More Gnocchi

We enjoyed our first meet-and-greets with the ricotta gnocchi from my first Daring Cooks challenge so much that I made them again last night. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the Fresh and Easy ricotta I used last time and although the substitute I found claimed it was also fresh ricotta, it didn't get dry enough after a lot of squeezing and weighted draining. So my gnocchi were very tender. As in, fell apart if I touched them the wrong way. They were tasty because I had strained in some leftover pesto, but the texture was nothing like the clouds I had produced the first two times.

Still, they made for a tasty light supper for a hot night when served with a garlic-laced veggie broth and leftover creamed spinach. I made just fifteen of them because they tried to disintegrate in the water. I have to figure out what to do with the leftovers today. It's just nice to know that some of the Daring Kitchen challenges will become part of our regular meal rotation.

The First Corn

Our "neighbor" who lives a mere 20 miles away has a wonderful garden. He's lived in the same house for over a decade now, so he's had a chance to build up good organics in the soil and to experiment to find what works and what doesn't. His experience is only partly helpful to me because we're more than 2000 feet higher in elevation than he is, so our temperatures and frosts and such are completely different. However, we do benefit from his generosity. Last week, he sent bags of produce home with Husband. Loads of onions and green beans, smaller quantities of other lovelies, and a big bag of corn, picked that afternoon. You can imagine that my dinner plans suddenly involved corn.

I shucked the husks into my sink while boiling the water.

After a very brief bath in the pot, the corn was ready to eat. Some of the kernels were tiny, but still packed great flavor. Butter, salt, and pepper were all they wore. And because corn was the star and Husband loves fake bacon, we just had simple fake bacon sandwiches with the corn. Summer must really be upon us now.

A Daring Baker Bakes A Bakewell Tart...Well?

Father's Day In Desertville

8:15 am: And the adventure begins! It's coming close to the end of the month and I haven't yet made this month's Daring Baker Challenge. This challenge comes from Jolly Olde England, with the following secret password:

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.

The sugared berries

And, so, my kitchen is starting to bubble and whir with activity. A Bakewell Tart (and I'm sticking with that story, no pudding spoons will accompany dessert tonight) is a sweet pastry crust smeared with jam and topped with frangipane, which is somewhere between an almond custard and an almond cake. They are delicious and I've never made one before. This morning's preparations include grinding almonds (check!) and making pan jam sensu Jasmine's creation. The jam is just starting to bubble away now.

Thanks to this challenge and the ongoing, and therefore, top secret Daring Cooks challenge, I found myself justifying the purchase of a kitchen scale. I'm using the very last not-quite-500-grams of my Alaska berries. I've already mourned the last of the blueberries and cranberries, but now the last of my mixed blueberries/cranberries/bear berries are in a pan with 100 grams of sugar on their way to becoming the jam layer. It's more sugar to berries than Jasmine suggests, but bear berries and slightly under-ripe cranberries? Not so sweet.

8:47 am: But wait -- my worst nightmare has come true: I am Out Of Butter. There are two or three tablespoons in the butter dish, but a search of both freezers demonstrates a complete and utter lack of back-up. How did I let this happen?? It puts a serious crimp in making the crust. And the frangipane.

(Now, truthfully, being Out Of Butter is not my worst nightmare. I have a toddler, after all. She is very capable of inspiring much, much worse nightmares. But being Out Of Butter ranks right up there in my culinary nightmare situations. I love butter.)

And so what to do? If I was certain that the gas station carried butter, I'd drive the 16 miles each way to get some, but I'm not. They only carry single-serve milk and we've learned that they don't really stock bread, so staples are not their specialty.

This is where the isolated part of the blog title really comes into play. Bleah.

The cranky crust

2:43 pm: Back on track after a 70 mile round-trip drive to get butter. I justified that sojourn on the basis of needing gas for our car that does not go to town. It relies on a gas can that has been very much empty since before vacation. Husband fears the car won't get him home from work tomorrow if it doesn't get a gas infusion, so the gas was necessary. I thought that the second-closest gas station (where gas is close to a dollar cheaper than at the closest, price-gouging station) would have butter, but it didn't. Luckily, it is located in a "company town" with a very- well-hidden company store that welcomes non-company customers. They had butter.

So now Little Girl is napping, my crust is formed into a disk and resting in the refrigerator, the butter for the frangipane is softening in a mixing bowl, and I am going to have a belated lunch.

The not-so-cranky trimmed and crimped crust

5:21 pm: Once again, my trusty rolling jar was dragged out to do the honors. I think that might have been the ugliest rolled crust I've ever made, but once it was in the pie plate and trimmed, it looked pretty good. I know y'all are getting tired of this, but -- surprise! -- my tart pan is in storage. So the tart's in just a plain, old pie plate.

The deep purple jam layer -- thanks, Alaska!

I spread a goodly quantity of jam without measuring and then topped it up with the frangipane mixture. I set the timer for 25 minutes so I could toss the almond slivers on before it was done, but something made me check it at 20 minutes and it was already a deep brown. I got my slivers on and gave it another five minutes until I thought the center seemed more or less set. It looks good as it cools on the counter and I've got dinner almost made, too!

The finished tart, fresh from the oven

I'm making the tart as a Father's Day treat, so I sure hope the resident father likes it. Husband's a bit unpredictable on sweets, so I've hedged my bets by planning tamales and a black bean salsa/salad for dinner. That is a sure thing. I'm not convinced that the two courses will go together, but we'll live with it. Husband does not do flan (it's another texture thing), so he won't be expecting that particular Mexican classic.

A perfect slice

8:08 pm: A success! The tart was well-received by its intended audience. It sliced beautifully and tasted just as it should: fruity and almond-y and delicious.

My dough was probably a little thinner than it should have been and I had lots of trimmings, so if I hadn't been so ham-fisted with the rolling, it might have been perfect. I would have preferred a thicker jam layer, but when I voiced that thought, Husband was very quick to squash that idea, citing his dislike of "jammy textures". It is a well-established dislike.

So, many thanks to Jasmine and Annemarie for providing the inspiration for a successful Father's Day dessert!

Vegan Sorbet? Ice Cream?

My BIL and SIL are coming to visit today and they're vegan, so I always try to pull out my vegan skills and brush them off before they arrive. Dinner tonight is going to be various breads and crackers with a big green salad, hummus, and sliced grilled and raw veggies. I forgot to buy tofu, but if they bring some as vaguely requested, we'll have some pan fried tofu (dredged first in a combination of flour and nutritional yeast).

But my big experiment today is the dessert. My SIL, last I knew, was trying to avoid most processed sugars. I like to provide dessert, though, so I started thinking last night about something I could make from ingredients in the house. I settled on a sorbet. Or ice cream. Or sherbert. Something in that family, anyway.

Last night, I combined 6 ounces of slivered raw almonds and a cup or so of water in my blender and let fly. The resulting slurry went in the fridge overnight. This morning, I added a little more water and blended it a little more before passing the slurry through a sieve to make a thick almond milk. Very delicious! I had about a cup and combined that with a pound of frozen berries and cherries with just two tablespoons of sugar.

At that point, I tasted it. A little flat. I added a pinch of salt and a generous sprinkle of coriander, having learned before that coriander goes beautifully with berries. Better, but I probably should have added a squeeze of lemon juice, too.

And now ... it's in the freezer and I'm whisking it every fifteen minutes or so to keep out the big ice crystals. With any luck, it will be just the right thing for after dinner!

It's late. We've eaten all the ice cream and I forgot to take a picture. It was well received by all except LittleGirl, who did not think the bright purple stuff was sufficiently ice cream like. BIL poured maple syrup over his to satisfy his sweet tooth. I had a little on mine to perk up the flavor.

Next time: more almond milk, less fruit.