I was surrounded by food: cooking, talking, eating, making, reading about, growing, learning. Food was everywhere and it was never just simple because in my family, food wasn’t food unless it was intricately layered in flavor and processes. Even the simplest of things were uncannily complex in one way or another. My grandmother taught me early on that color flavor, aroma, taste and even the plate you served it on was important and that there was joy to be found in creating something from the garden to the table.

It stands to reason that she, who taught me so much was the axis of my world and she was. I was her constant observer, her shadow and she was rarely without me in tow. My mother told me once that she remembered when I was just starting to eat fruit, my grandmother would cut tiny bits of strawberry, putting them on a toothpick one at a time and dipping them in honey to feed me bit by bit. I still love strawberries and I did the same with my granddaughter.

My grandmother was intensely interesting to me and she seemed the most magical of people. She grew up (the first to be born here in the US) on a ranch in Piru, California where they grew oranges. Her young life was poor and it must have been tremendously hard. Migrant farmworkers have never had it, easy (check the UFW website to see how many have died from heatstroke this year). If it had been me picking oranges season after season, I’d be heartily sick of them but my grandma Lupe loved them. Nothing made her happier than when on of my great uncles would drive down from Piru with a big box of freshly harvested Valencias for her. She’d sit out in the patio in back, take her paring knife and long curly waterfalls of peel would fall quickly into her apron in one long swoop. They never broke and she did it without thinking. I’d sit across from her goggle-eyed and wishing I could do it too. I still can’t without it breaking. She’d look at me, smile and hand me a section, popping it into my mouth. “It tastes like sunshine, doesn’t it, mi reina del cielo? (queen of heaven)” her name for me.

Another of her favorites were the chocolate-covered orange sticks my grandfather would bring her from the Thrifty’s in Glendale. He’d only bring a box every once in a while but those days were special. My grandmother would always be thrilled and giggly as a young girl. My grandfather would always hold his hands behind his back before bringing out the box and stand there with his boyish, blushing face holding it out to his sweetheart. I always felt the deep love they had for each other in those moments, love that spilled out like sugar all over everything and everyone around them. She’d smile and take one, just one and let me have it. The rest were hers and she hid them and kept the box for a long time, making it last. I’d savor my one piece and to me, it was the best thing in the world.

I don’t think she knew about orangettes or we would have made them. I was blessed to have a grandmother that gave me anything and everything I needed for cooking if I wanted to make something. She never gave it a second thought – I got the pan, the spice, the expensive nuts – whatever I needed, I got it. I know now what a sacrifice it must have been to two senior citizens on a fixed income with bills and family obligations, but she made it happily and I never once knew it was anything but a joy. I wonder if she knew what a difference cooking would make in my life, what a wonderful gift she gave not just to me but to my children, grandchildren and the people who share my life. I expect not. She was pure love, that woman and everything she did was filled with it.

I wish I could have made these for her, but I made them for Jasmine and Aiden and I think my grandmother is watching and smiling.

Orangette

    What you’ll need:
    Oranges, a thick skinned type like Valencias (you can do these with tangerine as well)
    Water and sugar (ratio is about 1 ¼ c. water to 3 c of sugar)
    A sharp knife
    Sugar for dusting them
    Chocolate that has been tempered

    Scrub the oranges well and dry them off.
    Cut off each end so they sit flat on a cutting board
    Take your knife and score them just to the edge of the orange in about ¼ inch strips.
    Peel away each strip, leaving rind on the orange but not the orange itself. Trim off any bits of orange.
    Set aside.

    Jasmine will show you how to peel off a section and what to do with the leftover orange.

    P8130044 Orangette, Oranges & Grandma Lupe

    See my orange Grammy scored for me?

    P8130045 Orangette, Oranges & Grandma Lupe

    Halfway there

    P8130049 Orangette, Oranges & Grandma Lupe

    I'm really careful to peel these off neatly.

    P8130046 Orangette, Oranges & Grandma Lupe

    Nom! I know just what to do with the orange.

    I tried Jennifer Yu’s method of blanching the peels three times to do away with the bitterness but I still got some that was a little bitter when I tasted it as it cooled.  However, once it dried completely the bitterness was completely gone.  Weird, but cool.

    Once blanched, I drained my orange peels and made my sugar syrup. Bring 1 ¼ c. water to boil and add the 3 c. sugar and stir till dissolved. Let it come to a full boil, then reduce heat to the lowest simmer. Add the orange peels and let simmer, stirring occasionally until they are transparent. Mine took about 40 minutes.

    Working carefully (sugar syrup burns are nasty), scoop them out onto drying racks with parchment paper underneath to catch the drips. When they are cool enough to touch you can roll them in sugar, but I prefer not too. I like them with just the chocolate but I sugared some for the grandkids. This time, I added a few sprigs of rosemary to the left over syrup to candy them and flavor the syrup for another recipe. The syrup will be the base for a rosemary citrus ade (thanks to @peckedbyducks for the idea) and the candied sprigs will be garnish for something later this month.

    The orange peels take several hours before they are dry but once they are you can either store them as is or dip into tempered chocolate. For these I used bittersweet chocolate with a little butter. I took another hint from Jennifer Yu and dried the chocolate ones on a cookie sheet lined in parchment rather than on the racks. Thanks Jennifer!

    Store in airtight container or eat them. Most of mine will be gone, but I’m saving a few for something I have planned to make later this month.

    Oh and Aiden?  I so busted you stealing orangette when you thought I was distracted by photographing it.  Thing is, I photographed you.  Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky buddy and very cute.

    P8130090 Orangette, Oranges & Grandma Lupe

    Aiden being very, very sneaky

    This post is dedicated to my grandmother, the UFW, Dolores Huerta, César Estrada Chávez and to farmworkers everywhere trabajando en la pisca. Show some love by donating to the UFW donation page.

    Mexica tiahui y buen provecho.

    For more pictures, please visit the photo gallery page here.  If you like the photos, they are courtesy of my son Albert, who with his typical generosity of spirit sent his mom a new Olympus Evolt camera to take her food pictures with.  Albert is former Navy from age 17 to 29 who was commended for saving lives and is currently in Iraq as a contractor working with the Army.  I miss him every day and no matter how tough he is, he will always be my little boy.  Love you mijo!

Aug

13

Peach Cobbler

baked goods / desserts  Posted by / 0 comments

177 7771 Peach Cobbler

Recipe submitted by Darlene Chan

I hate buying buttermilk for one recipe because ultimately I use 1/2 cup and then it sits in the fridge until I throw it out. This time I thought I’d be a bit smarter. I had originally bought a quart to use for buttermilk pancakes, which left me with 3/4 of a carton to use! A peach cobbler recipe caught my eye, it was a hot summer day and voila! Another 2/3 c of buttermilk used up. I still ended up throwing most away, but at least I got the cobbler out of it.

Peach Cobbler

Fillling:
1/4-1/2 c. sugar, depending on fruit’s sweetness
1 T cornstarch
1 1/2 lbs peeled peaches (or nectarines) halved, pitted and cut into 1/2? thick slices and cut in half again
1 T fresh lemon juice

Topping:
1 c. all purpose flour
3 T plus 1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 T unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2? cubes
2/3 c low fat buttermilk

Make the filling: preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a pot of boiling water drop peaches in for a couple of minutes. Drain and peel skin. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and cornstarch. Add peaches and lemon juice; toss to combine. Take a little bite from a piece of peach and decide if you need to add more sugar. Fill one 2 qt baking dish and transfer to a rimmed baking sheet.

Make the topping and bake: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, 3 T sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, blend in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk; stir just in dough forms. Drop dough onto fruit. Sprinkle dough with remaining teaspoon of sugar. Bake until fruit is bubbling and biscuit topping is golden brown, 35-45 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream, whipped cream or as is!

Aug

08

Ice Cream Break

desserts  Posted by / 2 comments

It’s been too hot and disgusting in L.A. for me to contemplate cooking or writing so please enjoy the ice cream break while you wait.  Insert the Beetlejuice Waiting Room Music here.

p8070059 Ice Cream Break

Jasmine loves her ice cream cookie shake

Aiden loves ice cream and it’s all over him

p8070060 Ice Cream Break

p8070058 Ice Cream Break

Ecstasy

p8070055 Ice Cream Break

Nom!

Aug

02

Friday Farmer’s Market in Eagle Rock

foodie places  Posted by / 1 comments

p8010033 Friday Farmers Market in Eagle Rock

One of my Friday evening rituals is to head down to the local Farmer’s Market to see what goodies they have that I can play with.  I often, as in this case take the grandkids and have a blast with them.  This afternoon we packed up the stroller and headed out for adventure, fun and produce.  The Eagle Rock Farmer’s Market is small but fun.  We have an Elvis impersonator! Sorry, no pictures of him today – the kids were tired out before he came on.

We found dragonfruit at the booth of Teo and Otillio, which though I love the color – I was slightly under whelmed at the taste.  They tasted like tunas to me, or prickly pear in English.  Still, the color was brilliant and I wanted to dye yarn with it as soon as I saw it.  I also thought mmmm it would make a brilliant cheesecake and I could sugar the petals to decorate the sides….

p8010028 Friday Farmers Market in Eagle Rock

There were my summer favorite, squash flowers for a dollar a bag.  The ones I found had tiny little squashes attached and they will make excellent quesadillas or a budin.  We also found huge nectarines, peaches and avocados.  I mean like Godzilla-sized.  Seriously.  Check out the gallery.  Huge.

Bacon-wrapped, Mexican-style hot dogs, aguas frescas, black grapes, peaches, apricots and gorgeous nectarines the choices were as endless as summer seems to be.  The sun was shining, the smell of fruit and flowers filled the air and mixed with the smoky smell of chicken roasting over wood.  Kids were playing and everyone was eating.

p8010079 Friday Farmers Market in Eagle Rock

I found strawberries so big and sweet in rows and rows that had me singing that Beatle’s song to the kids.  Jasmine now knows the words to Strawberry Fields Forever.

p8010045 Friday Farmers Market in Eagle Rock

Jasmine wanted me to buy balot because they are dyed pink, but I draw the line at eggs with baby chicken embryos in them.  Ick.  Sorry folks, I will get my protein elsewhere.

We stopped and bought jamaica (hibiscus flower drink), sat down at a table in the shade and met the cutest little baby named Maria Elena and her family.  Two-year Aiden did tricks on his skateboard he takes with him everywhere (he calls it his game and even sleeps with it) and Jasmine twirled her sun hat.

p8010071 Friday Farmers Market in Eagle Rock

Refreshed and cooler, we set off to take pictures of the men making pollos al brassa and I knocked over the wrought iron divider they had set up.  Always graceful, me.  After that, I had had enough and the kids were getting cranky so we rolled over to That Yarn Store and visited with David and other Yarn Store regulars.  I fell in love with this gorgeous Rio de Plata hand-dyed turquoise yarn but didn’t buy it.  Being unemployed prohibits buying yarn these days but that one has my name on it and it will be a shawl for me soon.  We shared dragonfruit and stories and had a great time before walking out into the cool night air and heading home.

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