A FIGment of My Imagination

A trip to Trader Joe's last weekend enabled me to buy fresh California FIGS and they didn't cost an arm and a leg like at my local grocery store. Recently I used blog friend Sara's recipe for fig preserves. My first minuscule batch turned out great using sweet little green figs gathered from a generous neighbor's tree. I didn't realize that there's apparently quite a difference between green and purplish-brown figs.

I cooked them the same way using sugar and fresh lemons.


But look how they turned out. The original preserves using green figs spread on my English muffin - sweet, smooth and full of lemon flavor. The new batch darker, much denser with many more seeds, and the fig flavor seems stronger. Both are good but I think I prefer the green ones with fewer seeds.



Fig Fact ~ Although considered a fruit, the fig is actually a flower that is inverted into itself. The seeds are drupes, or the real fruit. Figs are the only fruit to fully ripen and semi-dry on the tree.


Illustrations from the beautiful book

FRUIT ~ An Illustrated History

Let Them Eat More Cake

Not familiar with fabulous young Frenchwoman Clotilde Dusoulier? Well hurry over to check her blog Chocolate & Zucchini and before digging in to her recipes online, check 'ABOUT US' near top of her lefthand sidebar so you get to know this bundle of cooking energy!

Clotilde's first book, also titled Chocolate & Zucchini, Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen, was published last year. Filled with great recipes, beautiful photographs (taken by her), and very interesting stories about her family and life, her opening words in the foreword ~ "Food joyously occupies a large portion of my waking thoughts - it even makes appearances in my dreams............." sets the scene for some great reading and cooking!

I shared Clotilde's Gateau de Mamy in an earlier post ~ it's my all time favorite and if you arrive for tea in the gazebo one afternoon, you will most likely tuck into a slice, or two (it's that light and delicious) with your cup of tea. Today I'm sharing another of her very simple to make, but yummy French style cakes ~ I made it again yesterday and have found it to be a keeper. This one is not in her book but was featured on her blog.

Here it is fresh from the oven.

Le Gateau Piege

For the pan:

1 fat pat of butter

1 heaping tablespoon sugar

For the batter:

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, really softened (this is important)

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 eggs

1 medium organic orange (about 7 oz.) scrubbed

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

A good pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottom and sides of a 9 or 10 inch round cake pan (I use a 9" silicone pan) with the pat of butter. Sprinkle with the heaping tablespoon of sugar, then shake and tilt and swoosh the pan around to coat.

Cream together the softened butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix until thoroughly combined. Grate all the zest from the orange over the bowl. Juice the orange and add 1/2 cup of the juice to the batter, mix until smooth. (At this point it looks a bit odd, like it's curdled but it's fine).

In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk the flour mixture into the batter and mix until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and bake 20 mins. until cake is golden and starts to pull away from sides of pan. Let cool on rack for 10 mins. (no more or the caramel on the crust will harden and stick to pan), then flip onto a serving plate. Let cool completely before serving.

Below - my cake which I sprinkled with a touch of vanilla sugar for more sparkle.

...................and then a dollop of freshly whipped cream, delicious! Now off to make that cup of tea.

A Taste of Autumn

Have you ever bought fruit and found it wasn't ripe enough to eat immediately? When I opened the nasty plastic clamshell box containing these California plums. I found them to be really rock hard ~ a big disappointment! However a quick run through the cookbooks today turned up this Plum Raspberry Crumble in Ina Garten's great 'Barefoot In Paris' - Easy French Food You Can Make at Home. This was simple and delicious - luckily I had frozen beautiful raspberries this Summer, the plums baked to soft perfection, and all other ingredients are basic items we all keep around the kitchen.

Just the right dessert for an Autumn evening - warm from the oven with a dollop of creme fraiche - even the colors excite one's taste buds!

When life gives you cucumbers!

When life gives you cucumbers..........................................................................make Green Gazpacho!

Disappointments come easily when the garden doesn't live up to expectations - the good years are always discussed lovingly. "Remember the year we were still picking a ton of green tomatoes in October when the first frost was expected?" The poor years, such as this one, are best forgotten, except for cucumbers, well we did pick several pounds of tender haricot verts, but the tomatoes and peppers were disappointing. However, those European cucumbers - all grown from seeds - despite almost no rain, but enough hose water to make us quake in our shoes when the water bill arrives any day now, THESE cucumbers, wow! Bright green, yellow green, a few short and stubby, others as long as baseball bats, some even curved into alphabetical letters - they just keep coming and they are so good - small seeds, sweet, even tender skins.

If you enjoy the better known tomato based red Gazpacho, you may enjoy trying this one for a change. We actually like this one better and tonight, after it's well chilled, we'll enjoy a bowl along with our salmon Caesar salad. Today was another scorcher so anything light and cool is welcome sustenance.

GREEN GAZPACHO

4-5 medium European style cucumbers, peeled, any large seeds removed

1 medium sweet onion, such as Vidalia, cut into chunks

1 red bell pepper and 1 orange or yellow bell pepper, seeded, deribbed and cut into small chunks

1 medium jalapeno pepper seeded, deribbed and chopped

3 large cloves of garlic, minced

4 slices of day old Italian style bread such as Ciabatta, cut into cubes

3/4 cup good quality olive oil

Several sprigs of fresh mint

Juice of one lemon

Salt to taste

Croutons and parsley to garnish

Puree the cucumbers in a food processor until completely liquid, pour into a large bowl. Pulse the onion in food processor until coarsely chopped and add to cucumbers. Pulse peppers until coarse and add to bowl. Place jalapeno, bread cubes, garlic and mint in processor and slowly add olive oil through the feed tube until everything is well blended into a paste. Add to bowl with lemon juice, salt, one cup of ice water and a couple of ice cubes. Stir well and refrigerate at least 3 hours. Stir again, soup should be thick but if too thick add more ice water. Ladle into glass bowls pre-chilled in the freezer. Top with croutons, finely chopped parsley and a drizzle of olive oil. Keeps well refrigerated for a couple of days - 6/8 servings.

Best Mac & Cheese ever!

My 10 y.o. granddaughter begged me again last last week - several times - to please, please, please make the "posh mac & cheese" for lunch before she returns to school this month. This particular recipe from a British supermarket magazine (Sainsbury's) is touted as being, quote, "fit to serve the Queen" and I have to agree - even though I doubt Her Majesty will be sitting at my table any day soon! So this morning we grated three cheeses (cheddar, gruyere and parmigiano reggiano) and set to work - this is definitely not the type of mac & cheese you get in a box at the grocery store - it's the grown up version of the kids' favorite.

The first pic shows the magazine version - beautiful and delicious to say the least.

This pic shows our version, it's a little darker because we made our breadcrumb topping from whole wheat bread rather than white - doesn't that make a somewhat high calorie/high fat dish just that tiny bit more nutritious!!!!? Everything else is the basically the same - mini penne pasta being a little more elegant than macaroni - and juicy sliced tomatoes from the garden rather than those rather chewy little cherry tomatoes suggested in the recipe.

Yum - here we enjoyed our mac & cheese along with a mixed green salad - I really do think that even the Queen would have enjoyed this lunch in our gazebo!

Fresh Blueberries ~~~~ Let's Bake

Today was very hot however baking still seemed the thing to do with that huge box of magnificent blueberries - they're showing up at bargain prices now. Walked early with DH then prepared the blueberry cobbler. Loved this new recipe from Cooks Illustrated - biscuits have a little crunch with the added cornmeal.

Also made a traditional Tuscan Bread Salad - had some Ciabatta to use up and plenty of just picked from the garden tomatoes and basil. Tossed with cubed fresh mozzarella, a little minced garlic, freshly ground pepper, pinch of sea salt, and good fruity olive oil. Chill and serve. So Italian!

This all came together as a great Summer lunch - DH, granddaughter and I moved it into the screened gazebo after taking these pics - needed the cool breeze of the life saving ceiling fan!

Yum, gotta add a scoop of French Vanilla ice cream of course!

Italian peasant salad and Southern fruit dessert - way to go on a 95 degree day in North Carolina!

French Gateau Recipe

Several friends have requested the recipe for the very easy French cake which seems to have become a staple around here! Good just served plain for afternoon tea with a cuppa, or gussied up with whipped or pouring cream for a pretty dessert. Apparently the story behind this gateau style cake is that it's rustled up quickly to serve "pour le gouter" the afternoon snack when the children come home from school at 4 p.m. Dinner is served much later in France so I guess this yummy treat doesn't interfere with the evening meal!

Note the addition of ground almonds - these are used often in European baking and add nice moisture to a cake. I buy the pound bag of Bob's Red Mill Ground Almond Meal/Flour which I find available in most grocery stores in their health/natural foods section. Keep it in a zip bag in the 'frig. I use unsalted butter. Have tried using half Splenda for the sugar, however the cake looks a bit different in color, but tastes fine.

I now use all flexible silicon baking pans (KitchenAid has great ones - often on sale in TJMaxx/Marshalls/Homegoods). Love them for even cooking and easy release - this gateau pops right out on a plate inverted on top - nothing stuck behind in the pan!! Watch the cake carefully toward end of the baking time as it will start to brown quickly - I find 30 mins. is fine with the flexible pan - when I can see it pulling away from the edges. Hope you can click and enlarge recipe and start baking soon.

Enjoy!

I sometimes sprinkle with crushed pistachios or sliced almonds.
One of my favorite toppings for anything with fruit is Mascarpone Cream.

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

2 tablespoons honey

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Have cream, medium bowl and beaters chilled.

Whisk together mascarpone and honey in small bowl.

Whip cream to medium peaks in chilled medium bowl.

Fold mascarpone mixture into whipped cream. Chill until ready to serve.

Makes about 2-1/2 cups.

Cooking for Company

My long time best friend and her wonderful husband are coming to visit from California this Thursday thru Monday - can't wait to see them. She and I are both from England but met in Washington, D.C. in 1962. We discovered we grew up in the same seaside town and lived just a couple of miles from one another. We shared an apartment, bought a tiny British car, traveled to Canada for a weekend, danced all night in D.C. clubs, and did many crazy things I don't dare repeat! Oh to be twenty again!!
I'm so busy.........Spring cleaning, gardening, and now starting the cooking. Love to cook and try to get as much done ahead of time so I can spend more time with my friends. This Italian parsley is beautiful - it will be used a lot.
These gorgeous red peppers will become the Piedmont Roasted Peppers - to go with the penne with Gorgonzola and salad.

Here's the recipe - hope it enlarges when you click! It's from Delia Smith, a great British cook.
Will try to keep up with you all during this busy week. Hope everyone is having a great one.