Happy birthday to me! I was going to coffee this morning at a friend’s house, and I said I would bring cake. Gotta use those plums! This is my favorite plum torte recipe; you can find it here on my blog. It’s a mash-up of NYTimes, Smitten Kitchen, and Food52. My take on it subs in cornmeal for part of the flour.
Someone mentioned to me that the plums don’t sink as much if you put them cut side up, that the plums turn into a glaze with all that sugar and cinnamon. So I tried it yesterday. (No picture, sorry.) The plums didn’t sink in as much, true. But it looked more like a cake with plums on it, rather than a plum infused cake. Would that make a difference in the taste and texture?
I wanted this morning’s torte to be perfect, so we had to taste it. For science. I knew I had enough plums for two cakes, and I would bake a second torte whichever way I liked better.
Cut side down was the clear winner. All that juicy goodness goes into the torte, instead of sitting on top. I baked another one last night. Here’s this morning’s torte, with yogurt/fruit/nut parfaits, and candied bacon (on the green plate).
I’ve been a fan of the Bootie and Bossy Eat Drink Knit podcast for a while now. These two sisters talk about knitting, cooking, and life. Recently they’ve been on a read-through of Anne L. Macdonald’s No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting. I read this when it first came out (in hardback!). I think I’ll read it again, on my Kindle.
I was honored when they invited me to have a chat with them for their podcast. It was a fun and rambling conversation about all things knitting, and more.
I think my suggestions for snacking while knitting really captured their fancy. Have a listen here, and giggle along with us! (Link is for Apple Podcasts, but you can also find them on Spotify.)
The little purple Italian plums are in season, and my friend Ann gave me some. They’re so good for snacking, and also for cake!
Clockwise: Plums, placed, cinnamon sugared, baked
I love the way the batter rises up around the plums, so they’re just peeking out. Here’s the recipe from 2021.
Plum Torte
3/4 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) salted butter, softened 2 large eggs 3/4 cup all purpose flour plus 1/4 cup corn meal 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 10 – 12 small plums, cut in half and pitted 1 tablespoon chunky sugar and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon for garnish
Cream sugar and butter, beat in eggs, beat in dry ingredients. The batter is quite thick. I put mine in an 8” springform pan (lined with parchment paper), because that’s the one I have. Top with plums, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or til done. Cool, remove from pan, celebrate!
It’s starting to feel like fall. School is in session; I can tell by the kids passing by on their way to the local school. Plum cake is also a sign of fall. And so is woolly knitting!
I finally got around to baking that blueberry nectarine galette, and it was delicious.
Served à la mode. Happy Bastille Day!
It took me a while to get to it, because I had a hankering for cobbler, and I needed the kids to come over for dinner to help eat it. I took it outside to cool, so Calvin couldn’t get it. Love that early evening light, so directional!
This is the first time I’ve made the galette this large. I think I prefer them smaller, more like a hand pie. So I’d make a half recipe of the crust here, which I usually do, but divide it in two next time. (A quarter recipe per galette, which is the size of the one in the collage below.) And then just fill it in with whatever fruit is on hand. Which means blueberries, for now.
I’ve put 2 gallons of blueberries into the freezer, but during blueberry season I’m always looking for ways to use them fresh. I’m dreaming of a parfait with a crushed gingersnap bottom, vanilla pastry cream, blueberries, and whipped cream layered.
Like the blueberry cream pie (upper right corner), but in 8 ounce jelly jars. Or! Crushed lemon wafer cookies, lemon curd, whipped cream, and blueberries. Also in cute jars. Tall small mouth jars? Short wide mouth jars? A baked crust in the jar? Hmmmmm. As long as the berries keep coming, I have time to play.
Do you like to play in the kitchen? I’m always thinking about how I’d like to tweak things!
The 25 year old blueberry bush is in overdrive this year. I’m picking, picking, picking. Two gallons so far, and there’s more. We have some raspberries, too.
So far I’ve baked a blueberry cobbler for a friend recovering from knee surgery, a blueberry cream pie for tonight’s happy hour gathering, and I’m planning to bake galettes tomorrow. DH won’t have the cobbler or pie (can’t present those with a chunk cut out!), so the galette is for him. Recipe posts are hyperlinked, in case you need to make these, too.
You know I have a long-standing passion for yellow plum jam. Yellow plums are my all time favorite for jamming, and and for eating.
I made 2 batches (20 half pint jars) of ginger/plum/bourbon jam, from just two bowls of plums from my friend Linda. I thought I was done for the year.
Darn kids, I thought. Who’s dropping lunch reject plums on my dried up front lawn? Then I looked up, and realized the truth. The plum trees that I planted 10 years ago, that never produced fruit (well, one tree made two plums about 5 years ago), have decided that this is the year. Maybe they like being heat stressed, or they think they need to reproduce because the heat is going to kill them. Whatever.
I got on a ladder, and picked 19 plums. That’s the harvest, between the two trees. They’re oddly large, and the fruit is firm, like an Italian prune. I think they’re a Japanese plum, but I’m not sure; 2011 was a long time ago. The plums aren’t especially juicy, and they’re fairly tart. I don’t want to make more jam; purple plum jam isn’t as delicious as yellow plum jam, at least to me. What to do?
I put out the question on FB, and the answer was: Plum Torte. The famous NYTimes recipe from Marian Burros, to be precise. I remembered that Smitten Kitchen also had a take on it, and another friend referred to the Food52 version. Excellent references, all. I did a mashup of the three using:
3/4 cup all purpose flour plus 1/4 cup corn meal 1 teaspoon baking powder Large pinch of salt 3/4 granulated sugar 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) salted butter, softened 2 large eggs 5 plums quartered and pitted (because mine are so big) (10 – 12 small plums, normally) omitted the fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon chunky sugar and a sprinkle of ground cinnamon for garnish
Cream sugar and butter, beat in eggs, beat in dry ingredients. I put mine in an 8” springform pan (lined with parchment paper), because that’s the one I have. Top with plums, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or til done. Cool, remove from pan, celebrate!
I told you the plums are oddly large. The recipes call for 12 small Italian plums, halved, and a 9” pan. If I had halved the plums, I could probably only fit 4 in the pan, so I cut them lengthwise, twice, and made a flower/sunburst with them. They sink into the cake,, so you’d never know, and I forgot to take a picture before baking. I’m not a real food blogger!
We loved this so much, I had to make it a second time, because we still have a few plums left. Also, I wanted to tweak it a bit; I used more corn meal the first time, and it was crunchier than I like. I have medium grind cornmeal, because I use it under pizza on the pizza stone. A finer grind would be ideal, but I don’t use corn meal often enough to have more in the pantry.
This cake is actually for dessert tonight, but I wanted to take a picture for you. And now I have to taste it. Such a sacrifice. Delicious!
I’ve been making chocolate chip scones for decades. The ancient recipe lives on my refrigerator, and is getting harder and harder to read. It used 4 tablespoons of butter, and milk. They were nice, but not particularly luxe. Along the way, I’ve modified things a bit.
Ginger Chocolate Scones
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
2 cups flour (not whole wheat; I used unbleached white) 3 tablespoons sugar 1 1/2 tsp baking powder (not soda) 1/2 tsp salt
8 Tbsp (1/2 cup) cold butter
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips 1/4 cup candied ginger bits (I like Penzey’s)
1/2 cup half and half (just barely, or it will be too wet) 1 egg, scrambled
Combine dry ingredients and stir. Cut the butter into pieces and then blend them into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter. Stir in chocolate chips and ginger. Scramble the egg into the half and half, and then pour it into the flour mixture. Stir until blended, then knead on floured surface about 10 times. Form three balls with the dough. Pat out balls into circles about 7 inches in diameter, slightly mounded in center. Cut each circle into six pieces. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, cover with a towel and let rest for 10 minutes. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until just golden. Cool on rack. EAT! To reheat, warm in toaster oven on lowest setting.
Makes 18 dainty scones.
One step closer to letting you know about my new project! Soon.
For Christmas, we gave the kids a private Zoom class with our favorite local chef, Jenn Louis. She has had several restaurants here in Portland, and has several cookbooks out, too. Their choices were: handmade pasta, paella, or tamales. They felt that paella was the dish they would probably make again on their own. Good call!
Jenn even lent us paella pans for the event. So perfect! I did all the shopping; it was like making a meal kit for the kids. They’re in a Covid bubble, as are we, so we had two houses cooking together, apart.
Jenn planned the whole meal. We had some nibbles before dinner: Manchego cheese, quince paste, marcona almonds and baguette.
Salad with roasted red pepper, olives, tangerines, lemon vinaigrette (and some goat cheese left over from the dates)
Bacon wrapped dates, stuffed with goat cheese.
The kids bought these delightful Spanish wines, red and an effervescent white. They were a perfect pairing with our dinner.
Are you hungry now? Jenn has graciously allowed me to share the paella recipe, below. She also said that we could do this in a large skillet, if we didn’t have paella pans. (I’m not sure I really have room to store one, lovely as the are.)
Paella with chorizo and shellfish
SERVES 4 1⁄4 cup [60 ml] olive oil, plus more for finishing 4 ounces [115 g] chorizo, roughly chopped 8 ounces [230 g] mixed seafood of your choice 1 yellow onion, diced 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 2 tablespoons sweet smoked paprika 1 cup [200 g] Calasparra, Valencia, or Bomba rice (short grain, arborio works, too) Small pinch of saffron threads (about 1⁄2 teaspoon) 2 tomatoes, cut into 6 pieces each and most seeds removed Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 cups [960 ml] chicken stock or water, plus more as needed (edit: now that I’m doing this in my skillet rather than a wider, shallower paella pan, I’m going to start with 3 cups. I can always add more if the rice isn’t done enough.)
Warm the olive oil in a 13 1⁄2-inch [34-cm] paella pan over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and cook for 2 minutes, then add the onion, garlic, and paprika. Cook until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the rice and saffron and stir to evenly coat and toast the rice, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook until they become warm and begin to fall apart, about 3 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Evenly distribute and flatten out the rice in the pan and then add the stock. Turn the heat to high, taste the broth, and adjust the seasoning. Bring to a simmer, then decrease the heat to a medium simmer and cook, rotating the paella pan every 2 minutes, for about 20 minutes, until the rice is plump and cooked. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper.
After 10 minutes arrange the seafood on top of the rice and continue to cook until the seafood is done. (edit: I’m adding seafood when the liquid is down to the rice level)
Keep the paella over high heat and continue to rotate the pan every 2 minutes to create an evenly crispy bottom, (known as socarrat). Add additional chicken stock or water as needed to fully cook the rice. (edit: my super conductive Cuisinart pan doesn’t need to go to high heat; I don’t want it to scorch!)
A very pretty dinner, indeed!
I love gifts that are consumable, and leave no clutter behind. This was exactly right. And we all got to hang out together on Zoom, still socially distant. I’ll be so glad when they can just come over for dinner again, but this was a great alternative. Thanks to Jenn Louis for the recipe and the class!
Jenn’s latest cookbook is The Chicken Soup Manifesto; I gave a copy to my sister Sharon last year.
Burmese Chicken Noodle SoupChicken Mafè (West African)Chicken gumbo
She’s on a roll! (Soup photos are courtesy Sharon Hsu. And I don’t know why the first two turned sideways when I uploaded them?)
This was a delightful appetizer. So simple, and so pretty. I’m not done playing with the idea, but here are some rough notes for it. Still playing with my food!
Summer Vegetable Tart
1 Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry sheet (2 in a box, I’ll be playing again)
1/2 small zucchini (you may call it a courgette if you’re fancy)
1/2 small yellow crookneck squash (story below)
20 cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella (I used crumbled feta, but will change)
small handful of basil leaves, sliced thin
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 T maple syrup
salt and pepper
Thaw puff pastry, 40 minutes. I flip it halfway through because it can get soggy. Roll it out a little bigger, to about 10” square. Fold up the edge to create a lip. Use a fork to poke holes in the bottom of the pastry to keep it from rising too much (but mine rose anyway, and I had to stab it to deflate it). Pre-bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
While your pastry is pre-baking, slice squash into 1/8” thin rounds. Slice tomatoes in half. On your pre-baked pastry (which you’ve stabbed to deflate), sprinkle parmesan, and arrange your vegetables, artfully, of course. Bake 20 – 22 minutes at 400 degrees, until pastry is brown and vegetables are done.
10 minutes before tart is done, bring balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, and a pinch of salt and pepper to a boil, turn heat to medium high, and reduce to thicken to a sauce, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
When tart is finished, sprinkle with mozzarella and basil leaves, and drizzle with the sauce. Beautiful!
Planned playing: Toss the vegetables with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper to so they juice up a bit while cooking? Pre-roast more vegetables (because they’ll shrink), chunkier cut, for more flavor/softer texture? Or, do it like Jamie Oliver: roast the veggies in a dish, then put the puff pastry on top and cook, then flip the whole thing over to serve. Brilliant. I’m trying this next. Link here. I think it’s heartier/more dinner-like. The tart I made is a lovely light appetizer.
Oliver drizzles balsamic vinegar over all, but I think I’d still do the balsamic glaze to give it more body. It’s pretty!
I don’t think there’s any way to get this dish wrong; there are so many ways to play with it.
Edit: The kids came for socially distant lunch today, so I tried the roast and flip version. Upshot? It was good, but I like it better the first way; I don’t like my veggies being super soft from roasting. So I’ll probably hybridize this by tossing the thinly sliced squash with a bit of olive oil and oregano, and then placing them with the tomatoes on a par-baked crust and baking to finish. You could also use a veggie peeler and create squash ribbons, if you want to look *really* fancy.
Go play with your food!
Back story: I have one yellow crookneck squash plant. It has given me ONE squash, and not for lack of trying on my part. So I wanted to showcase the pretty squash, and that’s why I made this tart.
The plant was making lots of flowers. boy flowers. Then it made girl flowers. But not at the same time, for weeks. Finally, girl flowers appeared. (You can tell because they have an ovary under the flowers; boy flowers are just flowers on a stem.) But the girl flowers weren’t getting fertilized, so they were withering on the vine (lower left picture).
Reader, I did the plant sex for them. Water color paintbrush. Boy pollen to girl flower. Voilà, a squash! Just one, so far. And now I check my flowers daily…just call me yenta/matchmaker!
First, I have a Kerfuffle stranded colorwork cowl class on Wednesday evening through Weird Sisters. You don’t even have to be in the same time zone! Here’s the link.
It *is* possible to learn knitting techniques through Zoom, and if you’re missing your usual knitting circle, this is a great way to get your knitting fix. We had a Petite Brioche class on Saturday, and everyone was successfully knitting brioche by the end of class.
Second, I mailed off some goodies for the Minerva KAL participants this morning. If you’re out of the country, it could take up to 2 weeks to arrive. Otherwise, locally should be much quicker than that.
Fourth, I’ve been playing with quick pickles recently. My favorite so far are these spicy fish sauce pickles. Original recipe here, and my take below. Basically double the liquid ingredients, reduce the sugar and red pepper. And only one cucumber. That’s what fits in the jar!
Spicy Fish Sauce Quick Pickles
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 small cucumber
Cut cucumber into 1/4” thick rounds. Whisk all other ingredients together in a wide mouth 12 oz canning jar. Add cucumber slices. Refrigerate for 3 hours/overnight. They get spicier the longer you soak them! I take them out the next day and store them in a covered dish.
Find my patterns on Ravelry: Michele Bernstein Designs
Here are some of my favorites, and the newest. Many of my designs are also available through my Payhip store.
PDXKnitterati 