I’m not much of a summer cook. I like to cook the foods of cooler weather — spicy gingerbreads, hearty stews, root vegetables that stick to your ribs. Summer, at least in Los Angeles, is really to hot to do this type of cooking, and those foods are literally the last food on earth you feel like eating. It doesn’t help that in the summertime on Bacon and Tomato sandwiches and corn on the cob, which, while providing an entirely balanced diet (what? That’s what I’ve had for dinner for the past 4 nights in a row!), is not so much the stuff of food blogs.
The problem, of course, is that summertime is when my local farmer’s market offers its greatest bounty. I am confronted with weekly heaps of Gaviota strawberries, Blenheim apricots, Elephant Heart plums, and the biggest, fattest blackberries you’ve ever seen. And while I do LOVE fruit (and my love cannot hold a candle to that of my husband and my child) sometimes I am compelled to buy more fresh fruit than even our family can eat. And so I am forced to cook, even in the summer.
Entries Tagged as 'tarts'
Summer Simplicity — Blackberry Galette
July 24th, 2009 · 15 Comments · Baked Goods and Desserts, Recipes, Summer
Serendipity — Apricot Tarts with Frangipane
July 11th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Baked Goods and Desserts, Quick, Recipes, Summer
It’s become fashionable or a mark of pride to eschew recipes. You’ll hear many cooks boasting of how they never use a recipe, or they just use techniques they know on whatever they have in the pantry. While there is some virtue to this, if you’re say, stranded on a desert island with a fully equipped kitchen but no cookbooks or internet — but I feel pretty strongly that there is a place for recipes in our collective culinary repertoire.
For the beginning cook, a recipe is an instruction that leads them step by step into the dangerous waters of cooking. A recipe will hold your hand, reassure you that you’re doing the right thing. For more advanced cooks, recipes are inspirational – for what is a recipe, really, other than a collection of ideas? – and communal. A conversation you’re having with whoever gave you the recipe — “Have you ever thought of adding this? What if I did it this way?” That’s why food and blogging go so naturally hand in hand — the internet has made the natural conversation about food larger, easier to navigate.
Daring Bakewell Tarts
June 27th, 2009 · 16 Comments · Baked Goods and Desserts, Entertaining, Make Ahead, Recipes
Have I ever mentioned that I am a raging Anglophile? I jealously hoard Colman’s mustard, studied abroad in London, wrote my undergraduate thesis on franchise reform in Parliament, and pepper my speech with phrases like “jolly good” and “lovely!” I blame it on a childhood reading the great English children’s books — Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins, Ballet Shoes, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Five Children and It. All of them full of funny names (how many of you know someone named Anthea?) and verbal expressions and best of all wonderful food (usually served at teatime) – Victoria Sandwich, Gingerbread stars, and who can forget Turkish Delight?
Because of this, I look askance at anyone who roundly condemns English cuisine. Overlooking the horror that is mushy peas (I said I was an Anglophile, not actually English), Britain has made many delectable contributions to world cuisine — mince pies, cheddar cheese, Branston pickle and these delectable little Bakewell tarts.
The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800′s in England.
