Plum Galette

Yesterday I wanted pie and I also wanted to use some plums that were waiting around looking sad. Having no real recipe, I searched for apricot galette thinking the plums were apricot. I found some basic ideas and made up a recipe.  The results were delicious! This was quick and easy and you could whip it up in time for unexpected guests who think you were in the kitchen all day!

Ingredients:
4 plums, sliced
1 T cornstarch
1T sugar (could add more depending on sweetness of plums)
1T lemon juice
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t almond extract (optional)
1 egg, beaten
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed (Mine didn't thaw all the way and the results were a bit doughy which actually I liked better)
Raw Sugar

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400
2. Stir all ingredients through almond extract together in a bowl and let sit 15 minutes
3. Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet or rimmed cookie sheet. Place the puff pastry on the middle of the tray and pinch the seams together
4. Pile the filling in the center of the dough and then fold up the sides to keep the juices inside, pinching the edges. Pour the excess juices from the bowl over the fruit stack.
5. Brush egg over the top of the galette. If desired, sprinkle with raw sugar.
6. Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and a little bit bubbly
7. Let sit a few minutes before cutting

Summer Stone Fruit Tart

Joey loves apricots and peaches and plums but is unfortunately allergic to them in their raw state. So, when summer comes around and stone fruit is all the rage, I do everything I can to get some on his plate. Last week, I grilled a peach--it was interesting but I didn't flavor it. Next time I would treat it more like a baked apple.

On Wednesday I worked from home and used that opportunity to  make a stone fruit tart with all the fruit that was a tiny bit overripe and waiting for me to eat.

I started off the morning making a simple quick easy tart dough recipe that I found on Williams Sonoma. I changed it a little so it tasted a little bit like almond--a favorite flavor at our house. This recipe didn't come together as easily as I had hoped and was a real bear to roll out in the evening but the taste was good...so use at your own risk!

For the filling, I reviewed another recipe and used a mixture of plums, apricots and peaches mixed with a bit of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon juice.  I used the excess juices from the fruit to glaze the tart.  Because the dough was hard to work with the tart definitely dripped all over the pan but it was still really delicious. Still good the second day.

Summer Stone Fruit Tart

Crust adapted from here
1 egg yolk
2-4 T ice water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 T almond meal
1 1/4 C flour
1/3 C sugar
1/4 t salt
8 T butter cubed and cold

1. In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.  In a small bowl mix together the egg, 2 T water and extracts.
2. Combine together the dry and wet ingredients in the large bowl and then cut in the butter with a pastry cutter to form small pea meal.  IF it seems to dry gradually add a little bit more water at a time.
3. Just as the dough comes together, form into a ball and then flatten inside plastic wrap.  Chill for 3 hours at minimum.

Filling
8-10 small apricots, sliced into wedges
2 peaches, sliced into wedges
1 plum, sliced into wedges
1/4 C sugar (or less)
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 lemon, juiced
2 T cornstarch

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and lightly toss about 10 minutes before baking.

The Combination
1. Roll out the dough between two sheets of well-flowered parchment into around a 12-inch circle. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and chill for 30 minutes.
2.  Preheat the oven to 325
3. Remove the top sheet of parchment. Mound fruit in the center leaving at least two inches of dough around the sides, avoid adding excess juices
4. Brush the fruit and crust with some of the excess juice
5. Bake 30 minutes, brush with juice, bake 30 more minutes, brush with juice.
6. Let cool 10-15 minutes before even considering cutting into it.  Serve warm or cold, still good the next day!

Rainbow Fruit Salad

Sometimes in the winter or even the spring, making a fruit salad proves to be a little harder than the summer. The only thing in season is citrus and supreming citrus to make it look pretty is time consuming.  So when I decided to make fruit salad for a party today, I popped over to the farmer's market and picked up whatever was available. Then Joey donated a mango and some kiwis to my cause and the result was a very rainbow salad--perfect for a gray spring day.

Oh you wanted a picture? Unfortunately I didn't take one and near the end it didn't look so delicious anymore...

Serves 10-12
2 Cara Cara oranges
4-5 small blood oranges
4 tangerines
5 kiwis
1 mango (probably 2 would be better)
1/2 pint small strawberries
1 cherimoya

1. Cut the ends off the citrus and then use a sharp knife to cut the sides off.  Cut the oranges into chunks avoiding the very center tough part. Toss into a bowl.
2. Peel and chop the kiwis
3. Cut the mango on each side of the hard pit in the center. Slice into cubes inside the mango skin and then cut around the edge. Use a really large spoon to scoop out the chunks.
4. Wash and drain the strawberries, cut off the greens and slice in half
5. Cut the cherimoya in half. Cut into chunks without the skin and watch out for the big seeds
6. Toss all the fruit together but add the strawberries and cherimoya on top so they don't get too smooshed. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Poached Apricots

Poached fruit isn't something I've ever had before, but when I saw White on Rice Couple's post about poached apricots (and their beautiful pictures) I was immediately intrigued. Joey likes stone fruit but he is allergic to it when it isn't cooked. Unfortunately, cooked stone fruit is usually in pie or cobbler or buckle or something else that is generally not healthy. Poached fruit is made in a sugar syrup, so it's not really GOOD for you, but there's no crust involved.

These apricots were absolutely fantastic! I loved the flavors that soaked into the fruit, I loved the texture, I loved how they tasted with ice cream, I loved them warm, I loved them room temperature, I think I would love them cold. I think I will make these all summer and maybe try it with other stone fruit!

The caramel sauce that I was supposed to make by reducing the liquid just didn't turn out...it burned, it became one solid piece of dark dark brown candy that was gross looking. It made our house smell disgusting. It was totally my fault, I didn't want to stand there watching it. I bet the sauce would've been as delicious as the apricots. I served a little goat's milk caramel sauce with ours instead but it totally wasn't necessary. Do yourself a favor and poach some fruit today!

I halved the recipe because I only had 10oz of apricots. My apricots were maybe a tad on the too-ripe side for this recipe. I bought them and then delayed in making them because we decided we'd pair them with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.  When we finally made the ice cream, the apricots were READY. By the time I had time to make them, I'd already lost two and had to put them in the fridge.

Ingredients
1/8 C honey
3/4 C sugar (I used vanilla sugar because we just made some with our leftover vanilla bean from the ice cream, it might have added something)
3/4 C water
scant handful of basil (we're growing our own!)
10oz apricots
vanilla ice cream

Directions
1. Combine honey, sugar, basil and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. (this will be fast)
2. Slice apricots in half and remove pits and stems.
3. Reduce heat to medium high and add apricots. Poach 2-4 minutes until soft but still intact
4. Remove fruit to a plate to cool
5. This is where you should read the directions again over on WoRC's blog and try to make the reduction. Since it didn't work for me my only advice is WATCH IT THE WHOLE TIME.
6. Serve the apricots over ice cream and lick the plate clean of the best simple syrup you've ever had.

Fruit Spring Rolls

Did you see these spring rolls on Tastespotting last summer? I sure did. I saw them and thought I had to make them for something because they looked so fun and unusual and also really pretty and tasty.  So I set out on a path to make these for any upcoming events that would have the right sort of crowd. Unfortunately, I couldn't find rice paper anywhere. So I filed this recipe away for a rainy day.

Then this spring I was browsing an Asian market called 99 Ranch Market in Van Nuys and happened across not one but three kinds of rice paper wrappers! Luckily I still had the recipe in mind and bought a pack.
These are so simple and fast to make! I watched a short video on Chow about how to dip the wrappers before I embarked on the adventure of making these and found it to be super simple. Some people didn't seem to think the rice paper really added much to these except that it makes them hand held. i also like how it makes them pretty and I wish I had cut them in half but I never did, I also forgot to add mint. I think you could make these with any mix of fruit.

1 pint strawberries, diced
2 small mango, cut into matchsticks*
1 1/2 pint blueberries
8 blackberries (or 1/2 pint if you want these in all of them)
Mint, chopped (we agreed that this may have added something even though I forgot it)
Spring roll/rice paper wrappers
Damp dish towel
Serving plate
shallow bowl or frying pan filled with warm water

1/3 C honey
scant 1/2 t vanilla extract
zest of 1 lime

1. Prepare your fruit. *To cut the mango into matchsticks, I cut off the edges of the mangos to get the fruit sides and no pit. Then I scored around the edge and cut strips down the middle but not through the skin. Then I bent the skin so that the fruit was sort of inside out and cut along the skin so that the matchsticks fell out. This worked really well for me.

2. Dip one sheet of rice paper into the shallow bowl or frying pan of warm water for about 2 seconds edge first. Lie paper on a plate.

3. Place some of each fruit in the center of the paper and then fold in the sides and roll up tightly. The paper sticks together so work quickly and don't try to change anything after rolling it. Place on a serving tray under the damp cloth. Try not to put them two close together as they will stick.

4. Once you are finished the rolls, place the plate covered in the damp cloth in the refrigerator for up to two hours.

5. Stir together lime zest, vanilla extract and honey for dipping. We all agreed that while this sauce wasn't necessary it was fun to complete the spring roll concept. I recommend heating it up in the microwave for about 10 seconds to make the honey more fluid if your honey is thick like mine.

Pork Chops with Pineapple Salsa

Last week the grocery store was having an amazing sale on pork. I was able to procure 3 center cut pork chops for the low low price of $2.50! Total! Even though I had just purchased pork, I got those chops anyway. The best part was that they were not even close to their date or anything, just a great sale!

After a few days of not really doing much cooking do to a ridiculous amount of leftover roast beef, I finally looked up recipes for my chops. A recipe from epicurious sparked an idea in my mind for a pineapple salsa match to my chops. In the end, I kind of made up the recipe and it was pretty delicious. I recommend this recipe to all you pork chop and pineapple lovers out there. And I suppose you might be able to use something like mango instead.

Ingredients

3 Center cut pork chops

salt

English prime rib rub or other favorite seasoning

2 limes

1 serrano pepper

1 pineapple

2 t olive oil

1. Chop your pineapple into bite sized pieces. Zest some lime into a bowl and add pineapple pieces. Chop the serrano pepper removing seeds and pith and add to the bowl. Squeeze the juice of one lime over the pineapple. Stir and refrigerate at least 10 minutes.

2. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat.

3. Salt and season the pork chops on both sides

4. Cook chops in the heated pan about 3 minutes per side until cooked through. After the first side is brown, add the zest and juice of your remaining lime.

5. In the last two minutes, add some of the juice from your salsa and some of the pineapple.

6. Serve warm with the pineapple salsa spooned over pork.

Dragonfruit

California has year-round farmer's markets filled with fresh produce. We're already lucky to be able to get stuff that the Midwest sees only some months throughout the year; but I always leave wanting more.

I yearn for a farmer's market like they must have in Hawaii, with oodles of tropical fruits--50 different kinds of mangos, 10 varieties of bananas, tropical fruits I've never tasted.

At this week's farmer's market just that happened. I was browsing the market at tortoise speed (nobody ever seems to be in a hurry in Santa Monica) and I spotted something new. Dragonfruit. It was sort of expensive at first glance, but then the guy game a 3 for $5 deal. I think it's pretty obvious that he didn't grow these himself, but I guess there's the possibility that he did...

I looked up some dragonfruit information on the interwebs and learned that lots of people think it tastes a little like kiwi. I also learned how to cut it and that the flesh can be either purple or white!

I thought that this dragonfruit tasted like peppery kiwi, in a good way. It is definitely my favorite fruit but I think it tops the charts for different and fun!

Fruit Salad

Joey & I made fruit salad today for a Sunday Dinner. It's really nothing special and not worth posting here. We tossed together watermelon, pineapple, strawberries, oranges and blueberries. Summer is here! The reason I'm telling you about it though is that yesterday I came across this fantastic tutorial for cubing watermelon. I didn't personally try this method but Joey did and it worked like a charm! I am so bad at cutting watermelon normally so this was awesome, way less wasteful and not as messy! Give it a try for your next summer party!

How To Cube Watermelon.