I Want My Blueberries

The blueberry bushes are doing nicely in the backyard this year. If I have learned from experience, as soon as the berries ripen and are ready to be picked, the birds will come for them. My neighbors (whom I adore) enjoy birdwatching and have several bird feeders, so I know they will be around.  My babysitter gave me another bush for Mother’s Day. She said she thought it would be cute to go outside with my toddler and see him pick blueberries (she is the best babysitter ever, and no, you can’t have her contact info). The stakes have gotten higher, I want my blueberries this year.

I am going to try this bird-ball predator looking thingee. It seems kind of ridiculous and if it does work, I think some stickers or paint on a dollar-store beach ball and a piece of string would be a more frugal solution than the nine dollars it costs on amazon.

“Is this a joke? Let’s play with it.”

I have some netting at the ready too. But I wonder if the beach ball will work…

“Get off my lawn.”

Campari Orange Popsicles

1  part Campari, 1 part simple syrup,  3 parts orange juice. If you have a bottle of Campari lurking in your liquor cabinet, this is a must try.  Bitter and sweet, very refreshing on a warm day.

A Guest Post from Germany: Classic White Asparagus with Hollandaise and Lox

Today Wendy from the ‘freshly pressed’ blog Chez Chloe will be sharing her rendition of a traditional German meal of white asparagus, hollandaise and lachs. Wendy, a french trained, former restaurateur of a much beloved bistro on Orcas Island, WA (named Chez Chloe), currently resides in Hamburg Germany, where right now is prime asparagus time. Her blog Chez Chloe shares her musings, kitchen expertise, mouthwatering recipes and adoration of vegetables from the sunny window of her Hamburg kitchen.

Having once lived in Northern Germany years ago myself, one of the times I miss most is “Spargelzeit” (Asparagus season). Those Germans love and know how to make a great meal built around asparagus. Lucky me, Wendy has been so gracious as to prepare me a virtual asparagus dinner, all the way from another continent, how cool is that? Thank you Wendy! By the way, when you get a chance check out Wendy’s food slideshows. Be prepared to drool…

Weiß Spargel aka White Asparagus, Hollandaise & Lox

Hi Jodi,

Thanks for inviting me over to share a little taste of our Spargelzeit. Above is a shot of our most recent asparagus extravaganza. I love all preparations of asparagus…fresh out of the ground, lightly steamed with a little olive oil and lemon, or smothered in hollandaise, as long as it is hausgemacht (homemade) sauce and not one of the boxed variety covering every square inch of the store displays this month!

This weekend I prepared the infamous white asparagus with a lemony hollandaise, a little smoked salmon and lox, here garnished with lacy chervil. This is a classic. Or you might check out another one of my favorites in a recent post of mine, tucking asparagus in Buckwheat Crepes with a little prosciutto, gouda cheese and Mornay sauce.

The white asparagus in Germany are sold according to size and how straight they are. The thicker and straighter, the more expensive. You can pay a little extra if you want them pre-peeled. But the peeling is easy to do and personally I prefer to handle my own raw veggies. These asparagus came from the Altes Land, where we also get loads of apples, just on the other side of the Elbe River from us in Blankenese.

Here’s a little how to on peeling. The white asparagus do require a gentle hand. Hold them against the counter and lightly peel away from the tip down the stalk.

I cooked them in 2 tied bundles in salted boiling water for about 8 minutes or until a knife easily pierces through the stalk.

I prepared my hollandaise before cooking the asparagus. This is a basic lemony hollandaise I like. You will find many recipes all varying in slight degrees of ratios of yolks/water/butter. This is sort of a middle of the road. Please season it to your liking.

3 egg yolks
3 T water
2 sticks of unsalted butter, clarified 
2 T lemon juice (about 1 medium lemon)
pinch of salt 
pinch of cayenne

I like to make clarified butter, but you will find many recipes that don’t bother. Here’s a little random Q&A from everyday cooks on clarified vs regular butter if you are interested. David Leibowitz has the perfect post for clarifying butter.

I was taught to make my sauce directly in a copper pan. Often though, it’s a little less risky in a water bath. Here is a good link for the procedure using a water bath and you’ll see a little different recipe. You choose.

Eggs and water are whisked together…as I said I do it in the pan. If you use a water bath, start with your eggs in a glass bowl.

Cook on low to medium heat, constantly whisking in a circle 8… with a smile on your face… don’t cross your brows. These words of my culinary school teacher repeat in my head every time I make hollandaise or creme anglaise! Don’t be afraid to take the pan off the heat a minute if you think you are about to scramble them. Move it off..whisk vigorously, take a deep breath, then move it back on to the heat.

Once thickened (about 5 minutes), slowly dribble in the warm butter whisking continuously to create an emulsion (ideally). Remove from the heat and add lemon juice and season with salt and cayenne.

I get about a cup and a half… leave it set aside in the pan on the stove top to stay warm while you cook the asparagus.

This should be used within a couple hours. Or, if you are a risk taker like me, you’ll save it and warm it up the next day for something else yummy… but you didn’t hear that from me.

We have a fish monger who smokes gorgeous juicy salmon pieces…

And cures their own lox…

Time to plate up your hot asparagus, top with hollandaise and salmon, garnish with a bit of chervil…

Dig in!

Enjoy!

Tschüß to you Jodi and friends. Thanks for the opportunity to hang out at Biscuits and Bobbins!…

Can’t wait to have you over my way.

I live in Hamburg, Germany with my husband and daughter. I love cooking, writing, eating and traveling. I try to keep love, personal reflection and humor a priority. Having a place to share all this with others is extremely FUN! ChezChloe @ wendyellenthomas.com

Shiitake Mushrooms: The Quest, The Diversions, Then Dinner

I was hoping to get some shiitake mushrooms at this past weekend’s farmer’s market. I saw a post of creamy polenta with russian kale and shiitake on Tartelette on Friday, and figured since she is writing from Charleston (just one state away), maybe I could find some still at our market, but there weren’t any.

It was by no means a loss though, as the free guest chef speaker this week was this year’s James Beard Award winner for the Southeast Best Chef,  Linton Hopkins from Restaurant Eugene.

He blew my and everyone else’s minds talking about the long lists of ingredients and preparations that go into his salads. From fermenting, to roasting young vegetables in the ashes made from older bulk vegetables, to how to make powders from oils and using the roots of plants. He said there are sometimes 40 plus ingredients in his salads (he likes each bite to be a different experience) and the acronym he thinks of when preparing any dish is  ”FASSAB”; Fat, Acid, Sweet, Sour Aromatic, and Bitter. Seems pretty logical and could work for the home cook, too. I think I may hang onto that. Another thing that grabbed me was that he took a poached egg, put it in a blender and dressed some of the salad with it. Mmm… Creamy egg.

But back to shiitakes.  I have been ogling some mushroom logs at the gardening store for months, wondering about them.  After being let down at the farmer’s market, today was the day I finally caved in. I figured since Mother’s Day is fast approaching I could take this opportunity to get myself  the gift that no one in my family would dare give me - a log…with drill holes… filled with shiitake fungi spores.   I had to giggle when I was walking to my car with the log in my arms, with instructions on how to care for my log… very Twin Peaks Log Lady.

“the” log

It is probably a bit late, seasonally speaking, but I’m doing a little research and considering shocking it in cold water for a day or two to make the spores think that winter has just come and gone. If you happen to have any experience with growing Westwind Wide Range Shiitake in the South, by all means, share your expertise with me.

So anyway, I still have to eat dinner tonight and I craved that mushroom polenta. I picked up some shiitake from Whole Foods, and took my neighbor’s generous offer to use some of their home-grown Italian kale from their sunny plot.

So I got to make Tartelette’s Creamy Polenta with shiitake and Kale after all…

Have you also been noticing the food trend lately of putting an egg on top of something and calling it supper? I kind of like it.

One last thing,  just want to share my giddiness about next week… I’ll be having  a guest poster ‘over’ to my blog to cook me dinner with one of my all-time favorite vegetables, asparagus! Have a look at Chez Chloe’s luscious dishes and you might understand why I’m excited!

Strawberry Ricotta Tart with Lemon Verbena Essence

I planted some strawberries in a pot several years ago, I never get a big yield, but I like seeing them perk back to life every Spring.  Just getting a warm and flavorful strawberry jewel now and then is like getting a present, even if it is a race to get there before a bird, squirrel or chipmunk does.

FYI…bird netting doesn’t stop chipmunks, ask me how I know.

That’s okay, because at the farmer’s market, these strawberries looked so very attractive in their green cardboard boxes, I wanted to inhale all of them right away.

I brought home two pints and made some pate sucree tart dough. After chilling, I rolled it out and baked it in a removable-bottom tart pan, using the leftover scraps to make a tartlet for the chef, a.k.a me.

Time to play with some flavor… I have lemon verbena in my garden and have been reading up on how to use it best.  (I believe some lemon verbena ice cream and lemon verbena and mint tea is in my future…)

I infused the verbena leaves into a simple syrup with some left over vanilla bean pod scraps.  At first I just chopped the verbena and was going to add it raw into my tart filling, but no matter how finely I minced it, it still had a tough bite to it, and since my filling would not be cooked either, I rough chopped it, bruised it and then infused it (sounds like I’m selling a kitchen gadget on T.V.)  into hot syrup, to be sure the fragrant oil would be released and no one would be chewing on a piece of it.

The verbena in the syrup was subtle, like lemon zest with a bit of lime in the background, it would be good for adding to iced tea or lemonade. To make the tart filling, I whipped up some heavy cream and loosened up some ricotta cheese, poured some of the verbena-vanilla syrup into each (reserving some to brush over the top of the finished tart), and then folded the whipped cream into the ricotta.

After folding the cream in, I ever so lovingly plopped the filling into my baked (and cooled) tart and tartlet shells.

Then I put the quartered strawberries and extra syrup on top…

and quickly went to town on my ‘personal’ tart, you know, just to make sure it was okay, or as my sister calls it, be a “poison tester”.  It passed.

It was like a giant strawberries and cream party with the cookie-like tart shell along for some crumbly crunch. I liked the ricotta cream filling, the lemony-lime fragrance of the lemon verbena and vanilla complimented the berries. The syrup and tart shell could be made and baked off the day before and the filling comes together quickly, I like that too.

Shortly after taking a pic of the big tart…

I went to put it on a plate to chill it for later, it slid off the removable bottom and I dropped it… oops! Oh well, it tasted just as good mashed up a bit, put in a glass and renamed strawberry tart trifle.

For the tart dough I used Joy of Baking’s recipe, but there are many good ones out there. I’ve also used Martha Stewart’s several times. 

For the Ricotta Tart Filling:

4 or 5 lemon verbena sprigs, leaves roughly chopped and slightly bruised

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

the shavings of one scraped out vanilla bean pod, or, if you do not have any used vanilla bean pods, 1 TBS vanilla extract

1/2 pound ricotta cheese, (if excessively watery, strained)

1/2 cup whipped heavy cream

pinch salt

1. Make a simple syrup by bringing to boil the sugar and water. Take off heat and add chopped lemon verbena leaves, their stems and a scraped vanilla bean pod, infuse for 10 minutes. Strain out leaves and pods, add a pinch of salt and chill thoroughly. If you are using vanilla extract, add to chilled syrup.

2. In a mixer, whip heavy cream adding a quarter cup of chilled syrup before reaching stiff peaks. Set aside in another bowl.

3. Using the mixer, loosen ricotta cheese, for 20-30 seconds on medium speed, add another 1/4 cup of syrup slowly.

4. Fold cream into ricotta in thirds, being careful not to deflate the mixture.

Failed Attempt at Living with Less

We had a yard sale the other day. Can you believe this guy didn’t get sold? Neither can I.  My husband put up a sign “up ahead on right… treasures GALORE!”, (chutzpah considering it was mostly just crap that we wanted to rid ourselves of).  The pig was at our last yard sale too, when we moved four years ago. He didn’t get any offers then either and had lived in a cardboard box since.

“But, but… he’s awesome! He has charm. He has suspenders on… I would totally buy that!“,  I threw up my hands in protest.  Oh wait, I did that once already.  ”Tons of our other crap sold, clearly these people have no taste”, I added.

My husband replied  ”I think it’s a sign you were meant to be together”.

I’m going to keep it, reluctantly, but the sticker is staying on.

The Case of the Baby Heirloom Leeks: Creamy Spring Onion Soup

This past weekend at the organic farmer’s market up the street from me, the onions were plentiful and looking really good, Spring is in full swing.

I grabbed a bunch of things, including these scallions. I have started to appreciate the beauty of vegetables more lately since seeing the gorgeous vegetable shots over at Chez Chloe.

One pile of bulb onions caught my eye that I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t green garlic, scallions or ramps and they didn’t look like baby leeks. The grower told me it was an heirloom baby leek. He didn’t know the variety, but explained that he got them from his neighbor’s property last year and they grew quite easily.  He figured they were wild baby heirloom leeks and said they were mild and could be eaten raw.  (A side note:  I’ve been going to this grower for several years, I know his produce and trust his growing methods.)

I couldn’t find much info about them online, just a few pictures from CSA program sites, but no descriptions.

I made pancakes with them, but the leeks had a tinge of garlic to them; they were quite tasty, but they stayed with me all night. So lesson learned, even though wild baby heirloom leeks can be eaten raw, they are better blanched first or cooked.

Fast-forward to a rainy day, the leeks seemed well-suited for a soup.

I washed and sliced the leeks, they didn’t seem gritty but I rinsed them again anyways.

Then I sliced the scallions and half a yellow onion,

…shaved some fennel with my 5 dollar plastic mandoline slicer (I love that thing, but quick public service announcement, if you have one please be extra careful),

…heated some oil in a pot and put them all in (saving a handful of the green parts of the scallions for later) and added some salt and pepper.

I cooked them for a while until they were soft and glassy and added some white wine.

I let that cook down, and then added some cream, let it simmer and then added the rest of the scallions.

After two minutes more cooking time, I pureed it in the blender.

I tasted it, added some more salt and pepper and a little more water too,  as it was a touch thick. I topped it with some thinned out goat cheese to add some tang and ate it with a piece of toast. It was really delicious and comforting. The leeks and other onions played nicely with the fennel and the dry Sauvignon Blanc worked well to balance the creaminess of the cooked down leeks.

I took Love and Cupcake’s lead and busted out my grandmother’s china for plate up, (which I normally never use) after being tickled the other day by seeing a bowl of her matzoh ball soup plated up on her grandmother’s wedding china. I don’t think my grandmother ever served us leek soup, but she churned out a ton of matzoh balls in her time (or as my dad called them, hockey pucks) in these bowls.

Recipe adapted from Food and Wine magazine, April 2009

Creamy Spring Onion Soup

2 TBS extra-virgin olive oil

1 large bunch scallions, white and tender green parts, cut in to 1-inch lengths. green tops thinly sliced

3 bunches of baby leeks ( or 2 regular leeks) white and tender green part only, thinly sliced

4 baby fennel bulbs (or one large fennel bulb), thinly sliced

1/2 an onion, thinly sliced

salt and freshly ground white pepper

1 cup dry white wine

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup milk

2 oz. fresh goat cheese, softened

1. In a large pot, heat the oil.  Add all the vegetables, (reserving the green sliced tops of the scallions which will be added later) and season with salt and white pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, 15 minutes. Add the wine and boil over high heat until reduced to a few tablespoons, about 10 minutes. Add the water and cream and bring to a simmer. Cook until the vegetables are very tender and pale green, 15 minutes. Add the scallion green tops and cook just until softened, 2 minutes.
2. Puree the soup in a blender (in batches if necessary) and return it to the pot. Season with salt and white pepper.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the milk with the goat cheese. Ladle the soup into shallow bowls, drizzle with the creamed goat cheese and serve.

Yield: 4 portions