Peach Upside Down Cake a la New York Times

To my mind,  this recipe combines aspects of pineapple upside down cake, cottage pudding, coffee cake, and tarte Tatin, that famous French caramelized topsy turvy apple dessert. It is drawn from the New York Times cooking column, and a recipe maker whose fabulous name is Florence Fabricant. Ms. Fabulous Fabricant recommends serving this cake with a dollop of creme fraiche.

The recipe makes one cake but I made two at once, to double my pleasure and double my fun.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound softenened unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
• 3 large ripe peaches (peeled)
• 1 and 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 inch cake or pie pan , then line it with parchment paper and butter that as well.

Slice the peaches and arrange them on the bottom of the pan.

Combine 1/2 cup of the sugar with 1/4 cup of water in a saucepan. Cook over a medium heat until the mixture turns amber. This takes 12 minutes. Remove the caramel from the heat and pour it over the peaches in the pan.

Combine the flour, baking powder and nutmeg. In a medium-sized bowl, beat the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until light, then beat in the eggs one at a time.Stir in the flour mixture, then spread the batter evenly over the peaches. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden and the cake feels set to the touch.  

Cool the cake somewhat, then run a knife around the sides of the baking pan and invert it on a serving dish while praying to the baking gods.

Green Tomato Chutney

I've taken the following post from my previous food blog, just because there are lots of green tomatoes on the vine in mid-August in Ontario. Oh, and I happen to love chutney.

In searching my files for a tried and true recipe for green tomato mincemeat, I happened upon one for green tomato chutney. The recipe card was written in the unmistakable hand of my old friend Holly, someone I haven't seen in many years but think of frequently. This chutney is dark and savoury, and may remind some of Branston Pickle.

My sister had given me some green tomatoes from her garden, determined to thwart the thieving deer. Here are the green tomatoes, saved from the maws of Lanark County deer.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds green tomatoes, chopped
• 1.5 pounds onions, chopped
• 1 pound apples, peeled and chopped
• 2 cups malt vinegar
• 1.5 pounds brown sugar
• 6 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp. mustard seed
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 3/4 tsp. cayenne ( I left this out to no ill effect)
• 1/4 cup pickling salt

Methods:

Chop the vegetables and cook in a heavy-bottomed pot for 1 hour with the vinegar. Add the remaining ingredients; cook for another 2 hours. Bottle in a sterilized canning jars and wait for the lids to pop.

Gambas al Ajillo - AKA Garlic Shrimp

There are many variations on recipes for gambas, a Spanish tapa. I would call the following the sparest I've encountered. There are only 4 ingredients in my recipe: shrimp, minced garlic, chili flakes and olive oil. Essential to eating gambas is a fresh baguette or similar loaf of chewy bread for dipping in the garlic-infused oil. I use a cast iron skillet for cooking and serving the gambas. This is a great dish for sharing.

Ingredients:

• I used 300 grams of wild-caught raw shrimp, but use as many as easily fit into your skillet, and they should be deveined and shelled
• about a 1/3 cup of good quality olive oil
• a large pinch of chili pepper flakes
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced

Methods:
Use a large heavy-bottomed skillet to begin sauteing the garlic in the olive oil, being careful not to brown the garlic. When the garlic is mostly soft, add the shrimp and pepper flakes and saute for only a few minutes more until the shrimp have lost their translucence and turned pink. Cut up lots of bread and dig in while everything is piping hot. Sop up the garlic-infused oil with gusto.

Sylvia's Cottage Style Peach Crisp

As I have said before, my sister is the queen of recipe-making. Here is her recipe for a seasonal dessert...peach crisp.

Ingredients Fruit Base:

• 8 peaches, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 cup apricot jam, melted

Ingredients Topping:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted ( I did not have any extra butter, which I would normally use)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 2 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds 

Methods:
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.
Gently mix together the fruit and jam. Place in the bottom of a buttered baking dish. Choose a dish that will reasonably hold the fruit when topped. Overfilling a baking dish will result in a sticky mess in your oven. Mix the topping ingredients together, then carefully place on top of the peaches. Bake for half an hour or until you can see the fruit bubbling at the edges of the topping..

Sauteed Corn, Greens, Bacon and Scallions

This is a great way to eat your veggies, and 'tis the season for vegetables. By Julia Moskin and the New York Times Cooking column.

Ingredients:

• 4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch strips
• 1-2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 shallot or small onion, minced
• 3 cups of corn kernels, sliced from 4-5 cobs of corn
• 1/2 cup of diced red pepper
• pinch of chili pepper flakes\salt and pepper to taste
• 2 or 3 scallions, white and light green parts, thinly sliced
• 4- 6 cups of tender greens like baby chard or kale or spinach

Methods:

Cook the bacon in a large skillet until crisp then drain it on a paper towel. Reserve a teaspoon (or more) of fat in the skillet. Add the butter and the shallot. Sizzle but don't scorch the vegetable. Stir for about 2 minutes before adding the corn, peppers and pepper flakes. Stir about 5 minutes before seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Add the bacon and scallions. Then add the greens about 2 cups at a time, stirring to wilt before adding more. 

Chocolate Pudding from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

This recipe is taken from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by food blogger Deb Perelman. It has received rave reviews. I like it:  a) because it receives rave reviews, and b) it is so very easy to make.

Eat it warm or let it cool...it's your pudding, and maybe you're one of those delayed gratification types.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup (30 grams) cornstarch
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups (710 ml) whole milk
• 6 ounces (170 grams) semi- or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (or 1 cup of good chocolate chips)
• 1 teaspoon ( 5 ml) pure vanilla extract

Methods:

Combine the cornstarch, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Slowly whisk in the milk, in a thin stream at first, so that lumps don't form, then more quickly once the cornstarch mixture is smoothly incorporated. Place over medium-low heat and stir occasionally, scraping the bottom and sides. Use a whisk as necessary to avoid lumps. After 10 minutes or so, (slower cooking is better), the mixture should begin to thicken. Add the chocolate and continue stirring for another 2 to 4 minutes, until the chocolate is fully incorporated and the mixture is quite thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour into a serving bowl. 

Cheese Ravioli with Butter and Sage Sauce

In Italian, this dish is known as Ravioli di Pasta alla Ricotta, Burro d’Alpeggio alla Salvia. Sounds complicated, but it's remarkably easy to make homemade ravioli. A much more difficult task is writing a simple explanation of how to do it. Here goes nothing.....

 Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 fresh eggs
• about a tablespoon of olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 6 tablespoons fresh sheep’s milk ricotta cheese
• 6 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
• 3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• Grated zest of one lemon
• 5 ounces (150 grams) unsalted butter (This seems like a lot of butter to me. Change the volume at your discretion)
• pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• several fresh sage leaves

Methods:  

 Prepare the pasta dough by piling the flour on a countertop and making a ‘well’ in the flour into which the eggs, salt and olive oil are placed. Use a fork to gradually mix the wet ingredients into the dry. Knead the dough until smooth, adding more flour if the dough is too sticky to handle easily. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 minutes. While the dough is resting prepare the filling by mixing the ricotta, mascarpone, and parmesan cheese, nutmeg and lemon zest together. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Roll the dough for the ravioli very thinly with a rolling pin into a rectangular shape.

Place the filling into a pastry bag or plastic freezer bag. (If you use a plastic bag, cut the tip off one of the corners to allow the filling to be squeezed out).  Repeatedly squeeze teaspoon-sized lumps of the filling on to the pasta about 2 cm apart until you have covered the lower half of the rolled out pasta rectangle with lumps of the cheese filling. Brush the top half of the pasta rectangle with water then fold it over the blobs of filling on the lower half. Use your fingers to press air pockets from between the ravioli then cut the dough between the little packets of filling using a pastry wheel or sharp knife.

Prepare a large pot of boiling salted water and cook the ravioli for about 3 minutes. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter with the sage in a large skillet. Drain the ravioli and gently toss them in the sage butter mixture.  

Corn on the Cob

...it's very dark inside the corn pot.

Some people cover these cobs in water and boil the heck out of them. In my experience, very little water and very little time (as in, a few minutes) is required to cook fresh corn on the cob. You do need a large pot with a tightly-fitting lid so that the steam from the boiling water in the bottom of the pot reaches every single kernel. To test for doneness, use the end of a sharp knife to pierce a kernel. It should be easily piercable.

Add butter and salt.

Chicken Chili

Several years ago the oven at the cottage oven 'gave up the ghost' as they say.

Of course, the oven had a highly unusual element that needed to be replaced. I expect a replacement part might have been available somewhere in Timbuktoo. Given the number of guests arriving over the ensuing week, I began desperately dreaming up recipes to make on top of the stove. This chicken chili recipe was one of them. It's done me well.

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 rotisserie roast chicken from the grocery store, skin removed 
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 of a large red pepper, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 1 can chickpeas (19 oz/540 ml), drained 
• 1 can white kidney beans (19 oz/540 ml), drained
• 1/2 can black beans, drained
• 1 can of baked beans (398 ml) 
• 1 can of corn (12 oz/341 ml), drained
• 1 (430 ml) jar of salsa (your choice, but I used mango/poblano pepper salsa) 
• 1/2 of a 720 ml. jar of possata (strained tomatoes)
• 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp. unsweetened coca powder
• 1 teaspoon crushed chili pepper
• a handful of chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
• water as needed to cover the ingredients and form a sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Potential toppings:

• sour cream
• grated cheddar cheese

Methods:
Go to the grocery store and buy a roast chicken. When you get it home, remove the skin, then remove the flesh from the bones. Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and set aside.

Then grab a large pot, (I used the jam-making pot), and place it on the stove over a medium heat. Sauté the onion and red pepper in the vegetable oil until softened. You can add the rest of the ingredients in any order you like, aside from the water, salt and pepper. Stir. You'll have to decide how thick you want your chili to be before adding too much water. And you'll have to taste it prior to adding too much salt and pepper.

Lower the heat and simmer for about an hour to allow all of the flavours to meld. The flavour of the chili will improve if it is left in the fridge overnight prior to re-heating and serving.

Muesli - Awful name but surprisingly yummy

The name of this breakfast dish does not do it justice. According to Wikipedia, muesli was introduced around 1900 by the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his hospital, where a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables was an essential part of therapy. It was inspired by a similar "strange dish" that he and his wife had been served on a hike in the Swiss Alps. I suspect any combination of raw oats, fruit, nuts, yogurt and milk will do the trick, but this is what I used.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup flax seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• a grated apple

Methods:

Mix everything together (except the grated apple) in a large bowl and put it in the refrigerator overnight. Before serving, mix in a grated apple. Top with whatever fresh fruit you like. I obviously used blueberries.

Smashed Cucumber Salad from Bon Appetit Magazine

I'm not sure why smashed cucumbers are in vogue right now, but I tried this recipe from Bon Appetit and it was A-OK. The final product kinda looks like you've had a meltdown in the kitchen. However, it tastes good, and you get to release all of your frustrations by bashing a vegetable. Here's the link to the recipe.

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/smashed-cucumber-salad-with-lemon-and-celery-salt