All the difference

I wasn't planning on posting anything today since I didn't really bake or pick anything, but as I was munching on the last of the currants I noticed something. If you're lucky, you might find fresh currants at a store by you, but what you'll find are usually loooong strands with sparsely dispersed berries, like ornaments on a Charlie Brown tree. My friend and I picked these ourselves, so we not only got to see how they grow, but we also got to pick the very best bunches...just like the one in the picture. I'll bet you'll never be able to find currants like these at any old store and I just had to share...and maybe brag a little.

P.S. Please ignore my poor thumb in the picture. It still hasn't forgiven me for accidentally slamming the car door on it.

Berry Delightful

I think my subconscious goal for this summer is to ferret out every single pick-your-own farm within reasonable driving distance and sample each season's offerings en masse straight from the ground, bush or tree one weekend morning at a time. This past weekend I found the only farm in this whole state that boasted gooseberries that would be ready for picking. I have only seen gooseberries once since I left Ukraine and that was last summer in Ireland, in the garden of a mansion, at the end of the row with something like 30 different varieties of potatoes. You can be sure that the little bush in the picture above was a bit lighter after I snuck away trying to hide the plump berries in my cheeks like a chipmunk. It was a long day of sight seeing and I needed a snack, so don't judge me!

I was all set to relive that experience again with a friend, who I picked up bright and early on my way to the farm, but once we got there we were told that the gooseberries were almost all gone, but that the currants were plentiful. Life is hard. We grabbed a little red radio flier-type wagon and some cartons and set out to pick what was there to be picked. I left my friend to pick the currants, grabbed a carton and set out to collect each and every single gooseberry that might still be hiding within the barren shrubs. I don't know if you've ever picked gooseberries, but if you come late in the season those bushes REALLY don't want you to have those last few berries. The branches are starting to dry up and the thorns are extra prickly. After walking the whole row I had a little bit over a pint of these tart and sweet berries, every single shrub was picked clean, and my arms were scratched from my fingernails to my elbows. Ouch! Don't they look lovely though?



By the time I got back my friend had picked a bunch of lovely red currants, so I just added a handful more (you can never have too much) and we headed back. Now, while Garden Patch Farms, the place where we went, is a bit overpriced all things considered, they have a fantastic variety of produce available for picking. On our way back we encountered the green bean vines, peas, green peppers, broccoli, and lovely rose shaped red cabbages. I wasn't planning on getting any veggies, but the cabbages just looked so good, I just couldn't walk past them, which led to my second learning experience of the day. I think assassins practice their skills on cabbages. After pulling and twisting I learned that the best way to pick a cabbage (aside from bringing a knife) is to sneak up behind it, grab it with both hands and sharply twist. The snap felt strangely like what I'd imagine a person's neck would feel like under similar treatment. Gah! At least this "bounty" will make a wonderful red cabbage cole slaw tomorrow and in the mean time I'll just put aside the blood-lust and munch on these:

Cherry Picking

When I was little I used to climb trees. Tall ones, short ones, ones with branches really low to the ground and those that you really had to work to get anywhere. While it usually wasn't a requirement, I loved to climb fruit bearing trees mainly because they came with snacks. I'd climb a tree full of still-green plums and hang out and munch until my belly ached. Then I'd pick whatever would fit into the skirt of the dress my mom would send me out in, hoping that for once I'd keep it clean, and I'd lug the loot home for homemade punch, jam or whatever else my mother was inspired to make. Inevitably, I fell out of more trees then I can recall, but I always came back for more. There's just no better vantage point from which to observe the world then from the quiet solitude of a tall leafy branch.

When we moved to the states, the suburbs no less, my tree climbing days were abruptly cut short. I tried to pick up where I had left off, but after a few neighbors complained, I was firmly asked to keep my feet on the ground, which is more or less where I've kept them for many years. Now you rightfully ask, why would I tell you this? Well, because it turns out my tree climbing days aren't quite as behind me as I had feared. I have been wanting to go sour cherry picking for many years and two weeks ago I found a spot in Rockford, IL and drove a little over an hour early in the morning to do just that. Some of the trees were already picked over as this was not the first day and I was not the first one to come, but after I grabbed four large bags back at the front desk, where a large dog washed my feet with his tongue, all part of the service, I turned left where others turned right and I was able to find some nice trees where I promptly got to work. After going through most of the tree and barely filling up one bag I looked up and saw....tons and tons of unpicked cherries hanging off of the hard to reach branches way above my head:


"Aha! If I just climb up there, I'll be able fill up my bags in no time," I thought to myself. I hesitated for a moment, remembering all those pesky neighbors, slung my camera over my shoulder, hung the bags over one of the higher branches and climbed up higher where I was literally surrounded by dozens of crowded bunches of sun warmed red cherries, which basically jumped into my bags on their own. Aside from one startled Polish lady that didn't see me up there when she picked my tree to pick her harvest until I dropped a few cherries, narrowly missing her head, no one complained and I came away with a huge load of cherries to work with.

I gave one of the bags to my mom, just as I used to in the old days, and she promptly churned out dozens and dozens of cherry filled buns and cookies. Yummy! I shared a large bowl of them with a friend and took the rest home for experimentation. First up came sour cherry sorbet using a recipe I found on this site. It was very good, but next time I think I'll cut the sugar by quite a bit as it was too sweet to my taste.



The next batch went into a large jar with several liters of vodka with the hope that in a few months I'll have a lovely sour cherry liquor to give out as gifts for the holidays. I'll post pictures once the mixture gets a bit more saturated.

And finally, skipping the ones that I ate right out of the bag, the rest were turned into a "no recipe" sour cherry jam I read about on David Lebovitz's site:


I think next time I'll save more for just eating :)

Strawberry Love - Part 2

Just as promised, I'm writing about the rest of the strawberry creations I attempted this weekend. First up is this summery tart inspired by the recipe I found on one of my favorite blogs to stalk: Tartelette. I juggled the amount of fruit to add and snuck in a bunch of slices strawberries and then I shaped it like a tart instead of a galette, but it still came out quite good. I loved the tender crust which didn't get soggy and held it's own against the filling. Here is my recipe adapted from the one provided by Tartelette:

Pastry crust:
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
1 stick butter, cut in small pieces
1 egg
2-4 tablespoons cold water

Combine flour, sugar, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the butter is cut in, but not too fine. Add the egg and pulse just until it's evenly distributed. Dump the contents into a bowl and mix it into a smooth mass adding a bit of water to help as necessary. Wrap in plastic and put into fridge to rest while you make the filling.

Filling:
1 small apple; peeled, cored and diced
3 tablespoons lemon juice (about two lemons)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons water
1 pint sliced strawberries
1 pint blackberries, whole

Combine chopped apple, lemon juice and sugar in a medium pot over medium heat and cook until the apples are tender. Add the blackberries and the strawberries and cook a few minutes. Meanwhile, combine water with the corn starch and mix into a smooth paste. Add this mix to the fruit and cook until it's thick and no longer foamy, only another minute or two. Remove from heat and cool.

Assembly:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to about a quarter inch thickness. You can either cut 6 inch circles and make galettes like Tartelette did or go the lazy route and transfer the dough into a tart pan with a removable bottom, trimming along the top. Fill the shell with the cooled filling and top with decorative accents cut from the leftover dough if you like. You can brush the edges with an egg and sprinkle with some sugar if you want to make it pretty, but I figured it was sweet enough, so I skipped this step.
Bake about 20 min until the crust is a light golden color and serve warm with a scoop of ice cream.


The next recipe comes straight from the fabulous FoodBlogga, so I won't copy it here. I will tell you that the only adjustment I made was to toss in a few extra strawberries and a few extra pecans into the mix. It was by far the favorite of all the things I made both at the Father's Day BBQ and the people who got to try some at work. I'll definitely be making more of this moist and fragrant cake and I highly recommend you click on the link above and make this cake soon. It tastes a LOT better than this picture looks :)



Finally, I was flipping through some back issues of Gourmet when I ran across this recipe for Strawberry Gelato. I had all the ingredients and my ice cream maker bowl was already in the freezer, so I went for it.

3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 1/4 cups sliced hulled strawberries
2 tablespoons pomegranate juice

Stir sugar and cornstarch in heavy medium saucepan (don't do this too vigorously or you'll end up wearing the cornstarch like I did). Whisk in milk and cream. Whisk over medium heat until the base thickens a little and begins to bubble, about 5 minutes. Pour into bowl and cool over ice, stirring occasionally.

Puree strawberries in processor. I strained the mix to get rid of as many clumps and seeds as I could and then added into the gelato base. Mix in pomegranate juice and chill the mixture, loosely covered in the fridge for about 3 hours or overnight. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to container and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours and up to 2 days. Hoard or share as your conscience allows.

I tried to take a picture of the ice cream to share with you, but by the time I served it all and got back to the table, this is all I saw from everyones plates:


How's that for a raving endorsement?

Strawberry Love - Part 1

I'm sorry I haven't written in...wow, almost a month! While I have been baking, I've had no time to really take pictures so there was nothing to post, but I think I'll more than make up for it with this weekend's activities. My sisters, my nephew and I went Strawberry picking! I've been researching different U-Pick sites in IL for weeks putting together lists of what I want to pick when and with whom and the first one on the list was the McCann Berry Farm in Woodstock, IL. They're located just a bit over an hour away from my sister's house and this past weekend was the middle of a very short season, so we got up early, packed up the car and headed out. We grabbed two baskets each and followed the guide to "our rows" and got to work. The bushes were chock full of beautiful ripe strawberries, so it didn't take long for us to fill up our baskets:


I remember going with my older sister a few years back to a farm in Michigan and I remember how she probably ate more than she picked and how excited she was every time she found a great big red strawberry, so I packed my camera to make sure I got lots of shots of my nephew having at least as much fun as she did. He was not disappointed. He had tons of fun "helping" find the best strawberries and was very serious about not eating the dirty ones until mom washed them from the bottle of water she brought. Here he is, intent and hard at work:



This abundance of strawberries practically demanded to be mashed and chopped and baked into yummy things as soon as I got the buckets home and what I realized pretty quickly was that I didn't pick nearly enough to satisfy everyone, but I was going to try.

When I went to Ireland last year, instead of souvenirs or four-leaf-clover trinkets I bought books. A few novels to read along the way and two great big cook books, one of which was this beautiful Apples for Jam. It's a beautifully written cookbook with a ton of great recipes including one for THE BEST STRAWBERRY JAM EVER! I'm not exaggerating or giving anyone undue credit, but this was a gorgeously red and delicious jam that really only had three ingredients: sugar, lemon juice and strawberries. No pectin, no gelling agents or food colorants, nothing what so ever that would take away from the beautiful fruit. This jam alone should send you out looking for your closest berry farm immediately, it's that good.



And while I think that you should also go and get this book, I'll share the recipe with you here:

1 kg ripe strawberries; washed, dried and quartered
2 cups sugar
juice from 2 lemons

1. Combine all ingredients in a non-metallic bowl and toss to coat. Loosely cover the bowl and put in the fridge overnight. This will make sure that the strawberries release some of their juices and maintain their beautiful color through the cooking process.
2. Pour all the juice and half the chopped berries into a deep pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Take the pot off the stove and blend the mixture into a smooth slurry. An immersion blender works great here, but a regular one will work just fine too.
4. Combine the blended berries with the reserved chopped ones back in the pot and bring to a boil again. Simmer for 20 minutes.

That's it! If you'd like to keep some for a while then prepare some jars by boiling them in some hot water and drying them in the oven on low temp, then fill with hot jam, seal and flip them upside down. While the jam is cooling the pressure will seal the jars and flipping them will help prevent condensation.


The next task on the agenda was to make ice cream, strawberry cardamom coffee cake and strawberry tartletts for father's day and to bring to work, but I'll put those into a separate post later tonight. In the mean time I'll leave you with this picture of the tart filling simmering away: