Nothing quite like a juicy watermelon

 In May I planted a couple of watermelon plants.....really just for fun.  I tried planting them in Denver but no luck.  What the heck.  There was a place in my front yard that got lots of sun and nothing was growing so I planted some.  Non GMO, etc.  Well I was lucky and harvested five just this last month. One small one and 4 huge......18-21 pounds each.  Ok when do you harvest these guys?  I guess you find out if you did it right when you cut into it:

moon and stars cut

Yep!  It's ripe.  It made a beautiful splash...swish sound when the knife cut into it and it split open.  Yes there are seeds.....big beautiful black ones.  Remember not GMO.  Watermelon have seeds...at least they did when I was a kid.  Mom would cut us a slice and we would have to eat it outside so we could spit the seeds out with enthusiasm......probably the only time it was ok to spit.

on the vine

This is what a watermelon looks like growing on a vine.  This one is a stripy one

moon and stars, after the rain

This one is called "Moon and Stars".  Can you see how it got its name?

moon and stars, 21 pounds

I only had one moon and stars o harvest but it weighed 21 pounds.....that's a lot for a watermelon

watermelon margarita

I have been just eating it cold and enjoying spitting out the seeds but watermelon juice makes a good base for a Margarita:

1 quart watermelon juice

1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

sweeten with Agave or simple syrup (or a ginger simple syrup)

fresh grated ginger

Rim the glass with lime juice or ginger and sugar

Not quite the Jimmy Buffett version of a Margarita but it is 

amazing

Happy watermelon seed spitting

I have a fig tree! And I have figs! Fig and raspberry galette

 Black Mission figs were planted early in the  Spanish California missions.  They have thrived in this Southern California climate ever since.  When I was a child my Grandmother would pick the figs when ripe and then sugar them and place them in the oven to "dry" at a low temperature for a long time.  They tasted like candy to me.  Well when I arrived back on her property a year ago this old tree was in really bad shape....with no fruit on it at all...and loaded with Japanese beetles.  My friends told me it was because we had been in a drought but also this tree had been terribly neglected.  But a good year of rain and a little care has brought me a good crop of delicious figs.

black Mission fig

The perfect time to pick a black Mission fig is when there is a crack opening on the skin.  This ripe fig had a perfectly smooth skin last night.  Time to pick it.

cut open

What a treat to eat them just like this.  Maybe with some fresh goat cheese and honey.  Maybe with some lavender honey ice cream.

But today I am borrowing Alice Waters' recipe for a fig and raspberry galette with fig sauce

fig and raspberry galette with sauce

A galette is a "flat" cake....basically a pie dough crust.  Here's Alice's recipe for galette pastry dough:

recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

12 Tbs butter, unsalted-chilled and cut into 1/2" pieces

7 Tbs ice water

method:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.  

Cut in 4 ( of the 12) Tbs butter with a pastry cutter - leave the food processor on the shelf

mixing until the dough looks like cornmeal

Cut in the remaining 8 Tbs until the biggest pieces of butter are about the size of peas

Drizzle in 7 Tbs ice water...1 Tbs at a time until the dough just comes together.  Toss the mixture with your hands, letting it fall through your fingers.  When it comes together divide it in half and place in fridge at least 30 minutes.

Now for the galette topping:

1 pint raspberries and 15 ripe black Mission figs

recipe:

ingredients:

10 ozs galette dough, rolled out to a 14" circle

6 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs flour

2 Tbs almond flour

15 ripe black Mission figs

1 Tbs butter, melted

1 pint raspberries

sauce:

5 ripe black Mission figs

1 cup water

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp liquor,  I used St Germaine, Alice calls for Chartreuse but it's only a teaspoon so use what you have

method:

Preheat the oven to 400 deg.  Place a pizza stone (if you have one) on the center rack

Remove the chilled galette dough and roll out to a 14" circle.

Place the rolled out dough on a parchment line baking sheet

Mix 1 Tbs (of the 6) sugar, the flour and the almond flour and sprinkle evenly on the dough leaving a 1 1/2" border unsprinkled.

Cut off the tips of the figs.  Then cut them into quarters and place them in circles on the dough

figs on galette dough

Sprinkle 3 Tbs of sugar over the figs.

Roll the borders of the dough towards the center creating a little "rope" edge.  This so far is all classic galette preparation

dough rolled to make raised edge

Brush the rolled edge with the melted butter and sprinkle with the remaining 2 Tbs sugar.

( I remind my Granddaughter sous chefs that baking is a math class in action)

Bake in the center of the oven (ideal on a pizza stone) for 20 minutes.

Rotate and bake another 20 minutes.

Toss the raspberries with a little sugar and scatter them around the figs in the spaces

raspberries added to galette

Continue baking for another 10-20 minutes until crust is golden brown and the figs are caramelized (just like my Grandma's)

Remove from oven and slide off the pan with the parchment paper directly on to a cooling rack- this keeps the bottom of the crust crispy

all done

Now for the sauce:

method:

Trim and quarter the 5 figs and cook them with the water in a small saucepan for 5 minutes over high heat.

sauce prep

Break up the figs with a potato masher.

Reduce the heat and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Press the fruit through a fine mesh sieve and return the juices to the pan.

Add the sugar and boil over medium heat until you have a thick syrup consistency.

Cool and add liquor.

When you are ready to serve the galette brush with fig sauce/syrup

a slice of heaven

Bon Appetit!

Thank you Alice Waters for your recipe from Chez panisse fruit

black Mission figs, blue sky, home

watercolor black Mission figs

I had to paint these beauties before they are gone for the season.

Ella is 16!!!!

and her parents and I are passing the Subaru to her to drive.  Ella, Ryan and friend, Jariya flew to California yesterday and we squeezed in as much fun and food as we possibly could before they drove off to Denver.

First stop: In and Out

Who knew they opened at 10:30 am?  Ryan did.  No In and Out in Colorado

2nd stop: the beach- 2 of them

Big Corona

Then to Balboa Island:

Balboa Island

Dad's original frozen banana

Well it had been a long time since any of us had eaten so

Cheesecake

This is definitely an Ella and NaNa thing but we welcomed Ryan and Jariya this time

It's really not about eating all the food you order.  It's the pure joy of ordering whatever you want.

shiny Forester

Time to put a little shine on the "new" car

Palmiers

Up early in time to make some Palmiers for the drive....Ooops!  They were all eaten at breakfast.....so off to the store to get puff pastry for another batch.

We left the animals home all day which is just what the chickens and goats like but Charlotte has been part of the farm only 7 days and she was a bit lonely without her people (She actually just slept all day) but once home she got plenty of love from her new friend.

Charlotte Ella

I love you Ella.  Please stay longer next time

Dehydrating tomatoes

Oh I am blessed with a bounty of tomatoes.  I planted them early BECAUSE I COULD ( in California) and I am now in the middle of my harvest!!! I have shared them with friends, family and neighbors.  I have canned them diced in Marinara sauce and in salsa and honestly I'm out of jars and have a dehydrator so that's what I'm doing now.  Two years ago I did the same and then vacuum sealed the dried tomatoes in batches.  They are easy to store and are very light weight.  Then in winter they are on the shelf ready to throw into a soup or slow cooked meal.  Here's the journey:

the morning harvest

Start with great tomatoes 

dehydrator

I use an electrical one

sliced tomatoes

slice 3/8 inch thick

half dried

After about 6 hours ( above)

completely dried

ready to be sealed

Aren't they gorgeous!!!

Hold on to your dreams- Poppy and the Pomegranate tree

Goats are most entertaining at 6 am and in the evening.  Shortly after letting the goats out of the barn in the morning-yes at 6 am baby Poppy (2 months) reaches for leaves that she can possibly reach by going to her back legs:

She is reaching for the leaves to nibble on but this is a pomegranate tree and please don't take the fruit with you Poppy:

pomegranate blossom

These young fruit will be so divine to eat in 4 months if she'll just leave them alone

young pomegranate fruit

How will they ever become yummy jelly if you eat them?

pomegranate jelly

The next morning Poppy saw opportunity knock when her MaMa LuLu walked under the tree:

Go for it Poppy!

Sunflowers salute!

Glorious Sunflower:

May 22 Sunflower

These sweet peas have been blooming since before the first day of spring and they are still going strong.  I just came in from picking these plus giving some to my neighbor and I'm going back out with another empty vase.  I wish you could smell them....divine

morning pick

French macarons- a delightful classic

Macarons with chocolate ganache and white chocolate ganache filling

We have all seen these lovely little French sandwich cookies.  They are delightful to look at and eat.  Last week I was on a mission to make these little treats and make them perfectly.  They are an art form in the kitchen to say the least.  They are time consuming.  The ingredients and methods are precise....no compromising and the best recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Book

one of the best cookie books

Macarons are fanciful elegant sandwich cookies as light as the almond meringue they are made of.  These beauties were not part of the curricula when I was a student at the Cordon Bleu School of Cooking.... patissiere.  But they are sure popular now.  The tops of the cookies are called "shells" and are smooth.  The rims around their bottoms are called "feet" and are rough.  The filling is where most of the flavor is from and can be anything you want.  My fillings were chocolate ganache and white chocolate ganache.  My third batch was a cream cheese frosting with cherry jam.  Ok let's start:

 For the macarons:

2 cups (200 grams) almond flour

1 2/3 cups (200 grams) confectioners' sugar

2/3 cup (150ml) egg whites

food coloring

1 cup (200 grams) sugar

1/4 cup (60 ml) water

weigh your ingredients

OK  Get your kitchen scale out and switch it to metric.   Get your digital thermometer out too.  This is why you have these awesome kitchen tools.  In cooking school, especially pastry, we weighed every ingredient.  Flours especially carry different amounts of moisture so the proper ratio of ingredients is more precisely measured by weight.  

Equipment:

kitchen scale (with metric option)

digital kitchen thermometer, candy thermometer will do too

stand mixer

2 baking sheets

parchment paper or silpat liners - W-S has one just for macarons

strainer

large pastry bag

plain 1/2 " tip

pastry brush

Method:

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  You can make a 1 1/2" circle guide with a cookie cutter and a pencil and then flip the marked side over or just eyeball the 1 1/2" circle.

 Place the stainer over a large bowl and press the almond flour and the confectioners' sugar through it.  This, as Dorie calls it, is an annoying step but don't skip it.    revendique!

almond flour and confectioners' sugar through the sieve

Put half of the egg whites in your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Add food coloring to the OTHER half of the egg whites.  This was 8 drops:  Then stir egg whites into almond flour/confectioners' sugar mixture.  Using a flexible spatula mix and mash the whites into the dry ingredients until you have a homogenous paste:

paste of egg whites, almond flour, confectioners' sugar and food coloring

OK  now for the meringue

Another classic French patisserie essential:

Bring the sugar and  water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat.  If there are splatters on the sides of the pan, wash them down with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.  Cook this syrup until it reaches 243-245 degrees F ( It will take about 10 minutes. )   

Meanwhile:

Beat the egg whites until they hold medium-firm glossy peaks.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and keep mixing until the sugar syrup comes to the 245 deg temperature:

sugar syrup

When the sugar is ready, take the pan off the heat.  With the egg white mixer on low speed, pour in the hot syrup, trying to pour it between the whirring whisk and the side of the bowl.  Do not try to incorporate the splatters.  It will ruin your smooth meringue.  

Increase the mixer speed to high and beat until the meringue has cooled to room temperature, about 10 minutes- you'll be able to tell by touching the bottom of the bowl.   Revendique!

Perfect meringue!

Give the almond flour mixture another stir with the spatula, then scrape the meringue over it and fold everything together.  Don't be gentle.  Keep folding and mashing until when you lift the spatula, the batter flows off it in a thick band:

folding in the meringue 

all mixed in

Add more food coloring now if too pastel.  This batch is from 8 drops of red.  The saturation is reduced to a pastel after this step.

Spoon half of the batter into a pastry bag fitted with the 1/2" round tip and pipe out 1 1/2" rounds.  Hold the bag straight up.  No tilting!  Don't worry if you have a point in the middle.  It will dissolve into the batter while it is "resting"

1 1/2" rounds 2" apart on parchment lined baking sheet

Grab the baking sheet with both hands raise to about 8" above work table and drop it onto the table.  Yep!!!  Drop it without cushion 8"    Slam!  You need to do this in order to get the bubbles out of the batter and to smooth the tops.

Set the cookie sheet aside in a cool, dry place to allow the cookies to form a crust.  When you can lightly touch the top of the macaron shell without having batter stick to your finger, you are ready to bake.  This resting takes about 15-30 minutes and looks like this:

rested batter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Bake the macarons one sheet at a time in the middle of the oven for 6 minutes.  Rotate the pan and bake for another 6-9 minutes or until the macarons can be carefully peeled away from the paper or lifted from the mat.  The bottoms will still feel just a little soft.  

Slide the parchment or mat off the baking sheet onto a counter and let the macarons cool.

Repeat with the second sheet

Peel the macarons off the paper or mat and match them for sandwiching.

Sandwiching:

You can use a piping bag or a short handled knife or teaspoon to fill the macarons.

Add filling to one shell, top with another and gently swivel the top macaron to spread the filling to the edges.

Cover the macarons with plastic wrap or pack them into a container.

Refrigerate for AT LEAST 24 HOURS.  Revendique!

Personal note: 

I learned the word "revendique" while a student in Paris. It is a word with no translation:  It basically means "no compromise"  This is the way and the only way to do this.  French pastry making is like this.  If you are not willing to follow this method 100 per cent you are taking a huge risk of failure.  The French pastry chefs are revendique and it pays off.  

I worked this recipe and method until I got it right.  It's labor intensive.  It's very specific and it's totally foolproof if you follow the method exactly.  This was 3 1/2 hours from start to filling and then you wait at least 24 hours until you can serve or eat one.

Plan ahead: Macarons characteristic texture takes this 24 hours to develop.  But once they are ready they store nicely in the fridge for 4 days.  If you have any left the will store nicely in the freezer for up to 2 months.  I keep mine in the freezer and take just one out for a personal treat or a couple to give as a gift to a lucky friend.

Perfect macarons with the eyes of a lamb looking right at you

Bon Appetit!

or

just go out and spend $5 for one.   It's well worth paying a chef to make one for you