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Greengage Plums & Party Tomatoes

Greengage plums are my new love.

Anything you want to know about them, please read Jane Grigson's chapter on them in her ineffable, The Fruit Book. Her prose is educational & poetic.

But nothing beats eating these mysterious green fruits! Honey, syrupy summer, sweet, meaty. And tiny enough to pop the whole thing in your mouth at once.

Roast them to keep the colour & if jamming keep the flame really low. Cook too far and you'll lose the colour.

I found all this fruit at my local, the Newington Green

greengrocer. I feel ecstatically lucky because London neighborhood shops aren't famous for having fresh fruit, especially seasonal & local British grown fruit & veg.

Party Tomatoes are not a real name. They were renamed by Melanie, my First Assistant, when we worked together at Citizen Cake. They are striped (pronounced with 2 syllables) and also green. I love them muchly and will eat them out of hand, maybe garnished with a pinch of salt, as much as I can in summer.

Royal Blenheim Apricots. buy & eat me now. Northern California & beyond.

Now is the time.
The time is Right Now.
If you live in California, USA or anywhere close by, and you love apricots

{photo by Anita Crotty of Married ...with Dinner}

The Royal Blenheim Apricot is in season right this minute.

AND YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE THEM GO EXTINCT IN YOUR LIFE TIME

support the few farmers left growing them.

All this information just in from my favorite group, Bakers Dozen.

Dear Bakers Dozen Members:
The Blenheims are Here!  If you’d like to organize a carpool to pick some up, here are some sources:

 ♦Apricot King—Patty Gonzales’ orchard
Email:  info@apricotking.com
Phone:  831/637-1938

Visit their farm in Hollister, or check them out at these local farmer's markets:

Santa Cruz
2:30 to 6:30 Wednesdays – Lincoln & Cedar, one block off Pacific in downtown Santa Cruz
Los Altos
4 to 8 p.m. – Thursdays, downtown Los Altos
Palo Alto
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Sundays (California & El Camino)
Mountain View
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Sundays (Hope & Evelyn Streets)

 
♦Andy's Orchard
1615 Half Road
Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Store Hours:
10:00am - 5:00pm Weekdays
10:00am - 4:00pm Weekends
(408) 782-7600 and ask for Lorene

or
•    Sigonona's Market (Palo Alto)
•    Cosentino's (San Jose) carries Andy's fruit
•    Local Farmers Market @ Garden Accent
•    11155 Lena Ave, Gilroy, CA 408/846-4555 Thur  2-7 pm
or look on the local harvest website.

More lovely photos can be found on Flickr of Royal Blenheim Apricots on the branch, taken by Spidra Webster.

summer fruit desserts, in London.

I'm back working in a restaurant after what feels like many years. Moving thousands of miles can do that-- separate you from what you know, and remove the ground from beneath your feet. What was a recent experience can feel far away in lieu of disorientation.

For the last 11 years, the ground beneath my chef feet has been seasonal, local, mostly organic fruit; and my moniker, 'fruit-inspired pastry chef,' has been my guiding force. I have picked fruit, worked for farmers at favorite farmer's markets and eaten my weight in citrus and stone fruit many times over. I said for years anad years that I stayed in California for its gratuitous fruit array.

But here in London, fruit is an afterthought. Besides apples and pears in autumn, and gooseberries, elderflowers and strawberries in summer, which few do better than Britain, fruit comes from very far away and few people know when to buy it at its peak. Most fruit and vegetables are here year round, but flown in from various countries and continents catchers-catch can style, making fruit buying confusing at best.

And because few fruits are grown in British soil, they arrive with a high price tag. Using fruit as a primary focus for a plated dessert, here in London, is a bad idea, cost-wise. But also flavour-wise, because seasonal fruit in South Africa or Spain, or even a country as close as France, is probably not picked and shipped as ripe as one would hope.

All this said, I have found trusted places to buy UK seasonal fruit. And the restaurant I work for is produce-centric and we use an amazing produce purveyor, so I feel infinitely grateful/lucky to have well-chosen product close by.

That said, what desserts are on the horizon?

I'm thinking about tahini, white chocolate, bananas, tamarind, black sesame seeds, grapefruit; Thai coconut soup sorbet; manouri, strawberries & pink peppercorns; gooseberries, mint, rosemary, elderflowers & corn; mango inspired gazpacho; buckwheat & chocolate; brown butter, raw sugar, frangipane & nectarines; young coconut, black rice, caramel. For our retail shop I'm contemplating sandwich cookies, chocolate bouchons, Lamingtons, real graham crackers, verbena profiteroles, tart lemon drizzle cakes, peanut financiers, and rich bread & butter puddings.

Moving to a new place means thinking different. Cooking and baking professionally for a new public means learning about their collective palates and historical connections to food, fruit, baked goods, salt. I can still bring me to the table, but I have to compromise too. I can't move forward: careerwise, dessertwise, bakingwise; if I do not take into consideration new soil, new people, new fruit, new seasons, new pace, new price-point, new retail environment, new attitudes about communication/confrontation, new communication styles, new everything, really.

I look forward to changing styles a bit. While I will always be a fruit-inspired pastry chef, I look forward to thinking differently, in a new way, to meet my new surroundings and continue to grow. One can get too comfortable/ too ghetto-ized/ too smug in one's niche/ geographical area/ style. Stuck.

If nothing else, it should be interesting.

MONTEREY MARKET NEEDS YOUR HELP!! PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

PLEASE MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
PLEASE go to Friends of Monterey Market and show your support/read about what you can do.
PLEASE WRITE A LETTER.
PLEASE DO NOT SHOP AT MONTEREY MARKET AFTER JUNE 3rd UNLESS BILL FUJIMOTO takes back his resignation.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD THAT MONTEREY MARKET NEEDS EVERY ONE'S HELP to make it clear that Bill Fujimoto IS Monterey Market and his resignation is not an option.
PLEASE MAKE IT CLEAR TO THE ENTIRE FUJIMOTO FAMILY that you will not support a market that places its bottom line before family.
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.

If you have eaten ANYWHERE IN THE BAY AREA, you have supported Monterey Market.
If you have ever shopped at ANY FARMERS MARKET, you have supported Monterey Market.
If you have ever blogged about new fruit in season, new fruit available in the USA, climbed upon the great pumpkin interactive sculpture in North Berkeley, or made anything in any home kitchen or restaurant or catering kitchen with any fruit or vegetables, you have supported Monterey Market.
If you believe in farmers, chefs with integrity, great produce, eating seasonally, eating locally, supporting local business YOU BELIEVE IN SUPPORTING MONTEREY MARKET.
AND YOU WOULD CONSIDER SHOWING YOUR SUPPORT TO A MARKET, A TEMPLE, A STORE, AN INSTITUTION that was in need of help.

MONTEREY MARKET NEEDS YOUR HELP.
PLEASE BLOG ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW AND LET GOOGLE AND THE FUJIMOTOS KNOW WE WILL BE HEARD.
WE DO NOT ACCEPT BILL FUJIMOTO'S RESIGNATION.
WE WILL NOT SHOP AT THE STORE IF THE FAMILY ACCEPTS HIS RESIGNATION.
PLEASE TWEET ABOUT MONTEREY MARKET and the petition.
PLEASE TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING.

I love Monterey Market.
I always have.
I always will.
I support Monterey Market from accross the USA and into the United Kingdom.
BUY EAT AT BILLS AND WATCH IT WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW PILED INTO THE LIVINGROOM if you don't believe me when I say this is a place that must be saved!!!!!!

**If you have time to leave a comment here, you have time to write a letter to the Fujimoto's.

What's in Season, fruits & vegetables. Britain, UK

When you're like me, and you love love loves you some fruit & veggies, and you move to a new place, approximately eight thousand miles from where you lived last, and you find yourself on new geography, and the climate is not at all like the one you left, and maybe the people speak your language but they have different names for the vegetables and do not grow the fruits you're used to picking off trees back home, and your local markets are wonderful but not farm-centric,

you can wonder what fruits & veggies are in season month to month.

If you live in London, or anywhere considered Britain, you have a few resources for getting seasonal fruit & veg. And now you have another, What's in Season. A straightforward website with nice portraits of food that grows in the ground, you can be sure I'm posting this on eggbeater so I can refer to it myself.

Thank you What's in Season for letting me know about yourself. I get way too many, "I think you're readers would love to know about--" spam-mails, but this one did seem of interest.

Anyone have any other websites that help you to find local markets & fruit-veg in season?

Petersham Nurseries for lunch at the Tea House.

I just wanted to remind you, and you know who you are, to go to Petersham Nurseries if you have not yet been. I realize that it's quite dear to eat in the restaurant. And that it's a bit far away.
But you know what?
There's nothing like it.
It's gorgeous, enchanting, delicious,
and you can get there by boat or Overground, not just Rail. So there. Easy-peasy.
Need a photographic prod? Here, take a gander.



As a reminder, the cafe serves food just as delicious as the restaurant, but not nearly as expensive.
It's open Wednesday - Sunday 12 Noon - 2:45 pm

I realize there's a notion that expensive eateries are more firmly grounded than more reasonable ones, but I am here to state for the record, as a chef and friend of many a restaurateur, places like Petersham Nursuries need continual support to remain who they are striving to be. The food here is clean, bright, fresh, hearty, nourishing and made with love.
And the Eccles Cakes are not half bad either. {I have knowledge from the inside.}



I hope you make it out here. If you go for the first time because I've leaned on you, can you let me us know what you thought?

Petersham Nurseries. Richmond Surrey, London

you think you have seen some of the most beautiful lands. you think you have traveled and trekked and wandered and adventured. you have seen thousands of photographs and paged through millions of glossy magazine pages and perused countless coffee table books.

your own aesthetic is the envy of all your friends, and enemies. you are a DIYer with a nose for the best deals. you arrange still lifes all over your house and every season you rearrange them like altars to new gods.

But you might never see a more beautiful stretch of acreage until you step foot in Petersham Nurseries. It is a food stylist's dream. And a museum curator's fantasy. Whether you snack and sip at the cafe or sit down for a precious meal at the restaurant, you are in for exquisite beauty like few other interiors, which are also exteriors, can compare to.

Sitting, walking, gaping, oohing and ahhing at Petersham Nurseries is a day well spent. And you can get to it from London's underground! The District Line takes you to Richmond station and then it's a lovely walk down a canal...

Find my photos here.

Heidi's remake of Petersham Nurseries chef Skye Gyngell's Cauliflower Soup with Gorgonzola.

The Passionate Cook writes about an amazing meal in the restaurant.

Keiko at Nordljus, (my partner in crime for our most amazing lunch & day trip), introduced me to this beguiling place in March 2007, by way of her own photographs.

If you find yourself in London, Petersham Nurseries should be at the top of your must see and eat places. Especially in the warmer months...

Eating in London, Heartily.

What you are about to read is not for the faint of heart, or stomach.

Be warned: if you are vegetarian or vegan, press button to turn screen into kitties now.

Americans are infamous for large portions. We overfeed, overindulge, live large and waste wantonly. We are a new country and we're as proud as a teenager with a new car. Seven miles to the gallon? Sure, so long as the wheels are sexy, shiny, and get us laid.

But we're not the only country without control in the portion department. Sometimes food is so rich in spice, flavour, potency, intrigue, intellect, and fatty ingredients; one 250 gram portion of this does not equal 8 ounces of that.

A plate's weight in grams or ounces can determine servings per individual, as can depth of flavour. 

Have you ever put a forkful in your mouth and thought,

"Wow, that's enough.
There's an entire city full of side streets, dead ends, dark alleys and disparate populations in that bite." ?

{The first time I ever felt this was after tasting Indian Lime Pickle for the first time.}

I may look slight, but boy can I eat.
Word.
I'm hungry all the time.
        Some have even wondered if I've made a deal with the devil...
Delicious food be warned: I could eat all of you. And then some.
The more fat the better.

This is a list, in no particular order, of everything I've eaten in the last coupla days in London; land of massive portions, celebrators of butterfat, succulent swine, Builder's strong tea, mince, serious salt and people trained in frying for sport. Hearty Eating happens in London.

No time for shy, yo.
        Dig in.

Grouse with Madeira de-glazed Grouse Heart-Kidney Pate Toast [the color of this pate was black-blue-aubergine. I kid you not. Paynes Grey, to be exact.]
Calves Liver with Braised Endive
Organic Beef Stew with Potato Gratin and Cavolo Nero
Lamb Sweetbreads
Beef Bone Marrow with Parsley-Caper-Shallot Salad and a huge pile of Grey Salt [this is love on a plate.]
Potato Soup with Foie Gras
Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Hazelnuts
Boiled Amersham Bacon with Spatzle [drowning in double cream]
Konstam Castle Cake with Fennelseed Ice Cream and Fresh Strawberry Preserves
Fried Potato Wedges
Lemon-Almond Drizzle Cake with Lemon Confit
Partridge with Chestnuts
Charred Sardine
Eccles Cake with Lancashire Cheese
English Muffin smothered in French Butter
Lebanese [Lemon oil fried] Chicken Livers {Beirut Express 112-114 Edgware Road London W2 2DZ}
Country Chicken Liver with Peach Chutney
Chicken Livers in Double Cream and Mushrooms
Chicken Liver Pate
Apple-Raisin Crumble and English Custard
Black Velvet Chocolate Cake with Creme Fraiche [the first bite of this warmish, silky, deep chocolate cake felt like it looks like getting deepthroated]
Pure Raspberry Sorbet
Lemon Curd & Mascarpone Tart
Whole Orange-Almond Cake with Chocolate Ganache
Chorizo Sandwich with Rocket and Piquillo Pepper
Honeyed Sheep's Milk Yogurt
Victorian Fizzy Lemonade
[Pacific Northwesterner Approved] [on-site coffee bean roasted espresso] Cappuccino {like a speedball this one}
Malt Custard and Shortbread [don't think malted milkshakes; think wheat, hopps, bitters. guinness. think molasses, treacle. what a night feels like with no moon and a lie-down by the fireplace.]

Tomorrow, Petersham Nurseries with Ms. K herself (!!!!!!!), Tapas for supper and then a big dance at Duckie, for a fantastic send off.

Organic, Non-GMO Soybeans/ Edamame

In our lifetime, and perhaps soon, we are going to see the end of this legume, as it once existed free of genetic modification. Almost all of the soy you eat currently comes from Genetically Modified plants.

I'm working for a farmer who planted and is selling these delicious little Organic, Non-GMO pods and I hope that in your lifetime you might be able to taste what real soybeans taste like. They are very different than the bowls of huge green edamame served at every Japanese restaurant I've ever been to.

Think small, sweet, almost pea like, as opposed to starchy bean.

See you soon?

Leif Hedendal's Vegetarian Dinner & Shuna fish Lydon's dessert @ Serpentine, SF

On the first day of September,

we went, we prepped, we tasted, we hoped, we organized, we peeled, we diced, we steeped, we churned, we folded, we baked, we served; all in a few hours, in a kitchen that wasn't ours. Leif Hedendal, underground chef, and shuna fish lydon, pastry chef-at-large, put together a vegetarian multi-course meal featuring fruits, veggies and herbs at their most pungent, ripe moment.

Serpentine restaurant in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood was our host.

For the documentation, take a look at the photos on flickr...

peeling tomatoes. yes, it's worth it.

For every person who has ever peeled a tomato, there are millions who would never dream of such a thing.

I learned how to peel tomatoes at, you guessed it, The French Laundry.

Tiny tomatoes.

Sweet 100's. Sungolds. Tomato-ettes.

Tomato skin is like pantyhose. Sheer, almost transparent, and yet truly in the way of what you really want. You want to run your hand up someone's leg. But now your hand is touching some form of plastic turned mock clothing. As the person wearing pantyhose you feel locked in, constricted. Yet proper, ladylike. Even in the bottom of summer? Really? Can you say, honestly, that wearing pantyhose is worth it?

People tell me all the time that peeling a tomato isn't worth it. "Look at that tiny fucking tomato! You're telling me I have to peel it?! Are you out of your mind?!"

And than I peel one for them. Not as erotically charged as peeling someone a grape, but close.

"Put that in your mouth. Look me in the eye. Now tell me it's not worth it."

Recipe for peeling tiny tomatoes:

With a razor sharp knife, make a teency tiny x at the bottom (not the stem end) of your little orbs.

Bring cold water to boil.

Put together a freezing cold ice water bath. More water than ice.

Using a basket strainer or slotted spoon, lower X'ed tomatoes, a very few at a time, into boiling water and count to 5.

Lift tomato out and place it in ice water.

Be very careful. Think of yourself as a heli-ambulance pilot.

Peel away from the x.

Voila! Tiny tomato, peeled.

If you must store them-- make sure they are not sitting atop one another. Single layer only for these beauties. Mustn't muss them once you've worked so hard.

Peeled tomatoes should be savored right away. Store no longer than 8 hours refrigerated.

Favorite quote from the dinner I did the other night with Leif:

Cook: "You peeled these tomatoes?! You really are a pastry chef."

shuna desserts.

p.s. if you live in the area and are thinking about going to the Slow Dinner with Serpentine & The SF Green Schoolyard Alliance on Monday September 1st, where I will be creating the dessert for Chef Leif Hedendal's menu, it is almost sold out.

an elusive, delicious plum

do you recognize my new friend?
she is lovely, isn't she?
new plum of my life.
i breathe you in.
close my eyes.
open.
reach hand out
to behold you, plum.
supple, meltingly tender, sweet
only a hint of acid
almost citrus
or flower,
in perfume.

when ripe, eat with caution, or naked. just before swimming.

do you know of what plum i speak? do you know my lovely? from whence? from where, what geography?

tomorrow, monday august 4
myself and a coupla dozen bakers dozen members will visit the farm where i saw these first. do you belong yet? live in northern california? we have some amazing events planned for fall as well. i'm biased, though, because i'm helping to plan a few of them... email me if you want an application.

our only requirement is that you love to bake.

see you soon?

Slow Food Nation, SF. Your Thoughts?

So you live in this city and you start to hear rumblings about a major food event happening there. It has roots in some good, maybe even great, ideas. Passionate people are spearheading the event, and before you know it, this thing, which is not yet named or fleshed out, gets National coverage. Soon people are a-buzz everywhere and people from all areas of your life are telling and asking and directing your towards it.

What is this thing?

And why is it coming to your city? And who is behind it? And why does it sound like tens of thousands of people will descend on your city without a map or a goal or anything but an empty stomach?

Why, why, why why why why why why, WHY?

When, where, how, what, who?

Perhaps Slow Food Nation is a gathering of surrealists for whom food is their medium of the moment.

Perhaps Slow Food Nation is a mystery and you have to be here to experience it.

Perhaps Slow Food Nation IS RADICAL.

Event Calendar by Spongecell

Perhaps Slow Food Nation is a Be In.

Perhaps Slow Food Nation is like nothing you've ever:

                           known, seen, tasted, smelled, experienced, discovered, loved, despised,                             enjoyed, partook in, rebelled against, participated in, protested, ventured into, been skeptical of, took a stand for,

      rallied against, felt nothing for, knew nothing of, loved, hated, liked, didn't care one way or the other, paid or volunteered for, got behind, said No to, inquired about, organized, thought about, thought nothing about,

took a preemptive strike against, shat on, made fun of, laughed at, laughed with, took pride in, changed your life for, took time off for, ignored, were invited to, knew nothing of, couldn't give a rat's ass about, looked forward to your whole life of, couldn't wait for, wished you'd never heard of it?

I don't know. I have no idea how you feel.

And you know what?

Slow Food Nation doesn't know either.

And it's possible they don't care. And it's possible they do care.

Slow Food Nation

is going to happen. with or without your excitement and participation. will not please all the people all the time. will make history. is going to be insanely broad and disorganized and frenetic and overwhelming and educational and too much and not enough and not exactly right and not perfect and.

so what if it's not perfect? is anything perfect?

Oh San Francisco, I beseech you!

Look how rich our land is, how deep our American, as well as Californian, privilege stretches. We are so jaded, so spoiled, so damned lucky! Why so much moaning and complaining? Sure, I'll agree, this SFN thing is disorganized and I wish it weren't. I would much rather a neat little package were delivered to my doorstep so I didn't have to change out of my pajamas to walk out of my door and retrieve it.

This is the first one of it's kind. It means you can be a part of it. And next year, or next time, you can say, "I was a part of that crazy wonderful insane fantastic frantic overwhelming delicious disappointing amazing frightening event." I can't believe I survived it's wondrousness. ZOW.

Will you go? To any of it? Why?

Will you leave town? Will you avoid it all? Why?

Any other musings, complaints, hopes, desires, disillusions, epiphanies, rants, etc? Please feel free to place them in the space provided below. P.S. This is a venue for discussion, which may include disagreements, but it is not a place for attacks or anonymous insults.

summer garden. late july farm sitting.

some people's summer garden a little snippet of a thing with a few tomatoes and a peas and one melon that takes it's time growing all summer long.

for others, their summer garden is the size of a small plot, a tiny farm.

this summer garden is about an acre. it sits between the napa river and the levee. there are melons and squashes and tomatillos. tomatoes abound, row after to-the-horizon row. peppers will most likely be jalapenos and there may even be eggplant.

all the pears have arrived at once, and santa rosa plum carcasses are underfoot. apricot pretend as though they've never produced a fruit and the fig church whispers amongst itself. here at the farm, i am nibbling my way through the trees and plants.

the little people have finally been planted. they are growing up to be fruits of all shapes and flavors.

Today's NY Times Sunday Magazine: Shuna, Raspberries & Labne

A number of months ago I received an email I thought was a practical joke. It wasn't funny. Amanda Hesser was right there, in my inbox. Plain as day, scary as all get out.

I had no idea what she was asking of me but I said yes like a sobbing future bride looking down at her soul mate.

There ensued much talking on the telephone, (secret ) recipe testing, sleepless nights, comparative labne tastings, note scribbling and brow furrowing.

Today, right now, by the power vested in technology via this mysterious box I write to you from, you may see the formulation of a collaborative effort by two people living a few thousand miles apart, who have never met in person. Amanda Hesser has long been a heroine of mine. To have had the opportunity to talk about food and recipe testing and the crazy minutiae that I get off on when it comes to flavor and texture and the alchemy of baking, makes me tingly all over.

If you're not able to buy the Sunday NY Times in paper form, here you go. From the Magazine ~

Food: Recipe Redux
1980: Raspberry Flummery

Labne & Ricotta Cheesecake with Rice-Nut-Raspberry Relish.

Thank you for all your amazing words on the piece, my work and and eggbeater. I am on an amazing journey and I thank you for allowing me to put you all in my pocket.

 

if i were a summer squash.

i would make promises i couldn't keep

i would be prickly and soft

unapologetic

for neither. for both.

if i were a summer squash,

i would play hard to get

and easy to eat

and proliferate like mad

mad mad mad mad mad mad mad mad mad

~ the mad hatter!

if i were a summer squash

i would be beautiful

and plain

both.

i would go on and on

attracting honeybees

unfurling at dusk and dawn

untwisting

and revealing

myself

orange, delicate,

expand    e x  p   a    n      d

until i could reach no more

create a blossom you could fill

but never satiate.

and then i would disappear

and leave you with someone long, smooth, elegant

and also down-to-earth

plainspoken.

and then

when summer washed into fall

like a deep sleep after swimming in the tumbling ocean

i would swim away,

tiny silver fishes,

and leave you

wanting

for summer

again.

berries berries berries everywhere.

if you had too many bush berries on your hands, what would you do with them?

feel free to point me to your favorite recipes...

merci!