Grilled Peach Salad

Nothing ground breaking here. Just a reminder that summer fruit can add easy elegance to a salad, especially when paired with a tangy goat cheese or a rich blue. Here I grilled some peaches only enough to get marks but not enough to "cook" them. (I find it easy to do this using my cast iron grill pan where I can keep a close eye on them.) I tossed them with some toasted pecans, crumbled goat cheese, bacon and a champagne vinaigrette for a delicious little salad with a southern twist. You could skip the grilling and the salad would still be fantastic.

Other good combinations? Strawberries, Spinach and slivered almonds. Apples, walnuts, gruyere or other cheese. Raspberries with greens and a raspberry vinaigrette. Figs, Arugula, proscuitto, and shaves of parmaggiano. Figs or dates and blue cheese and perhaps hazelnuts. (?)

Don't forget the bacon or proscuitto when dreaming up combinations. The salty bits make the fruit all the more sweet and we all know about the bacon and cheese, Mmmmm.

Just think of a background of greens (perhaps on the bitter side: arugula, frisee or just baby greens or baby spinach) a little meat for salt, fruit for sweet, nuts for crunch, cheese for a creamy foil and a tart vinaigrette to brighten it all up. Then you'll have the perfect salad.

Warm Peach and Prosciutto Salad with Arugula

Peaches and plums are what is good (in the midwest) right now. So here is an exceptionally good and seasonal salad from Michael Chiarello of the Food Network. It is Warm Peach and Prosciutto Salad with Arugula. The peaches and arugula are simply warmed briefly with a balsamic vinaigrette and plated over prosciutto. You get warm sweet from the peaches, bitter crunch from the arugula, salty chewy from the prosciutto and a pop of tartness from the vinaigrette. With all those flavors happening at once in your mouth, you gotta love it.

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

The only thing tricky about this raspberry tart is acquiring really good raspberries (and not spending a fortune.) Otherwise it is pretty straightforward: graham cracker crust, bittersweet chocolate ganache cooled a bit ... And raspberries. You want firm and perfect jewels to adorn the top. And now is the time, berries are at their best and their cheapest.

Banana Muffins TDF

I wanted to tell you about these Kona Inn Banana Muffins from the 150 Best American Recipes Book. The recipe is from the highly regarded baker, Marion Cunningham, author of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. These turn out really, really good. I liken them to the banana muffins from the original Corner Bakery, back when the Corner Bakery was just one bakery (with breads from Nancy Silverton) and not a corporate entity. The recipe makes only 12 perfect muffins but uses a whopping 5 bananas. My math tells me that's roughly 4 tenths of a banana per muffin. And there's no cinnamon or vanilla, just pure banana flavor. The only thing is the recipe calls for shortening, which I don't really like to use. I do keep some in the freezer though, because I use it for Ina Garten's Perfect Pie Crust. I just use the no-trans fat variety and try not to think about it. The recipe is written in sort of a tedious way, perhaps intended for the novice baker. I apologize for that.

Kona Inn Banana Muffins

½ c veg. shortening, plus more for greasing pan
1 ¼ c all purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling on the pan
5 very ripe med. bananas
1 t baking soda
½ t salt
1 c sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ c chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Smear the cups of a muffin pan with shortening and sprinkle with a little flour and shake the pan to distribute. Turn the pan upside down over the wastebasket and shake out excess flour.

Peel the bananas, place them in a large bowl and beat them well with an electric mixer. The riper the bananas and the more you mash them, the more tender your muffins will be. Don’t expect absolute smoothness, there will always be a few lumps. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add sugar, shortening, eggs and walnuts to the bananas and mix well. ( I like to save some walnuts to put on the top) Add the dry ingredients ot the banana mixture and stir just until the batter is thoroughly blended.

Fill muffin cups to about two-thirds full. If you’ve reserved some walnuts, dot the tops of the batter with them.

Place pan in the lower third of the oven. After 15 minutes, check the muffins for doneness. A toothpick should come out clean. If not, cook 5 minutes longer and check again. When toothpick comes out clean, remove the muffins from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

Run a knife along the edges of the muffins and transfer them to a platter serve warm.

These can be a cake. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and divide the batter between them. Bake for about 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool cakes in the pan for 10 minutes. Dust completely cooled cakes with powdered sugar.

Balsamic-Macerated Strawberries with Basil

This delicious concoction falls in the same line as the pineapple salsa, so I thought I'd follow-up with it. Here in a salad-like dish, the strawberries play the part of the tomato, just as the pineapple does in the salsa below.

You could take this dish many ways. As you'll see by the ideas at the bottom of the recipe, all the suggestions are dessert preparations. But I think you could also spoon this over baby spinach for a nice salad, maybe with some goat cheese and pecans. The balsamic vinegar brings out the best in the sweet strawberries and it isn't too tart. The basil makes it heady, aromatic and savory, as if it were tomatoes, only the sweetest imaginable tomatoes.

I quartered the recipe when I made it because I just wanted to taste it. We topped ours simply with some plain yogurt. I thought it was delicious; dear husband proclaimed it "weird, but good."

Try this as the strawberry season approaches and tell me what you think.

Balsamic-Macerated Strawberries with Basil

by Sarah Breckenridge

For this recipe, there’s no need for an expensive, artisanal balsamic vinegar—a grocery-store vinegar is perfectly well suited.Serves four as a dessert; six to eight as a filling or topping.

2 lb. fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick (about 4 cups)
1 Tbs. granulated sugar
2 tsp. balsamic vinegar
8 to 10 medium fresh basil leaves

In a large bowl, gently toss the strawberries with the sugar and vinegar. Let sit at room temperature until the strawberries have released their juices but are not yet mushy, about 30 minutes. (Don’t let the berries sit for more than 90 minutes, or they’ll start to collapse.)
Just before serving, stack the basil leaves on a cutting board and roll them vertically into a loose cigar shape. Using a sharp chef’s knife, very thinly slice across the roll to make a fine chiffonade of basil.

Portion the strawberries and their juices among four small bowls and scatter with the basil to garnish, or choose one of the serving suggestions below.

Serving suggestions:

~Serve the strawberries over grilled or toasted pound cake. Garnish with a dollop of crème fraîche.
~Put the berries on split biscuits for shortcakes; top with whipped cream and scatter with the basil.
~Layer the berries with ice cream or yogurt for a parfait. Garnish with the basil.
~Spoon the strawberries over a poached or roasted peach half.
~Use the berries as a filling for crêpes or a topping for waffles.
~Mash the berries slightly and fold into whipped creamm for a quick fool. Garnish with the basil.

From Fine Cooking 86

Salad of the month

I think I've made this salad four times since the beginning of the year. I found it on a nifty food blog called Under the High Chair. She calls it Winter Salad of Russet Apple, Pomegranate and Pecans. A fancy name, but it is just a simple combination of apple, celery, pomegranate, shallot and pecans with an apple cider vinegar vinaigrette. I just love it and I want to call it Waldorf Salad Nouveau. For a few days last week I couldn't find a pomegranate at any market. I learned that pomegranate season runs from September to January. And I feared that my salad days were over. But, ever diligent, I kept going to different markets until I found some and then I bought a bunch to hold me over for a while.

The recipe calls for juicing the pomegranate and then reducing the juice to a syrup for drizzling over the salad. I cheat on this step by buying Pom juice and reducing that (much less messy than juicing a pomegranate.) The blog writer calls it her "play-date" salad because she makes it for moms when they meet for playdates. So for the first time, I made it with some girlfriends during a little lunch "play-date." It went over well. You can also put it this salad over greens (like baby spinach or romaine) to make it more substantial. But I like it best just as a composed little course of a salad.

The salad is simple elegance defined. S make it while you can. Also if it is still possible to get pomegranates near Valentine's Day, I could not imagine a more appropriately gorgeous first course to a romantic dinner for two.

Winter Salad of Russet Apple, Pomegranate, and Pecans - from Under the High Chair

1 russet apple, julienne
1 pomegranate, seeds removed
1 stalk firm celery, julienne
¼ cup pecans, lightly toasted and roughly chopped
1 shallot, julienne
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
Salt and pepper

In a very small saucepan, bring apple cider vinegar to a boil. Pour over julienne shallots and allow to cool to room temperature. Mix in grape seed oil and set aside.
Reserve about ¼ cup of the pomegranate seeds and crush the rest to extract the juice. Pour off the juice into a wide, shallow bowl and place in microwave. Microwave on high for three minutes, then scrape down sides with a spatula a stir slightly. Juice will be reducing and thickening. Microwave, one minute at a time, checking consistency between each minute until juice is consistency of maple syrup. Cool.

In a bowl, toss together the apple, reserved pomegranate seeds, celery, and shallots and some of the apple cider marinade. Season with salt and pepper and add more vinaigrette if needed. Add pecans, toss and mound onto a plate. Drizzle with pomegranate reduction and serve.

Pork Chops with Ginger-Cherry Sauce

If we were playing the word association game and you said "pork," I would say "fruit." Because for me, fruit is just the best possible accompaniment to somewhat bland pork. I really have a hard time getting excited about pork chops for dinner unless there is fruit involved (with the exception of squash and pork - that's good too for the same sweet reasons) Apples, of course, are a natural pairing, along with its buddies applesauce or apple cider. Pineapple or peach salsa can top off of pork taco pretty well too, especially when there's some red chile sauce involved as a contrast to the sweet.

So when I stopped by to visit a favorite blog, Pork Cracklins, and I saw a Cooking Light recipe for Pork Chops with Ginger-Cherry sauce, I knew I would have give it a try because the thought of it just made my mouth water. This is a really delicious simple recipe and I made only a few changes. I used fresh ginger instead of jarred(?) And I added some real tart red cherries from my frozen stash to the sauce, in addition to the preserves. These red cherries looked like jewels on the plate and really made the dish special.


We tried to convince the kids that this sauce was sweet and made the pork taste better, but alas, they had theirs sans sauce. With the red sauce and the green veg, wouldn't this make a festive dish for a holiday dinner party? Our green veg of the night was green beans sauteed with garlic and shitake mushrooms. I'm puttting shitake in everything lately, I'm just hooked on them.

Closure

I'm aware of the excessive amount of pie photos on this web blog. But I just think there are few things prettier. So on that note, here's a picture of a piece of pie from this recent post on Cherry Pie. I was so pleased with the shot when I finally uploaded it from my camera, that I felt it worthy of a follow-up post. So, although this pie has been long ago consumed, here's a little remembrance of its brief life as a pie. It was a good pie.

Prosciutto con Melone

I've always thought this was a weird dish, pork wrapped around melon. But it tastes really good, the salty prosciutto against a sweet, juicy piece of melon. I don't like to order this in a restaurant because you can never be sure how good the melon will be, sometimes even in the nicest places!! But when I start to get good musk melons and cantaloupe from the market, I like to pick up some prosciutto de Parma and make this at home.

Tart Red Cherries

Sour cherries are in the market for about 3 brief weeks of summer. We've all seen pictures of cooked cherry pies before, so today I decided to share a view of cherries sitting in their crust waiting to be topped. Lovely, yes?

Strawberry season

I have the hardest time at the farmers market. Everything looks so good that I sometimes tend to, ahem, buy too much. Berries can especially be a challenge because you really only have a small window of opportunity to use them at their peak. This week at the market, the strawberries were luscious. About the size of the tip of a thumb and smaller, they were sweet and red all the way through. Their perfume wafted from the stand as I approached. I just couldn't resist buying a couple quarts.

When we've eaten all the fresh berries we can, some sort of baked fruit thing is our favorite way to finish off the rest. This strawberry crisp is from Fine Cooking issue 72. It was an unusual recipe (to me, at least) in that the crisp topping is made from buttered bread crumbs. The author likened the finished flavor to "buttered toast with strawberry preserves." The topping turned out delicately crisp which was OK but not fantastic. It did taste a little like toast. I much prefer a classic crunchier crisp topping like the one from Fine Cooking issue 43, so I'll probably not make this again.

Tarts and Turnovers

Thumbing through Fine Cooking issue no. 79, I found an article on berry desserts that I had passed over and forgotten. The article incudes a butter dough recipe that you can use to make a few different desserts. One suggestion is a fruit tart using the dough for the shell and a mix of lemon curd folded into whipped cream for the filling. The tart is finished with fresh berries. You could use this dough to make eight little lovely tarts.


Another possibility with the dough is it to use it to make hand pies or what FC editors dubbed "Rustic Raspberry Turnovers." If you use the dough for this recipe, it will give you 12 turnovers, maybe more with scraps rerolled.



I, feeling especially frisky one recent afternoon, decided to try both recipes by making just two tarts and using the rest of the dough to make turnovers. This Buttery Shortbread Pastry Dough is delicious and worked really well for both recipes. The little turnovers are made from circles, 4 inches in diameter. You can only fit 3 or 4 sugared raspberries in them (5-6 blueberries, I made some of both.) The crust is like a flaky cookie, and the bright tart berries play off its buttery sweetness. These were great for a few days, just sitting on the counter. Dear husband took them to work for a snack.

As for the fruit tarts, the lemon curd/whipped cream was a revelation. I loved it with the berries and it was so easy using jarred lemon curd. You could easily have the tart shells and the lemon whipped cream made in advance and assemble these tarts right before you need them. Also I think children would enjoy assembling them, spooning in the cream and decorating with berries. And the shells are sturdy enough that you wouldn't need to worry about them breaking.

Buttery Shortbread Pastry Dough

yields enough for 1 single pie crust, 8 mini tarts, or 12 turnovers

9 oz. (2 cups) all-purpose flour
7 oz. (14 T) chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 T granulated sugar
1 T chilled heavy cream
2 t fresh lemon juice
1 t table salt

In a food processor, combine the flour, butter, egg, sugar, cream, lemon juice, and salt and pulse until the dough starts gathering together in big clumps. Turn the dough out onto a counter and gather it together. Shape the dough as needed