Summertime Treats - Ice Cream and Strawberries

As summer rolled in a few hours ago, it seems appropriate to celebrate some of its pleasures. 

The other evening as I was walking my dog with my husband asv as Good Humor truck chimed its way down a quiet street.  It's comforting with all the changes and technological advancements since I was a child in the 70's and 80's that there are a few lingering details that still hold true today.  Unfortunately, instead of kids creatively playing on that quiet street, they are more than likely chained to their XBox or texting their next door neighbor, which leaves little hope for the Good Humor lady. Our street is the only one where she may have a prayer. We happen to live across the street from a rather heavy set and lazy family.  (We live walking distance from a Stop & Shop and they constantly order from their Pea Pod delivery service, among other things).  My husband said, when the Good Humor truck comes, he has never seen them move so fast.

I've traded in my Good Humor days for something more sophisticated.  Recently, I found the above carton/jar of gelato.  I was immediately drawn to it, because of its unique clear packaging.  I think it's brilliant. This way the consumer has an idea of what he or she is getting. Sometimes you buy ice cream on sheer description alone and hope that the flavor meets your expectations.  For this brand you can also taste with your eyes as well.  The textures and swirls of flavors like White Chocolate Raspberry, Black Cherry and Caramel Cookie Crunch and the bold bright color of a Blood Orange Sorbet come through a simple transparent container and naturally add color to the packaging.  I'm glad to say that indeed the gelato is as delicious as it looks.  It has a homemade taste vs. an overly sweet manufactured product.

So what pairs better with ice cream than strawberries.  Last weekend my husband and younger son headed to a local farm in Shelton, CT as strawberry season was officially on.  It's a great place where you can pick strawberries and blueberries when in season and Christmas Trees in the winter time.  They have a sort of a flat bed covered truck called the "Berry Ferry" that takes you out the field where you go with basket in hand and collect your fill.  The squatting is also great for your thighs. Usually the cost per pound is more expensive than what you would get in the store (and you're doing the labor), but they are organic and you are mostly paying for the experience. 




Frozen Strawberry Jewels from the Farm

 

We loaded up 8 lbs, so what I we didn't eat fresh, we frozen and stored for later use.  I have a recipe for an incredible strawberry tea bread, which I will share with you shortly. This day job is really cutting into my blogging time.  We also planted some of our own strawberry plants this year, so we'll see how that goes.

Enjoy these pleasures of summer... individually or together.

Easter Dessert Disasters

Featured Ingredient: Frustration

I think we've all been there.  You are in charge of an entree, a dessert or even the entire meal and something goes horribly wrong, just doesn't work, or goes beyond the point of salvaging.  Welcome to my Easter Weekend.

I was going to make fruit tart.  I usually buy the large pre-made sponge shell and fill it with vanilla pastry cream and fresh fruit.  This year, I couldn't find the shell, so I figured I could make a crust.  I found one with almond paste (in a can) that I thought I would share on my blog. It turns out that was the beginning of the tart from hell. The instructions were not that descriptive and using my limited pastry behavior knowledge I combined the ingredients and let it rest in the fridge.  The dough was very moist and when rolled out kept falling apart.  Fortunately it was extremely forgiving and I was able to put it back together in the tart pan.

Before the disaster

 However, when I blind baked the crust, I got baked sides and an uncooked bottom.  Maybe I should have poked holes in it.  The recipe I got this from said to just throw it in the oven.  But I made that mistake with quiche in the past, where the dough rose so there was no divet left for pastry cream and fruit.   So that went in the garbage.

This recipe also had a method for a mock pastry cream.  I think the proportions were wrong because I got a yellow blob that wouldn't leave my whisk... this however I was able to thin out and save with some low fat milk... Thank heaven for small favors.

Take 2.  I would make straight tart dough. 

One of the annoying things about dough is it is a long process. You have to make your dough... let it rest for at least 30 minutes to an hour, then hope it rolls out OK, then hope it doesn't crack when you bake it. If it fails in the 3rd step and you have to redo it, that's another at least hour and half you have to invest. Versus something like whipped cream. If you let it go too far, you just pour in more whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla and let it run again for 5 minutes.

I've made dough in a stand mixer so I started the process there, then when the butter was more incorporated, I finished kneading by hand.  I formed it into a ball and put it in the fridge.  When I tried to roll it out, the dough kept cracking.  Again I was able to reform it in the tart pan.  But when it baked the dough shrunk so it looked a broken sidewalk.

That was it for tarts for now.  I still had Sunday morning.

Since my kids don't eat fruit, I thought I could bake a marbled angel food cake and serve it with ice cream and chocolate sauce. It said to bake it on the lower third of the oven?? Ungreased tube pan?? I even reduced my baking time, because my oven tends to bake stuff faster. What did I get but a slighly burned cake stuck to the tube pan that never even rose properly. I never made angel food cake before and the recipe I used didn't explain how to incorporate the flour in as well as another recipe I read later. I got a gummy more dense cake, not the ethereal light hi-rise cake I see in the stores.

Tart Take 3
Now that I ran out of butter and was nearly out of flour.  I ran to Stop & Shop which is ALWAYS open and restocked.  I swallowed my pride and bought an Angel Food Cake.  For the tart I was going to go with prepared pie crust as I was running out of time.  Pie crust is a bit different than tart crust, but I use it for quiche and it's close enough.

Would you believe this also cracked! But only a little spot which I figured wouldn't matter. When I went to remove the bottom of the tart pan after I put the tart on cake tray, the sides and bottom cracked a little more.  Oh my god. At that point I had one hour left.  I gently put the one side back together and added my pastry cream.  Fortunately with the consistency of the pastry cream, you don't have too worry too much about it oozing all over the place. In fact I was rather surprised when I finally served the tart, all the parts stayed together rather well.  My husband said if you didn't tell anybody about the cracks no one would have known... or honestly cared.

In spite of the fact that I was baking for the holiest day of the year, and one of the desserts I was making was angel food cake, God was not on my side. 

So what did we learn?

• If you are cooking for a special occasion use a proven recipe or really reliable source
• It's OK to substitute a store bought product or shortcut in cases of dire emergency
• If the meal was for your family they will still love you for the effort
• If it was for your business, use it as a learning experience and find another client -- the beauty of the food industry is everybody eats!
• We all make mistakes so just try to laugh it off

And...take a step back, maybe it's not so bad


Tart from Hell

This Top Chef Masters ain't no Top Chef All-Stars or even the last Top Chef Masters

I love the Top Chef series.  I've watched episodes from each one... and followed Top Chef All Stars very closely.  As that competition is over and perhaps Bravo is casting a new group of chef hopefuls for its next season we have Top Chef Masters.  I watched the last edition of Top Chef Masters which seems to be reverse of this season. Last time it was a poorly casted host and a stellar group of chefs (that I've heard of) including Rick Bayless and Hubert Keller.  This time the host, Curtis Stone, is perfectly delicious in this role but the contestants are a bunch of nobodys with the exception of two chefs that I've seen before, Chef Traci and Chef Tio.  It's akin to this season of Survivor that brought in a new group and peppered in Rob and Russell from seasons... Plural...past most likely in attempt to boost ratings. One tribe made the mistake of throwing a challenge to get rid of Russell and that began their demise... but that is another recap.

Chef Traci is the one that looks like she is always angry.  I would agree that she deserves to be in this competition as she kicked Mario Batali's butt on Iron Chef. Apparently, one chef is vegetarian so he can't taste his meat dishes... I mean seriously there was no other carnivorous chef to choose from?

I caught last week's episode, which did not do much in terms of influencing me to set my Tivo this week. The quickfire judge was Kelis.  I thought the only food she was familiar with was a "Milkshake".  If you don't understand the reference that was her one hit wonder.  She was billed as a grammy-nominated artitst as well as a trained chef. Maybe she should go back to cooking as her music career has gone nowhere.


Seriously?


For the elimination challenge the chefs needed to update classic dishes from the 1960's.  They brought in Christina Hendricks (the red head with the big boobs) from Mad Men and her husband who is also some marginal actor. I had a hard time getting through the show at this point.  One chef had to update ambrosia which seemed too much beneath him.  That's Uncanny Goodness right there especially with the mandarin oranges.

Some chef I never heard of lost.  Oh well. I'm super disappointed with the casting of this Top Chef Masters season. I didn't even spot any rivalry or bad chemistry to keep the show interesting.  I'll wait for the next Top Chef.  Let me know if you agree or disagree.

Can Do Cooking on Top Chef All Stars

I am beginning to think I am ahead of my time, or am definitely on the pulse of at least the trend toward the resurgence of canned goods. Over the last couple of weeks I have seen canned goods thrown into TWO celeb-reality chef shows.  First it was Chopped All Stars with canned haggis and yesterday one of the options on Top Chef All Stars in the quickfire challenge was to create something out of canned goods. Mike assigned that challenge to Antonia.  I have to admit her task was a little bit more daunting as she couldn't use any fresh ingredients. She still came up with a Curry Soup with Shrimp and Andouille Sausage, that looked yummy.

Photo Courtesy of BravoTV

Richard was charged with turning hot dogs into something worthy of fine cuisine, and Mike had to make something in one pot.  Half way through the challenge, Padma threw in another twist.  The chef-testants would assign that "punishment" to each other as well.  Richard could only work with one hand; Mike couldn't use any utensils, and they brought back Carla so they could tie her to Antonia.   Mike's tough pork and beans won the quickfire!
The elimination challenge was assigned by the quickfire winner.  The task... prepare a last supper for either Michele Bernstein, Masahura Morimoto and Spago's Wolfgang Puck.  Mike gave Antonia, Morimoto.  Good strategy.  Richard could have nailed it.  So he gave the Italian girl from L.A. the task of creating a memorable final meal for a veritable Japanese Iron Chef Master! Mike settled on making fried chicken and biscuits for Michele Bernstein.  Thus leaving Richard with Wolfgang Puck.  All the Master chefs chose a meal that reminded them of home and was near and dear to their heart.  The chef-testants had a lot to live up to.

Let's cut to the chase.  Antonia delivered perfect rice, which is no small feat.  Sushi chefs have to master their rice making skills for two years before they move on to anything else.  Unfortunately her miso soup was too salty.  She is a bit heavy handed on the sodium.  I've heard her criticized for this before.  

Mike sous vide his chicken which is in essence simmering it (why) then fried it and his biscuit was an empanada with a egg yolk inside.  Yuck. I'd rather have KFC.

Richard recreated the flavors of Wolfgang Puck's mother and well as adding his own Blais spin to it, without ruining the integrity or expectation of traditional Beef Goulash and Apple Streudel. In the end Richard was safe and onto the finale. Whew!

Mike and Antonia had one last chance to make one bite of whatever in 45 minutes to secure the second spot. Mike made a surf and turf..Lobster over Beef Tartare with Black Olive and Chimichurri Sauce and Antonia made Seared Grouper over a Coconut Lobster Broth .  I hate some of these judges, they are so pretentious.  I was surprised that it came to a 3 to 4 split favoring Mike.  I mean, I never understood the appeal of chopped up uncooked proteins, basically it wasn't cooked and shouldn't win.  Why don't you chew on a raw hamburger... YUM.

I do wish that Antonia won, aside from the fact that she deserved it... but also because I think Richard could easily beat her.

Richard Blais Top Chef???

My vote goes to Richard for the Top Chef All Stars win.  I've been rooting for him all along, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  He deserves it the most.   I think he got robbed in his season finale.   You can see how much this competition means to him, how much he hungers for that title. I think he is someone who is a little insecure and craves validation, even though it is obvious he is an amazing and creative chef.

I saw the promo for the final episode and read the Bravo TV blog and I'm really concerned that Mike is going to take this from him. Richard is a perfectionist.  It seems to me he tends to overthink things and second guesses himself, which can at times lead to your own demise.  Bravo described it as heart-wrenching and Richard winning wouldn't be heart-wrenching, Mike on the other hand.....  Either way he seems like the nicest, sweetest guy and he has a wonderful family - so he has plenty of more important things in his life than a Top Chef title... but I'm sure it would be nice.

Next week they bring back some "chopped" chefs to help... including this hottie!!!  They should have just kept him for his commentary alone.

I LOVE FABIO