eggbeater

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!

Live, from The Farm, it's Shuna fish.

here i am.

it was great to wake up way after 4 am today. and watch babette eat, slow and methodically, a baby rabbit after our walk Saturday evening, and {me, myself} eat 2 fat and supple figs from the fig church, and see an entire bowl of Santa Rosa plums on the dining room table, and notice an orchard ladder next to a few fruit trees, and look down on the Napa River at dusk, and look forward to a day of nothingness interspersed with long walks with the dogs. especially after a week of 10 hour baking days starting at 5 am.

Napa Valley Eating & Imbibing

While I was staying at the farm last week, I did manage to pry myself away from dog walking and reading the New Yorker long enough to eat and drink a bit in the new & improved Napa Valley.

Almost 10 years ago, when I lived in Napa, the city proper, downtown was basically a memory for a few people. The old movie theater was mostly "closed for renovations," block after block in the historic area was dusty and cobwebbed or being torn down, and visiting the post office was sometimes the highlight of my week.

Not so anymore.

The place has exploded.

You can get exquisite, inky, oily, sweet, freshly roasted espresso at Ritual, one of the best {vegetarian} meals in California at Ubuntu, real mint mint chocolate chip ice cream at Three Twins, just about any meat or meat product you want or have never heard of at Fatted Calf {our guy Guy took some of the best FC photos-- check em out here}, illegally delicious coffee cake at Alexis Baking Company, gorgeous and delectable desserts by Nicole Plue, and produce grown with everloving care, if you choose to wake early and go to the St. Helena farmers' market.

Of course there are a hundred more restaurants and dozens of more eateries and imbibing stations, but above is what I got to on this go-around.

farm departure snapshots /in the rearview mirror

large hares bounding slowly, their long bodies arching long and wide
scent of mowed grasses, dry and sharp underfoot
abu & babette's ears, flapping in tune with each other and four foot dance trot
a clear, dark outline of one deer, stilled,
    and I stilled as well, viewed in secret, between levee and vineyard
a sense that isaac was on our walks with us
the Napa river, shallow but calling my name
    from way way down ravaged river walls
one extra ordinarily grand Great Blue Heron startled by our morning walk,
    lifting off immediately, unfurling fantastic wings tucked, and flying, unbelievably, through the river's fallen trees, up up, and disappearing
mosquitoes who will stop at nothing, including socks and bug spray and trousers, to sting me
an almost full moon casting thick silvery moonlight
    and drafting clear shadow outlines of barns and tree canopies

one Royal Blenheim apricot ripening slowly
guiding those I love through a place I love
hundreds of swallows dipping and swooping
    over an orange-golden field at dusk

glimmering dried grasses swaying, rocking
adult quails followed by dozens of tiny quailettes,
    their tiny head dresses trilling faster than the speed of sight!
babette, arched and exhilarated, tail curlique as a scorpion,
    at the prospect of catching a squirrel on the levee
seeing smoke on the horizon that is really topsoil upset by one tractor
barely ripe tomato, eaten, from the summer garden
morning skies viewed through Live Oak and Redwood tree branches
inviting people into the fig church
explaining cardoons to Easterners

tiny bunny, dead, at abu's feet
ground shadows of hunting hawks
listening to the wind before it arrived
eating green almonds
spending a Friday morning with my favorite 78 year old farmer
    and feeling the morning go from cool to hot in few hours   

cutting open green walnuts, still liquid where the nut meat should be
calamine lotion legs, hot pink exposed under summer shorts
    the scent of calamine like camp and grandmothers
an itch that is hot with unbearable-ness
having time to catch up on old New Yorkers
laughing aloud at Jay Raynor with no one to hear me but the dogs
bright sky, bold green grape leaves, dark vineyard in trellis-land:
    a three layered painting of opposites, at the same time
dusty shoelaces
sunscreen and still and Irish face reddened
bug bites galore
the quiet of nothing all the day long

a valley of light long after sunset
coyote skat filled with cherry pits
countless acorn hats
inpenatrable black walnuts and their finely dollhouse sculpted interiors
finding the old tractor
dense fuzz of young peaches
green figs camouflaged
one lemon gifted to a friend
seven days without music, or news
late nights with books in hand
long talks with faraway friends
burrs in furry friends' ears
a bird-stripped elderly cherry orchard

going out to eat at Ubuntu and then having more dessert at Redd!
visiting friends at Fatted Calf
mint chocolate chip ice cream from Three Twins
running into the most beautiful man/pastry chef, Gary Rulli, at The Oxbow Market {falling into his green eyes}

cooling the little farm house down with night air
green blackberries reaching out, waterless creek
skyscraper tall eucalyptus trees
freshly painted barns
rabbit warrens everywhere
coconut perfume breeze through fig trees
walking far far away with the dogs
babette stalking, leaping and bounding in tall dry grasses,
    psyching out small, hiding, frightened mammals
abu playing a game with me at dusk,
    running in wide circles, like hide and seek.

remembering
memory,
a silent movie of every visit, every stay, every walk with the dogs,
    every sleepover, every intimate moment,
a whirlwind romance,
a deep friendship,
a geography where my roots lay claim
love.

where my heart is, here.

Green Almonds.

You guessed it!

It's very easy to see a family resemblance among stone fruit and almonds when one sees them, through their thick camouflage, growing on trees. The green almond looks exactly like a peach, apricots, and just about any plum in its infancy. It's the shape, where it hangs on the tree, the curious twins and that unmistakable split down the middle.

Depending on where you hail from in the world, different people eat and enjoy green almonds at different stages even within their greennesses. You can buy them at specialty markets as early as, before what is enclosed within its thick outer shell, forms what appears to be anything resembling an almond. What you will find inside is translucent and sour, like the mucous that holds together cucumber seeds. It will have the crunch of a green grape but it will be mild, and almost tannic, or unripe tasting.

I prefer to eat green almonds when they look like an almond but are not quite ready to fall off the tree, split and dry, the way nuts tend to have their end of life cycle. Unless the birds get them first.

The birds, as with all other tree fruits and nuts, have a sixth sense about the exact moment humans are interested in harvesting. Some green almonds will appear fine to eat until they are turned over and a burrowed hole is revealed to show and empty casing still attached to its branch.

Birds. They are worse than the person who leaves one spoonful of ice cream in a container in the freezer.

The first time I ever met a green almond I was consumed with thoughts about what to do with them in the kitchen. My most outrageous thought was that of making a traditional blanc mange. This sort of recipe would require hundreds, if not somewheres close to a thousand, of these precious souls, and I only had access to a few dozen.

There was the possibility of using green almonds as a garnish for a plated dessert. Maybe floating in peach leaf soup? Alongside a fruit compote with Bellwether Ewe's Milk Ricotta? Cooked into a jam with St. Anne's cherries?

You could do all these things and more with green almonds.

But the truth is that they are rare and incredibly subtle in actual hit-the-nail-on-the-head flavor. What is the Flavor of a Green Almond?

Green almonds, when picked now, closer to full maturity, are cool and crunchy, sweetish and lightly fatty, fruity and fence-sitting vegetal, like rhubarb or cucumbers.

And their immediate, innocent wondrousness, disappears quickly! They are a delicacy and should have no other interruption of other flavor or texture noise. And because the green almond requires a very sharp knife or other such implement to open safely, getting many of them in your mouth at the same time proves to be a lesson in saint like patience and sushi chef dexterity.

My advice? Buy them right now, about a pound, and don't tell anyone. Not yet. Get your fill and then share only with those for whom you would peel a grape.

What Am I And How Do I Taste?

Seasonal Fruit Dessert Class: May 31, 2008 ~Eats

We ate a lot of seasonal fruit desserts today.
    too many?
Well, that's relative.
    to what?
Hmmm.
    yes?
It's relative to not enough.

What we made in class:

Tulare Cherry-Cornmeal Cake
Biscuits
Blackberry-Rhubarb Cobbler
Honey Sabayon
Seemingly Disparate Fruit Salad:
    cucumber, jicama, mango, basil, orange segments, young ginger, & a pinch of serrano pepper

What we saw:

Cherry Stones Roasted and Smashed With A Hammer

What we ate:

Everything We Made
Strawberry-Buttermilk-Ricotta Bavarian with Strawberry Coulis
Melon with Honey Sabayon and a dash of Bee Pollen

and...
    drumroll, really?
Yes, Drumroll!

            A   MANGOSTEEN ! ! ! !

MANGOS! Really Ripe! In Season, somewhere...

Do you have an unrequited love for mangos? Does the heady scent of tropical fruit make you want to undress? When was the last time you ate a mango you smelled before its sensual flavor hit your tongue like a warm kiss on a hot day?

In grade school I lived in a rain forest for a spell and if I know nothing else, I know what a mango should smell and look like when it's ripe. I spent many days sitting in mango trees eating everything within reach.

Just because a mango is soft does not mean it's ripe.

If you drop an unripe mango on the floor it will become soft. Don't be fooled. Tropical fruit is full of oily scented lusty perfume. Just think of all those flowers in the dense, wet tropics. When everyone is sexy, there has to be a way each plant gets a leg up.

------> RIGHT THIS MINUTE

Berkeley Bowl is exploding in a mango porn festival. The tropical fruit section is overrun with mango mania. Go Now. Don't delay. Even if you don't much have a thing for mangos-- go there to educate your olfactory senses!

I ate a lot of apriums and apricots there too, but nothing compared to a Royal Blenheim. Although I did pick up 4 Flavorellas. These little yellow orbs appear to be glowing like the sun from the inside out. Their skin is something between a baby's cheek and shoulder. Mostly plum with a hint of apricot, this is one of the most delicate stone fruit hybrids.

I wanted to buy cases of mangos, but I refrained. Instead I bought enough cream, milk, buttermilk, eggs and butter to teach my chocolate class today.

Promise me that if you live close by you'll at least think about getting to Berkeley Bowl before the week is out?

Mango ideas:

Ice cream, sorbet, bavarois, Fool, soup, gazpacho, mousse, chutney, chili-salted, smoothie, relish, shake, meat-garnish, with lebne, or all on its own, in your kitchen, sharing or just smiling that knowing smile all by yourself...

Cherry Pit/ Noyaux Ice Cream. & More Notes on Homemade Ice Cream

We appear to be having a cherry pit-fest over here at eggbeater. Welcome, take a seat, but don't eat candied stones from strangers. Not everyone has your best interest at heart.

See PART ONE here and PART TWO there.

One of the many commenters on this controversial post asked why did I not give a recipe for Cherry Pit Ice Cream after I waxed, or cackled-- depending on how you look at it, poetic on the elusive subject. And so, not one to say a unilateral no to requests, here is the recipe.

Find my notes on ice cream from scratch here. In that post there are 3 links to other people who had the time to type out how to make creme anglaise-- the liquid base for many ice cream recipes. If you need a lot of hints, check out what David Lebovitz has to say in his book The Perfect Scoop, or in his Ice Cream Tips category on his blog.

*

    CHERRY PIT / NOYAUX ICE CREAM

    Whole Milk  3 Cups
    Heavy Cream* 1 Cup
    Sugar   3/4 Cup
    Large Egg Yolks   6-7
    Smashed Cherry Pits   1 - 1 1/2 Cups

    *Not ultra pasteurized or listing stabilizers on the carton.

    Heat milk, cream, pits, and half the sugar, in that order, in heavy bottomed stainless steel saucepan over low to medium heat. When hot to the touch, shut off heat, whisk and let steep 1-2 hours, tasting every 30 minutes.

    When hot dairy tastes as strong as you'd like it (remembering that it will taste stronger in flavor and sweetness when it's hot), bring liquid to boil and pass through a fine meshed sieve, pressing on the solids to press out as much of the liquid as you can.

    Make creme anglaise with scented liquid, being sure to chill in ice bath until chilled through and through. It is best eaten the day it is churned but will keep 5 days in a non-reactive container (I use glass) with a tight fitting lid in the coldest part of your fridge.

*

Creme anglaise recipes vary considerably because, 1. recipes are guides, and 2. recipes are about proportions. If you know what role an ingredient plays and who each ingredient relies on to make it be the best it can be, you can switch up most anything to suit your particular whim on a given day.

The proportion I start with for home ice cream makers is:
6-8 egg yolks
for every
1Q liquid dairy
and
1/2 - 2/3 Cups sugar

My experience with home machines is that they prefer to have slightly less butterfat involved. In a commercial machine it's easy to make ice cream that cardiologists would call the police on you for, on the other hand. This is because of the amount of time an ice cream spends in the machine, physically getting churned. It's about how much chill a machine might be holding onto or being generated.

If you want the best homemade ice cream mouthfeel, eat churned ice cream as soon as it's ready. If you must put ice cream away for a few weeks or long days, about 20 minutes before you want to eat it, put container in your fridge. This will help "temper" the ice cream = get it to soften slowly, carefully and evenly. If your ice cream ingredients were high in sugar or alcohol, though, you might never get a hard set because these ingredients lower the freezing temperature of water and create smoother, more elastic, softer ice creams.

When making ice creams whose flavors depend on infusions it is of utmost importance that you taste as you go. All herbs, whether they be green or dried, come in varying strengths that only god can determine. Depending on the time of year, weather, and soil; various highly scented flowers, leaves, woods, herbs, spices and other infusables will make stronger or weaker impressions on your ice cream base.

And

butterfat is the magic carpet ride for flavor infusions in ice cream

so

if you are looking for a really minty ice cream made with nonfat milk, you are going to have to work really hard at getting that mint scent and flavor to stick to the inside of your mouth once the ice cream melts.

About 10% of flavor and perfume get lost when ice cream is frozen. Although ice cream melts in your mouth, your mouth gets really cold and has a harder and harder time distinguishing actual flavor the more bites, licks, nibbles and slurps you take.

Also, if you infuse ingredients that are high in fat, like nuts and coconut, they will leach out extra fat into the creme anglaise and you might want to make adjustments for that. Not to mention that with something like dessicated coconut you will lose a portion of your liquid to it re-constituting the dried flakes, so you'll need to be aware of that too.

You can also make ice cream without eggs but not all "alternative dairys" want to be cooked until 160-180F. so be sure to check into it before making an expensive mess in your kitchen.

I hope some of these hints help. I wish you much ice cream making this summer! If you feel like thanking me you may do so by pitching in to buy me a machine I have coveted some time now...

Cherry Pits: Poisonous? Edible? Usable Culinarily?

A rash of comments on today's post have brought to question whether it's a good idea to work with, smash & extract stone fruit kernels, eat, get near, think about eating or swallowing cherry pits.

Some of you say, no way, Stay Away. I say the issue isn't so simple and if you trust me, you might have a new and delicious educational lesson.

But I am going to present all the information as I know it. You decide.

"Apricots preserved by canning are better left unpitted because their flash absorbs a delicate hint of bitter almond flavor from the kernels inside, the noyaux, which also bestow their characteristic flavor on amaretti cookies, liqueurs, ice creams and custards. To extract the kernels, first roast the pits in a 350F. oven for 10 minutes: this makes them easier to crack open and also destroys an enzyme that generates poisonous prussic acid when noyaux mix are mixed with water... To be absolutely sure the noyaux are safe to eat, roast them again for a few minutes after they have been extracted."

    Chez Panisse Fruit by Alice Waters and the Cooks of Chez Panisse in collaboration with Alan Tangren and Fritz Striff {Harper Collins, c. 2002}

I myself have used noyaux to scent, infuse and flavor bavarian, pannacotta, eaux de vie, ice cream, frangipane, almond cream, sorbet, ice cream and fruit galettes. I have eaten all of these desserts more than a few times.

Apricot kernels is what almond extract is made of.

Some of the best apricot jam I know is made with its kernels. From their site: "APRICOT JAM
We insist on the old fashioned Royal Blenheim apricots. Happily, there are still several orchards in Northern California growing this rare variety. The kernels found in the jar are from the apricot's pit and add a wonderful flavor."

A local San Francisco bakery makes its signature almond paste cookies with apricot noyaux. They are really intense. You have to absolutely love the taste of marzipan.

There are some progressive/ radical ideas about using apricot kernels in AIDS and cancer drugs. In some States the kernels are illegal to sell. I have seen them being sold in bulk sections of various local health food stores in the homeopathy section. (Be sure to check out the comments on this article.)

Heroin will also give you some of the symptoms described in this warning about eating cherry and apple pits.

I was taught how to eat apples by my grandfather, who ate the entire core. By the time I was 12 I might could very well have eaten 500 Macintosh apple pips.

In traditional French cherry clafoutis, recipes call for unpitted cherries for the same reason Chez Panisse Fruit says to keep apricots intact for canning.

Homemade cherry spirits utilize noyaux.

P.S. I wrote an article in Edible San Francisco about cherries last summer. It's now online. Check it out here.

The choice is yours. Have all the facts, that's what I say.