Economy of Scale

So late Saturday morning I get a text.

Craig: Ribs? Tonight?
Me:  Sure!


One of the reasons why Craig and I get along so famously is we both appreciate a certain economy of language.  And like most conversations, it's all about the subtext.  Here's a translation of what was really said.


Craig: Ribs? Tonight? = Girrlll, you better come over here tonight and help me eat up some of that big pile of meat you enabled me to buy at Restaurant Depot and use that beautiful new grill I got a great deal on.
Me:  Sure! =  Oh you know I'm going to be there because I have recipes to try out and if I don't find more guinea pigs taste testers I'm going to weigh 400 lbs from eating all this food.


So I had a few hours before the Meat-Fest began to whip up something delicious to pair up with Craig's wonderful pork ribs.  I wanted something rich and hearty so I went with Virginia Willis's Gratin Dauphinois which was inspired by a version she learned at Anne Willan's La Vareene.  Great recipe, again out of her wonderful Bon Appetit, Y'All.  But I also had a stack of library books that I've been enjoying and noticed a quick dessert from the cookbook The Farm.

Ian Knauer was a former food editor at the late lamented Gourmet.  The Farm is a collection of recipes that Ian shares from his Pennsylvania family farm.  Beautiful photos from Hirsheimer & Hamilton and recipes that run the gamut from quick and simple to whole roast pig.  The recipe that caught my eye was his Magic Peach Cobbler.

Magic Peach Cobbler by Ian Knauer from the cookbook The Farm, rustic recipes for a year of incredible food
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup whole milk
3 medium peaches

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle. 

2. Place butter in a 3-quart baking dish, and put it in the oven for 5 minutes, or until melted. Remove the dish from the oven, tilting the dish to evenly coat the bottom with melted butter. 

3. Whisk together the flour, 3/4 cup of the sugar, the baking powder and salt. Whisk in the milk. Pour the batter evenly over the butter in the baking dish. Do not stir. 

4. Cut the peaches into wedges and place them in the batter. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup sugar over the top of the peaches. Bake the cobbler until it is set and golden on top, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool slightly on a rack. Serve the cobbler warm or at room temperature. 


What's great about this recipe is that with the exception of the peaches, I had everything in the fridge or the pantry.  The one of the problems I had was figuring out which of my dishes was a 3 quart dish.

The other was figuring out how many small Missouri drought peaches equals 3 regular peaches.  So sad drought peaches.

So delicious with tender peaches melding into sweet cobbler and crunchy sugar topping.  Bonus was that it wasn't too heavy after our meat-fest and rich potatoes.

Craig: Cobbler?  Winner.


Me:  Excellent!

Do we all scream for Ice Cream?

Did you know that Americans, on average, eat about 20 quarts of ice cream a year. They eat it, they buy it and they make it themselves either by the old hand crank/rock salt method or they have a fancy schmancy machine that does all the churning and hard work for them. They also roll it around in a ball that doesn't look much different than a dog toy.

I, however, am not the typical ice cream consuming American. There is no bucket of ice cream in my freezer, no late night cravings for a scoop or two of Moose Tracks. No drowning my sorrows in a bowl of Chunky Monkey. But this does make me the perfect roommate because I will never eat the last spoonful of your precious hidden behind the frozen peas. Even the bacon ice cream is all yours.

So it was with a skeptical eye that I looked at Virginia Willis' cooking challenge this week. Not one or two but FIVE different ice creams. I considered taking a pass. Not only am I not a big fan of ice cream, I have no machine with which to make it in. But then I got to googling and found David Liebovitz's method for making ice cream without a machine. Hmmmmmm. I do happen to like peach ice cream. Could I make this work and take a decent picture of the results? (As if last week's souffle challenge wasn't enough???)

So I took Virginia's recipe for peach ice cream, halved it (because I'm not going to eat 7 cups of ice cream by myself) and took some suggestions from David Liebovitz's blog on making ice cream at home, mainly by adding a bit of alcohol to keep the ice cream from freezing rock hard. So in went a smidgen of peach brandy to soften it up. Making ice cream involves making a custard. Or it means making scrambled eggs if you don't temper your egg yolk mixture carefully enough. Yes, I speak from experience but it is a learning experience. It's also an exercise in getting the right consistency. David's method could easily lapse into into the ice crystal zone if you don't have a creamy enough custard to begin with and if you don't mix the ice cream enough in the freezing process. As for the photography process, ice cream is one of those items that old school professional food photographers use quite a bit of cheats. Things like substituting mashed potatoes for ice cream. The one trick I did use was to pre-scoop my ice cream and cover a sheet pan with plastic wrap and re-freeze the scoops. I think that's an old Martha Stewart trick but you can ask Virginia since she actually worked for Martha.

The end result was a lovely creamy peach ice cream which would have cost me a fortune in the grocery store if I could find one that carried a decent tasting peach ice cream. So if you've got a ice cream machine or the old hand churn and energetic kids to churn it, definitely try one of Virginia or David's homemade ice cream recipes. Me? I'm going back to making a hearty BLT.

Making the Pie

Seems that the last Top Chef Quickfire got our Pie Mojo rolling. Had to break out the flour for the crust. When it comes to making pies I generally rely on Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie Bible. Written in 1998 it's served me well both with it's many options of crusts and filling flavor combinations. However since the rise of the Internet, Rose has updated this particular recipe at her website, Real Baking With Rose. I will definitely be trying this out in the future.

Which is good because I made some mistakes with my pie. First the filling. My peaches were fairly ripe but I think next time I'd mix just ripe peaches with a bit softer fruit. Rose's cookbook peach filling recipe calls for 6 cups of sliced peaches with slices cut into 16ths but her blog calls for the 6 1/2 cups cut a little thicker. I think that would have worked a little better with the peaches holding up better in the finished pie. The even bigger change is dealing with the juice that will be released by your peaches. Why I like this recipe is that you're dealing with the juice before it gets into the crust. You let your peaches macerate for at least 30 minutes, drain and then you cook down that juice. In the book it suggests reducing it to 1/3 cup while on the blog it adds butter to the juice and reduces it to half and then adding it back into the peaches. Either way you're cutting down on the chance that your pie will bubble over with fruit juice.

I really didn't treat the edges well of my pie. I should have made a much thicker edge and protected it better when I baked it. It's a little too overdone, not very stable or pretty for my tastes although I do like using the star cut outs on the edge. I baked those very carefully in my toaster oven and then added them to the pie for the last ten minutes of baking. Should have only gone the last five minutes and turned the oven off for those last five.

Still it tasted darn good. The flavor of peaches needs little dressing unlike apples. A little almond flavoring to brighten it up. The crust could have been better but practice makes perfect.

Not to mention I wasn't the only one who took inspiration from the Pie Challenge. Moi over at
Bite the Apple sent me her personal snapshot of her finished Peach and Blueberry Pie. Have I mentioned I can't do a lattice topped pie worth spit?

Continuing in our peach pie-ish theme is Dani's Peach and Blackberry Cobbler. You can find it at Gardening Under the Florida Sun.

Hmmmm biscuit topping. Did anyone else bake this holiday weekend?

Dim Sum Sunday - Grilled Fruit

This Sunday's Dim Sum brought out the tropical in me. I chose a variety fruit for my grill, mangoes, bananas and some peaches thrown in for good measure. I made sure I picked under ripe fruit that would aid in the grilling process. The peaches were dressed with some balsamic vinegar while the mangoes were drizzled with pineapple juices. They came out beautifully. But what to pair this beautiful fruit with? After a little research I decided on black sticky rice.

While the sweet coconut milk makes the rice sticky it leaves the rice's nuttiness and crunch intact. The sweetness also contrasts the fruits smokiness. Although the next time I make this I might add a shaving of toasted coconut to the top. This is a wonderful summer dessert that I will certainly be adding to my recipe stash.