Happy Summer!
I made clafouti from a Garrett McCord recipe this weekend. It's the perfect time because the cherries are still really good right now. It was tasty, although mine does not look lovely like his pictures. I didn't have the size baking dish he specified, so I used a skillet. This dish is very eggy and I would like to make it another time for breakfast. My only quibble is that I felt the almond extract taste was too strong. Two teaspoons is a lot of extract.
Then I made strawberry balsamic jam from a recipe from this book. I have a crush on the author, Eugenia Bone because she is pretty and does stuff like can her own tuna. However, this is the first time I've used the cookbook and it had mixed results. The balsamic flavor is not very pronounced and the jam is super sweet. She does not use pectin in her recipes, and the jam is very runny. I think it would make great pancake syrup. I had it in yogurt this morning. What I love about the book is that it is geared towards small batch canning. You can make jam after work, no big deal. I bought a six dollar flat of strawberries from the yolo fruit stand.
then I boiled the jars. Heating up the water is the most time-consuming part.
cook down the strawberries
add a crapload of sugar, and then the balsamic vinegar is stirred in at the end
Voila!
kind of a long shot-but has anyone ever spotted nettles at the farmer's market?
ReplyDeleteThis is the 3rd time in recent weeks that I've seen a reference to nettles. Was there an article somewhere recently?
ReplyDeleteI usually like to make clafouti with raspberries from my mom's yard. Generally I skip the almond extract and just use a teaspoon or so of amaretto and then throw in some sliced almonds. It's great for breakfast if you use plain yogurt and Egg Beaters for the custard - no guilt!
The author of the book has a blog and she mentioned pasta with nettles. That's kind of a signature dish at Oliveto in Oakland (the only place I've had nettles), and the nettles are delicious. They have a unique taste.
ReplyDeleteI have an aversion to nettles, since growing up they were also millions of them around our house. and I always seemed to be covered in nettle stings.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen them at the market, as far as I know they don't grow much around here.
-Natalie.
I bought nettles at the farmers markets in New York, but I've never seen them on the West Coast... There don't really seem to be any foraged foods at the farmers markets here, though. Do people cultivate nettles?
ReplyDeleteBen
I thought your clafouti this weekend was adorable in the black skillet. The slivered almonds were so good.
ReplyDeleteThe epicurious version I served for Father's Day breakfast was almost as good as yours. I think it would have been wise to adhere to the direction of letting it sit til cool - mine was soft and custardy, which is not a consistency prefered by small American children. The dish has now been renamed "Cla-poopie" in my home.
DKK
lol!
ReplyDeleteI saw a ton of nettles at the Portland farmers market. I know that doesn't help, but at least you could get them on the west coast. I've never tried them and really wanted to, but I wasn't cooking on vacation and didn't think they'd be good raw.
ReplyDelete-Anna
Yeah, I wonder if they sting your mouth if they're raw. Are they native to this area? If so, has anyone ever spotted them? That would be fun to forage them.
ReplyDeleteI got stung by some up in the Los Padres last year and my hand was swollen for days. It was like having fiberglass stuck in your skin.
ReplyDeleteI think you have to gather them when they are young, and still kinda tender?
The ones I ate at Lucques were very small leaved. Looked like baby ones to me. They were good.
-ec
Never having eaten them myself, I couldn't say if they sting, but there is a huge nettle eating contest every year in Dorset, England, and one of the rules is no mouth numbing substances.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2005/06/17/nettle_eating_feature.shtml
Sounds awful.
oh yeah, i heard the record holder on npr
ReplyDeletethe leaves themselves don't sting you its the stems. so I bet they don't sting much. maybe only slightly from the veins (? is that what its called?) You can always grab the leaves to move them our of your way.
ReplyDelete-Natalie.