Strawberries and Cream

Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as fresh Farmer's Market strawberries crowned with a dollop of honey kissed sour cream? You have? Oh no, the thumb is not in the running.

Blueberry Mascarpone Pistachio Macarons

I had a tub of mascarpone and no idea what to do with it...until a certain genius, the same person who introduced me to macarons, chef 陈彦强，suggested that I make these. Evidently he overestimated me because they look nothing like the inspiration. ;) But...

...I learned several indispensable life lessons from these little guys (which, I should mention, are rather dangerous - I dare you to hover over them for more than 9 seconds without salivating/devouring one).

1. Don't trust Martha Stewart. I thought I trusted this woman...but alas. Her macaron recipe said to start the oven at 375, pop the suckers in, and turn it down to 325 and bake for 10 minutes. I think this is what caused those pesky cracks! Oh Martha, I thought you were the one...

2. Too much food coloring makes a wet batter. Gel colorings are better! I used 5 drops of blue and 8 drops of red...this might be why they took over 1 hour to dry, and falling victim to my impatience, my poor babies didn't develop their pieds.

3. Blueberry coulis, mascarpone, and butter = shut up.

4. It's what's on the inside that counts. These are ugly but yummy. Just like people - a warm, loving heart wins over dashing looks any day. But it doesn't hurt to be gorgeous.

I'm very good at keeping the kitchen clean. This is the tub of mascarpone that was responsible for this madness. Seriously, I think I will blame Costco for selling such big tubs of mascarpone. If it weren't for them, none of this would've happened.

The near empty tub of mascarpone pictured above was left in the wake of the Deadly Duo: the Rubber Spatula and Cream Craver.

The mascarpone filling is deadly. Think nutty, buttery mascarpone, kicked up with a combo of organic salted and unsalted butter, and mixed with a very intensely concentrated blueberry coulis spiked with the tang of a lemon and sweetened with a touch sugar. Ah, this description does not do it justice.

Blueberry Mascarpone Pistachio Macrons

1 batch of macarons, colored purple, sprinkled with pistachios (Huh? You don't have it memorized?)

more ground pistachios

2 cups frozen organic blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

juice of a lemon

Mascarpone, whatever is left in the tub (Based on the fullness of my stomach...exactly 4.235 oz)

7 Tbsp softened butter (3 Tbsp unsalted, 4 Tbsp salted)

1. Put blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a sauce pan over high heat. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes until very thick and syrupy, stirring occasionally.

2. With a rubber spatula, force the berry mixture through a fine sieve and set aside until it is room temp. Taste it if you dare. It should be tart and sweet and intoxicatingly perfect.

3. Mix the mascarpone with the butter until smooth and lump-free. Add the blueberry mixture and mix well with a whisk until very smooth. Refrigerate until slightly cool and firm.

4. Pipe a dollop onto 1/2 of the shells, top with the other shells, and sprinkle with pistachios. If they fall off, that's your problem.

Homely Blueberry Peach Pie

Bonnie and I made this. :) We gave up trying to cut a perfect slice. The blueberry juices just didn't want to cooperate, hence the "homely" look. It's a very simple pie made with just blueberries, peaches, sugar, tapioca starch, and lemon zest, simmered on the stovetop until thick and then poured into a pate brisee. The top was brushed with soymilk and sprinkled with coarse sugar. It's excellent served with lightly sweetened sour cream and fresh garden mint!

Rum Drenched Vanilla Cake and Saffron Rice

Rum Drenched Vanilla Cake, from Dorie Greenspan's awesome book, Baking. This cake recipe called for rubbing the sugar with vanilla beans, but I didn't have those, so I added a fat tablespoon of vanilla paste. And I went a little greedy on the rum. And the cream. So I don't know why I was still surprised when the batter was runny, instead of thick like Dorie said. Didn't realize this until it was too late though; I was reading the recipe and Dorie wrote: "Pour batter into pan, and smooth the top with a spatula." I looked at the cake and thought, "How very pointless. It smoothed itself." So I shoved it in the oven and forgot about it for a whole 11 seconds, and then got paranoid and reread the recipe...I seriously considered taking the cake back out and adding more flour, haha. Good thing I didn't! Everything worked out - the cake was moist, tender, and a little too delicious for its own good (especially when soaked in rum syrup!). I reduced the sugar by about a tablespoon, but it was still kinda sweet...the bitterness of the rum helps a little, as does the fat from the 7.5 Tbsp of butter and 1/3 cup cream, but it is very good served with coffee! Arrrr this is pirate's booty.

This was dinner from today. Saffron rice made by toasting rice with garlic infused oil and ground pork, then adding chicken stock, salt, saffron, and shrimp and cooking on the stovetop. The veggie is a stir-fried pumpkin leaves with fermented tofu and garlic, and kidney beans cooked with pickled mustard greens and ground pork. Trust me, it tastes better than it sounds.

Chocolate Souffle

This chocolate souffle uses 60% dark chocolate, and has no flour or milk! The recipe is from the Dessert Bible by Christopher Kimball. First, chocolate is melted with 2 Tbsp butter, and then orange zest, chocolate liquor, salt, and vanilla are added. Then you beat 3 yolks with 2 Tbsp sugar until very light and thick and fold the two mixtures together. Then you whip 4 egg whites with 1 Tbsp sugar and some cream of tartar, stir a bit of the white into the chocolate mixture, and fold the rest in. Then everything is baked at 385 degrees for 14 minutes in buttered and sugared ramekins.

These were good, but they were a little overbaked (16 minutes was a little long, so next time I would do 14...I think if the middle is molten it's ok! The chocolate flavor will be more intense if it's underbaked) and I thought the orange zest was a little strange, and maybe the chocolate was a tad bitter (try adding more sugar or use a less dark chocolate? like 45%). Didn't have chocolate liquor so I used dark rum.

Pierre Herme's Lemon Cream Tart

my mom: Wow! This is so good! What's in it??

me: uhh, lemon juice, lemon zest, eggs, sugar...yeah that's about it.

my mom: (mouth full) mmmmm...

me: ...oh yea, and some butter.

By some, I mean like 21 Tbsp for the whole recipe. Hehe. But I only made half, so that's only 10.5 Tbsp, so it's healthier right?

This is Pierre Herme's recipe. For those of you who don't know him, he is one naughty boy. First he rubs 1 cup of sugar with the grated zest of three lemons until the sugar is lemon infused. Then he whisks the sugar and lemon with 4 eggs and 3/4 cup lemon juice, and cooks it over a double boiler to 180 degrees and strains it through a fine mesh strainer to make it silky smooth. Then after it cools to 140, he blends it in a blender and chucks 21 gobs of butter at it until it turns into a pale, light, decadent cream. It's blended for 3 minutes after all the butter is added to make it super light and creamy. After the cream is refrigerated in the pre-baked tart shell, it firms up ever so slightly and just melts on your tongue when you take a bite. Sinful? Nah. Naughty? Maybe. Heavenly? Oh yes!

Blue Ribbon Cheesecake

I don't think Blue Ribbon is a very fitting name. Maybe something more like "Crater Cheesecake" or "Bowl of Happiness Cheesecake"...oh, so much better. This recipe does three things special. For one, it uses whipped egg whites to lighten the batter; for another, it doesn't use a water bath, and finally it is baked at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and then finished at a lower temperature. The high temperature is what helps the cheesecake get its lovely California tan. It's not elegant but I think its rustic charm makes it more interesting and delicious! Don't you just want to pick off the top nutty brown crust? It's calling your name...dare you to click on the left photo! ;)

The addition of a Tbsp of flour and the separation of the eggs helps the texture stay soft and fluffy, despite the absence of a water bath. Not having a water bath also helps the cheesecake develop its lovely golden brown, shiny, delicious crust. The crater in the middle is kind of an eye sore, however. This is because the beaten egg whites makes it rise too much, and inevitably fall. I supposed we need to fill the crater with something to hide it...cream, anyone??

Recipe for Blue Ribbon Cheesecake, adapted from Apron Strings

I just cut the recipe in half and dumped it into a 7-inch springform but it threatened to overflow, so I baked the rest in a ramekin. I also added the zest of a lemon and maybe a little more lemon juice, and reduced the sugar by a Tbsp. And I used leftover pie crust for the base. Also, since my cake was smaller, the baking times were reduced by 15%.