Batter-Splattered

strawberry galette

 

On the plane home from Portland my friend and I stared hungrily at a recipe and photos of this strawberry galette in the pages of the May Martha Stewart Living magazine. On the side, it has a basil-infused whipping cream and fried and sugared basil leaves.

I had to make it.

But I must admit I didn't fry and sugar any basil leaves. Because I'm lazy. It's time you knew that about me. I kind of wish I had though. I bet those would have made for some very pretty photos.

The basil whipped cream was lovely. Not overwhelmingly basil-ish. It just has a nice herbal twist at the end when you taste a bit of it.

And my galette didn't turn out looking anywhere near as pretty as Martha's minion's galette but I could have told you that would be the case before I even started. Oh and I used some of my own dough because I had a single crust of it stored in my freezer.

Strawberry Galette

Serves 6 - 8

FOR THE BASIL CREAM

3/4 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup loosely packed fresh basil, chopped

2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup mascarpone cheese

FOR THE FRIED BASIL

2 cups vegetable oil

18 to 24 large fresh basil leaves

Sugar, for sprinkling

FOR THE DOUGH

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface

1 1/8 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

8 ounces (1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons ice water

FOR THE GALETTE

1 pound strawberries, hulled

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 large egg yolk

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Make the basil cream: Combine cream, basil, and sugar in a heatproof bowl. Set bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water, and stir until sugar dissolves, about 4 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 hours for a more pronounced basil flavor). Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl. Add mascarpone, and whisk until medium peaks form. Cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve, up to 2 hours.

Make the fried basil: Heat oil in a deep skillet to 325 degrees. Fry basil, a few leaves at a time, for 12 seconds. (The leaves will cause the hot oil to spatter; step away from the pan while they cook.) Drain leaves on paper towels, and let cool completely. Sprinkle both sides of the leaves with sugar. (Basil can be stored at room temperature overnight.)

Make the dough: Pulse flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor to combine. Add butter, and pulse until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Add ice water, and pulse until just combined (dough will still be crumbly). Shape dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a floured surface, roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out a 10-inch round, and transfer to a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Make the galette: Cut strawberries lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Reserve end pieces for another use. Toss slices with 1/4 cup sugar and the cornstarch, and immediately arrange them in concentric circles on dough. Start 1 inch from edge, overlapping slices slightly. Fold edge of dough over berries. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Whisk together yolk and water. Brush dough with the egg wash, and sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar. Dot berries with butter. Bake until crust is golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.

Transfer to a serving plate. Serve warm with basil cream and fried basil.

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

Here's the dessert I mentioned in yesterday's post, a peach and blueberry cobbler, as pretty as it is toothsome:

I wish I would have thought of the word toothsome when I was trying to think up a name for this blog. What a great name for a food blog. Take it, if you want -- just be sure to send me a check for a million dollars. You don't hear it very often which is such a shame. I like the sound of it. It accurately reflects that sort of tastiness that makes you want to sink your teeth into something.

I got this recipe from that same old cookbook I've been sampling from lately. I'm SO GLAD I tried this because the biscuit topping is phenomenal. Better than anything else I've tasted in its class. You toss together the dry ingredients and make a well in the center, then whip up whipping cream until soft peaks form. Stir it into the dry ingredients with a fork just until a dough forms. The dough is so light and puffy and sweet. I saved alot of scraps for eating raw!

I would have eaten those peaches and berries just like that, spooned over some vanilla ice cream. Or maybe just with a big spoon.

Costco just started selling these big bags of frozen fruit that I'm really excited about. Only $8 and the bag is full of good-looking wedges of peaches, white peaches, plump blueberries, and rounds of honeydew melon... so good! You can pick your way through it and make yourself a helluva pie. I take a big bowl of it to work with me and spear fruit with a fork throughout the day at my desk.

I used peaches -- white and regular -- for this cobbler recipe along with a couple of handfuls of tart little blueberries I picked myself last summer. My supply in the freezer is rapidly dwindling so summer better hurry her ass up so I can pick some more.

This was good and oh so easy.

Peach and Blueberry Cobbler

Serves six

4 1/2 c peaches sliced into wedges (you can also use nectarines or apricots)

1 pint blueberries (you can also use blackberries or raspberries)

1/2 c sugar

1 T plus 1 t cornstarch

1/2 c water

1 T lemon juice

1 3/4 c all-purpose flour

3 T sugar

1 T baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 c heavy cream

Milk, for brushing

Sugar, for sprinkling

Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large saucepan, combine the fruit and berries, sugar, cornstarch, water, and lemon juice. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, or until fruit has softened. Transfer to a shallow baking dish and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Spoon cream into the well and mix with a fork just until a dough forms.

On a lightly floured surface, gently knead the dough several times. Roll or pat the dough to 3/4 inches thick. Cut with a biscuit or cookie cutter of your choice and arrange biscuits on top of the fruit, brush with milk, and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake cobbler for 15 minutes or so, until biscuits are golden and fruit is bubbling. Let cool slightly. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

there's nothing prettier than pie / orchard patch pie

I call this my Orchard Patch Pie. It's a little something I came up with this afternoon, on the fly.

The pie fly.

'Orchard' because it has peaches (both white and regular) and 'patch' because it has berries (raspberries, blueberries, maybe a blackberry or two).

The husband and his friends were more than happy to help me out with the near-polishing-off of this pie (luckily, there were two slices left). One of them kept asking me to repeat the name for two reasons: one, he thought it was funny, and two, he wanted to be sure to be able to ask for it by name in the future.

I think you'll agree with me when I say there's nothing prettier than pie.

Here's my very simple recipe I created today. I think I need to make another one real soon.

Orchard Patch Pie

Makes one 9-inch pie

2 apples, peeled, pitted and diced

2 peaches, frozen or fresh, diced or sliced -- no need to thaw, if frozen

Handful of assorted berries, fresh or frozen -- no need to thaw, if frozen

3/4 c sugar plus more for sprinkling on top

1 T cornstarch

two piecrusts (I like this recipe)

egg white

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and position rack in center of oven. Combine all the fruit and berries in a big bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the 3/4 cup sugar and the cornstarch. Toss it thoroughly with the fruit. Roll out one pie crust and roll it into the bottom of the pie plate. Add the fruit and berries. Roll out the second pie crust and roll it on top of the fruit. Crimp the edges prettily. Poke the top all over with a fork, then use the fork to beat the egg white a little bit. Brush the top of the pie with the egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 and continue baking until it looks done -- lightly browned on top with a little juice bubbling out here and there.

the Great Alaska clean-out-your-freezer potluck / red currant champagne cocktails

As soon as I saw this post about an all-bacon potluck at Gluten Free Girl, I marched right out to my co-worker Angie's desk to point her in its direction. My god, the photos make my mouth water. All bacon... a potluck featuring bacon recipes. How brilliant an idea is that? Did I mention there was bacon?

Soon thereafter, Angie dreamed up the idea for an All Alaska Clean Out Your Freezer potluck, a chance for people to mix it up and meet new people and cook up some of last year's venison and fish and berries cluttering up their deep freeze (guilty) so they'll have plenty of room for this year's hunting and gathering. I mean, what's the point of living here if you aren't going to tromp out into the woods and pluck some berries or tromp on down to the river and catch yourself a king salmon?

It was to be held at my house. Angie created a charming invitation prominently featuring a photo of old Colonel Muktuk Marston:

 

He was quite the character but you knew that just from looking at his photo.

Lots of people we invited had other plans or were sticken with the flu and couldn't come, as will happen with any gathering. Usually when you invite a person to a party and they can't come, they just politely decline without much emotion, but these people... when they heard the idea behind the party, they were crushed. Whole-heartedly disappointed. One young woman rendered her garments in twain. Another thought about calling her parents in Seattle and telling them they'd have to fly in to visit her some other weekend.

For good reason too, because let me tell you what we had:

Pheasant stew served over caramelized shallot mashed potatoes (Alaska grown potatoes, of course)

Creamy halibut dip with the perfect bite of jalopeno served on blue cheese walnut sourdough bread from a local bakery. I just enjoyed some of the leftovers as a brunch-for-one:

A halibut roll that was sort of like a calzone with biscuit dough and a creamy halibut filling

A cream cheese salmon ball

Blueberry muffins made with berries I picked

Blueberry buttermilk tart made with berries Angie picked...

... the list went on and on. I made my own corned venison roast, soaking it in brine for four or five days before cooking it for the party -- more on it later in the week, but it even had people who didn't like corned beef exclaiming how good it was.

I set aside all day Saturday to prepare the house, cleaning, cooking, arranging flowers. I even had enough time leftover to take a little nap in the sun on the couch.

A hostess needs her rest before the onslaught. And if there's anything better than a nap in the sun, it's a nap in the sun with a puppy:

She would need her rest because three other dogs came over to romp in the yard for a few hours during the potluck, playing ring-around-the-greenhouse until they were all exhausted and a muddy mess.

We needed a fancy drink to serve at the party and Angie found this recipe for Red Currant Champagne Cocktails. I still have tons of red currants in my freezer, waiting for me to work up the energy to make another batch of jelly.

I made the puree on Saturday morning...

The results:

You glug a little of this in a fluted glass then pour champagne over it. Sweet and tart. Delicious. Several people brought bottles of champagne and we found that we liked the red currants best when mixed with sweeter champagne to counterbalance the tartness of the berries.

More on those other dishes later but for now here's our version of those cocktails.

Red Currant Champagne Cocktails

Makes enough puree to go with three or four bottles of champagne

1 1/2 pounds (about 3 pints) red currants, fresh or frozen

1/2 c sugar

Extra dry champagne

Cocktail straws for stirring (the puree tends to settle in the flute)

Place currants, sugar and two tablespoons of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes or so, stirring often, until berries are soft.

Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve set over a medium bowl, pressing on solids with a spatula or the back of a wooden spoon to extract liquid. Discard solids and chill liquid before using. Red currant puree can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 7 days.

Pour about two tablespoons of puree into a champagne flute. Pour in a bit of champagne and stir gently with a straw. Top off with more champagne.

Raspberry Chiffon Pie with Easy Pat-in-the-Pan Pie Crust

Alanna at Kitchen Parade invited me to join in her Pi Day Celebration by making a pie and I thought it sounded like an excellent weekend project and the perfect thing to serve to company coming over for Sunday lunch. This pie was a delicious way to round off a feast that included new potatoes dipped into cheesy fondue and lentil-beef chili (more on those later in the week) and oh, the margaritas, they were a-flowin'.

My mom, who was one of my lunch guests, is really into margaritas right now. She's become quite the master mixologist and last week I even got scolded for calling her on the phone during 'margarita hour.'

She was never that fun when I lived with her.

The official Pi Day website tells me that March 14 is celebrated the world-round by math enthusiasts, singing the praises of that little Greek symbol that stands for the ratio of the circumference of a circle.

Whatever that means.

I never need much prodding to make a pie. Especially a raspberry pie.

I found the recipe in the pages of a recent purchase, The Best of America's Test Kitchen -- the best recipes and reviews for the year. The raspberry chiffon pie with a cream cheese pie crust on pages 48 and 49  was calling to me like crazy. Both were wonderful.

The pie has three layers -- a fruity, jelly layer with frozen berries stirred together with pectin and boiled until they thicken and at the last minute, you stir in some fresh berries. The fresh berries cost me an arm and a leg -- I was hesitant to spend money on berries I can get for free by the bucketful in the summertime but in the end I bit the berry bullet and I wasn't sorry. It wouldn't have been the same without them.

On top of the berry layer is where the chiffon comes in. Raspberry jello gets stirred in with cream cheese and heavy cream. On top of the chiffon layer is a whole lot of fresh whipping cream.

The photo in the magazine, of course, is a work of art. Three distinct layers, cut into the perfect wedge. It's like an architect constructed it. Just as I've always turned my nose up at higher math (sorry Pi Day), I turn my nose up at that picture-of-perfection and look hungrily towards my own sloppy-gloppy-gorgeous concoction:

You should get the magazine for all sorts of tips and tricks on how to get each component perfectly perfect, in that wonderfully-anal way that Cooks Illustrated does things. I'll just give you the basic instructions here. The pie has this intense raspberry flavor, tart and a little sweet. The crust is wonderful -- just as the name suggests, rather than rolling it out, you shape the dough into a disk and pat it into the pie pan using the heel of your hand.

I almost didn't want to share.

Raspberry Chiffon Pie

Fruit layer

12-ounce bag frozen raspberries (2 cups)

3 T Sure-Jell pectin

1 1/2 c sugar

1 cup fresh raspberries

1 9-inch pie shell, baked and cooled (see recipe below)

Chiffon layer

3 T raspberry-flavored jello

3 T boiling water

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 c heavy cream, chilled

Whipped cream topping

1 1/4 c heavy cream, chilled

2 T sugar

Prepare, assemble and bake piecrust (see recipe below). Let it cool while you prepare the pie filling.

Fruit layer: Cook frozen berries in medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until berries begin to release their juice, about 3 minutes. Stir in pectin and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar and salt and return to a boil. Cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on solids to extract as much puree as possible. Scrape puree off underside of sieve too.

Transfer 1/3 cup of raspberry puree to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Gently fold fresh berries into remaining puree. Spread fruit mixture evenly over bottom of pie shell and set aside.

Chiffon layer: Dissolve jello in boiling water in mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Add cream cheese and reserved 1/3 cup of raspberry puree and beat on high until smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add cream and beat on medium-low speed until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes. Spread evenly over the fruit in the pie shell. Cover pie with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set, at least three hours.

Whipped cream topping: when you're ready to serve the pie, beat the cream and sugar on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Spread or pipe over the chilled filling. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Easy Pat-in-the-Pan Pie Dough

Makes one 9-inch pie shell

1 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour

2 T sugar

1/4 t salt

8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened but still cool

2 oz. cream cheese, softened but still cool

Lightly coat a 9-inch pie plate with vegetable oil spray.

Whisk flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.

Beat butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add flour mixture and beat on medium-low until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, about 20 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl and increase speed to medium-high until dough begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds. Reserve 3 T of the dough and set aside.

Turn remaining dough out onto a lightly floured counter, gather into a ball, and flatten into a 6-inch disk. Transfer to pie plate and press the dough evenly over the bottom of the plate towards the sides, using the heel of your hand. With fingertips, work dough up the sides until evenly distributed.

Roll reserved 3 tablespoons into ropes, press onto edges of crust and form a fluted edge. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and adjust oven rack to middle posiiton. Lightly prick the bottom of the crust with a fork. Bake until golden brown, 35 - 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

an ode to blackberries

Pop one blackberry in my mouth and I'm eight years old again, pushing my way through bushes as tall as I am to pluck buckets full of hot, juicy blackberries along the railroad tracks that split my little town in two, pluck, pluck, plucking, and watching out for snakes and listening warily for the buzz of beehives suspended in the brush.

You can just barely hear the waves of the Gulf of Mexico washing up on beaches full of sand trucked in from out of state -- a reef along the coast keeps out sand and shells -- so there's nary a shark's tooth to be found which, I'll think you'll agree with me, sort of ruins the appeal of going to the beach.

My elementary school is just off to my right through the trees and just on the other side of the tracks to my left is where my poorer classmates live in tiny houses with real hardwood floors, slamming screen doors, and green lawns towered over by magnolia trees and the looming branches of live oaks dripping with spanish moss.

The heat and humidity is stifling but you can smell honeysuckle and if the breeze is just right you can also catch the salty sea scent of shrimp boats at the piers. Even today, I can't peel a fresh shrimp without wanting to breathe in the aroma of the bowl of shrimp shells I'm about to discard -- others might distastefully sweep those crunchy crustacean leftovers straight into the trash can -- go ahead and wrinkle your nose, but I take a moment to savor the smell of the sea.

Berries, berries, beautiful berries and they're all ripe for the plucking in every direction, every which way, at a price too good to be true, what my friend's friend calls his favorite flavor: FREE. Today I live in a climate not at all suited to growing blackberries, but back then they were so plentiful and hot and ripe they just about fell apart in my fingers, which were so raw from the hairy thorns of the blackberry bushes I never knew if my fingertips were stained with juice or blood or both.

Nowadays, once I start picking berries I don't want to stop but back then it was just a chore, something my mom had to drag me and my brother off to do. I would have rather been off swimming in cool water or sitting on a porch reading a book. But pop one blackberry in my mouth and I'm eight years old again and I can close my eyes and hear the mockingbirds call and the screen doors slam and the breeze ruffle the leaves of oak trees.