eggbeater

nyc sweet eating/dessert news.

if a city could have a business card, new york's might read:

nyc, not for the meek.
nyc, fuck the economy.
nyc, you think you know me?
nyc, i'm not what you think. i'm so much more.
nyc. yeah you heard that right.
nyc, whatchu looking at?!
nyc::everchanging.
{untitled} NYC.
nyc. full stop.
nyc. call me, i won't call back.
nyc; not the girl nextdoor.
nyc: many places to many more people.

living in new york city, again, is exciting. full of newness, full of preserving the old, full of possibilities, full of contradiction,      bursting with now and again.

i've always said there's more food press in nyc than any city i've cooked in. it is with these little blurbs here & there that I keep my nose out and about, even though i work in a basement most of my waking hours.

i thought i'd share some tidbits in my bakery & sweet eating adventuring...

perhaps the newest, smallest bakery on the scene is Zucker Bakery on east 9th street beetw 1st - A ave. I have no idea, at the ridiculously low prices she's charging, how she'll pay rent... But check out the perfect rugelach and chocolate ball cookies that look like truffles and taste like lamingtons.

i've recently had the pleasure of eating Jenny McCoy's desserts at Craft. they are seasonal, thoughtful, flavorful and deeply satisfying, in a soulful way. you can go just for dessert! don't miss her perfect ice cream, sherberts & sorbet.

i know a person is not supposed to pick a favorite popsicle. they're all great. especially here, now. but i like New Yorkina best. i like the chunks. i like the heat. i like the balance. i like the logo. i have a professional crush on the owner. her paletas book is fantastic too. i keep it by my bed.

i'm still a fan of Bakeri in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. i love taking myself on a date and getting a sandwich. it gives me an excuse to buy far too many pastries than would suit a single diner. but, i will admit to cheating on this neighborhood bakery with an unofficial bakery... The baked goods at Blue Bottle Coffee on Berry street, just a few blocks away. if you're in the neighborhood, eat at La Superior {the best Mexican Scallions in the universe} and then you can get 2 of everything at Blue Bottle. You will die unsatisfied if you don't eat Stout coffee cake and muster up the courage for the chocolate stout ice cream affogato. seriously. died-and-light-sped-to-heaven manna.

speaking of panty-remover food--> get off your computer right now, and leave your job if you work in nyc, and sprint down to Stumptown* at the Ace Hotel for one [or 2 if you're like me-- one for now, one for the now in a few minutes] drop dead gorgeous ridiculously delicious PISTACHIO PASTE CROISSANT. I hear that they're made by Milk Bar, but they won't answer my queries, {I'm too small fry for their kind}, so I can't confirm the heresay. No matter. if it's your lucky day [meaning i don't get there before you], you can thank me. or slap me. depending on how you react to XXX pleasure.

*for full disclosure i am no longer a fan of stumptown coffee. i have been converted to La Colombe. and now i can never go back.

while not in NYC, Masachusettes' Cape Cod got really lucky when it somehow attracted PB Boulangerie to it's shore. best "american" croissant i've had in years. too bad it's a 6 hour drive away...

not like Liz Quijada needs any press from me, but her baked goods at Abraco [the BEST espresso in nyc. yes, i said it. go ahead, don't believe me. more for me.] on east 7th street, close to 1st avenue are sublime, intuitive, quiet, simple, delicious creatures. again, not a 'bakery' per se, but no matter. go there. early. get the orange blossom water & ricotta babka and tell me i'm not wrong.

some foods, while not sweet, in the sugar sense of the word, need mention.

i was recently one of 9 people at a going away dinner for a Momofuku Noodle Bar waiter and boy do they know how to treat their people right! i ate so many things for the first time i need 4 hands. pig's tail delish, to mix metaphors. if you find the time to be on hold with what i hear is their insane phone reservation system, get the FRIED CHICKEN DINNER. whatever Koreans do to chicken skin, my jewish people can only guess. my hat bows in y'all's direct direction. no joke. zow. delicious beyond compare. and we're not talking stupis little wings with no meat at Momofuku Noodle Bar.

ISA. you have to go there to understand. my words will not do justice to chef Ignacio Mattos, owner/builder/architect/visionary Taavo Somer and their perfect union/collaboration/restaurant. my meal was transcendant. moving. joyous. soulful. brooklyn is lucky. just got better.

speaking of ignacio mattos! he introduced me to O Cafe, not just another 3rd wave cafe. if you're vegetarian [or not], if you're looking for non-Italian coffee culture {yes! it does exist!}, if you're looking for baked goods you may have never heard of, if you're looking for cared for, well-made, fresh, seasonal, reasonably priced light lunch or snacks, go here. the west village can be a bit dreadful, food wise, if you don't know about the crevices.

you might already know how much i love Buvette. i go there on almost all of my weekends. it's not food i get tired of. i wish i did, because then i could try some other restaurants on my radar. while not sweet there is a dish there that changed my life. it sounds like nothing lifechanging though. butter & anchovy toast. i can't explain. don't make me ruin the experience with words. you just have to trust me. there are only 2 desserts at Buvette, but really There Is Only One. chocolate mousse. fuck your diet, this is nyc. i could go on about all the other dishes i always get, but i won't. if you must know-- ask me in the comments section where i have more room to gush.

lastly, i've been up to too much at Peels. not only do i run a bakery inside the restaurant, i'm now responsible for making all the dessert options for Freemans' [our sister restaurant] private dining.

so, in turn, with this last menu change, i increased the Peels bakery by about 25%, not to mention adding a few new items & old favorites to the plated dessert menu.

what i'm most excited about:

six tiny tarts for $12. big thimble sized 'pies,' at 1-2 bites each could be, on any given night, any new or quirky flavor we come up with. yes, you could order them for your next partay. just give us 72 hours notice. the most we;ve made is 700 for the StarChefs event at the beginning of the month.

snickerdoodle ice cream sandwich with arroz con leche sherbert.  Greenmarket apple pie sweetened with apple cider reduction. pistachio-almond macaron with assorted familiar and bizarre fillings... well maybe not eye of newt & batswing, but you get the drift.

        MINCE TARTLETTES! yes! British [vegetarian] Mince on New Amsterdam soil! ($3)

Gluten-Free whole orange & almond cakette [all cakettes are $3] with sour cream cheese frosting. snowball look-alike coconut cream filled cakette.

roasted red sensation pear-chestnut-been pollen crisp tart with spelt-toasted flour & oat crisp topping with chestnut-hokey pokey ice cream.

and a whole slew of packaged items~ Lyle's Golden Syrup caramels, dulce de leche blondies, almond - fruit buttons, tiny chocolate & sea salt cookies, caramelized white chocolate blondies, nut & processed sugarfree granola, valrhona milk chocolate texturally explicit candy {think + feuillitene, rice krispies, maldon,
fried kasha, hokey pokey, cocoa nibs, dried sour cherries and anything else we can think of to throw in.

whole lemon marmalade bars atop brown butter shortbread.

if you live anywhere in or close to nyc i hope you'll consider letting us do [some? all?] your holiday baking. on or close to november first, i'm hoping our website will have our holiday offerings linked in. but of
course if you have questions you can always use the old fashioned machine. the landline telephone.

end note[untitled]

having no idea what kind of art you enjoy/relate to/are inspired by, i myself have recently been introduced to, and fallen in deep like with the work of richard serra. if you need to get out of town, but you don't have a car or love train rides that take you up the hudson river, may i suggest DIA Beacon? or if you're in town and walking along the High Line {my favorite place
in nyc}, consider taking the elevator down 23rd street and opening the big doors of Gagosian Galleries and walking through the massive curves known as richard serra's work. you have until
november 26th.

Pie Off Winter X Games 2010, Bay Area, CA

you might remember when I was a Pielebrity, aka a Pie Contest Judge for this fantastic fellow in 2008... Just in case you can make it to 2010~

friends,

in these final weeks of fine-tuning our recipes for the upcoming gala, it becomes necessary that we review some of the basic event parameters.  in so doing, we provide competitors and spectators alike the appropriate amount of time to compose complaint letters, construct picket signs and so on. 

as many of you know already, pie off adheres to a strict discipline of rules and regulations.  we are nothing as a pie society if not civilized.  and we gladly accept the rigid guidelines that govern us.  for example, we understand that pies are made in a round pie plate, at least nine inches in diameter.  we too recognize that pies, by definition, have a bottom homemade crust.

these are not matters for debate.  as a civilized pie society, we revel in the celebration of a well-crafted, baked good.  what is subject for reflection and clarification this year is the appropriate ingredients for pie filling.  a bedrock principle of pie offs past has been fruit-based dessert pies only.  no exceptions.  ohhhhh, many a baker has fallen prey to these strictures in years past.  wielders of rhubarb, chocolate, and sweet potato alike have all met the swift, uncompromising hand of disqualification.

but friends, it is a new day.  and with the advent of pie off 2010 - winter x games we have reached a watershed moment in the event's evolution.  and so, it is not without some reluctance that i announce, on behalf of the pie off steering committee, and its intercontinental advisory board, that this year, ALL manner of dessert pies may enter the pie off hall of champions.

...as you may imagine, the writing of this email has been as exhausting and boring as i am sure the reading of it has been.  so i retire now to the kitchen, where many variations of crust and filling await my consideration.  in time, more event details shall be revealed -- time, place, entry fee, security measures.  but for now, we must rest.  and plan.

and dream.


dr. rainbow (for the pie off steering committee, p.o.s.c.)

pie off winter x games
december 4, 2010
bay area

~

Dear Pie Off Community,

 Our chairperson Dr. Rainbow has asked us to release this year’s RFJ – Request for Judges.  If you or someone you know would like to judge Pie Off Winter X Games, please take a moment to complete our brief Pie Judge Personality Inventory.  Rate your answers on a scale of 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree).

 A Pie Off Steering Committee representative will be in touch with you regarding your answers. Thank you.

 

THE PIE OFF CORPORATION

Division of Pie Engineering

Personality Inventory

 

1. I have often had a friendly relationship with pie.

2. I like to read pie cookbooks.

3. Sometimes I dream about filling.

4. I believe I was a rolling pin in a past life.

5. My stomach hurts.

6. Cake makes me nervous.

7. I once ate an entire pie by myself.

8. Store-bought crust is delicious.

9. Sometimes strange men follow me.

10. I have never made a pie.

~ THE GATA

The Beauty of Reading & Writing About Food. by Amanda Miller, guest blogger.

Visuals evoke longing-- an old photograph that slams you with a till-then forgotten scene; a deep, dark slab of chocolate cake topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, just beginning to sweat; summer's first weekend, when people step into streets wearing as little as possible, but are already basting in their own juices. Long legs, damp hair at neck's nape, bare feet in sleek shoes.

Words evoke just as much longing-- descriptions of out-of-season fruit draped in light glaze; well-crafted recipes telling a story beyond construction of the dish; a blog poking at the sore spots and asks you to ask yourself some questions.

Words like this evoke a longing for summer, and cherries nearly busting their own skins; a seat at the table where that recipe-dinner was first served; answers to the queries kicking around in your head.

Think of cupcakes at a picnic on a day so hot the frosting shimmies off like a stripper shucking a thong. The only solution is to eat faster, let the frosting land where it may, and tidy your fingers and sugary lips with a half-moon of watermelon later on.

Think of the way watermelon smells, and then how woody and dull its January counterpart tastes, swaddled in plastic while it makes its northward journey from a warmer frontier.

Think of food blogs written by someone just outside your growing region, where berries and herbs and cucumbers and greens are ready weeks earlier--not so far ahead that you're still enjoying whatever season you're in right now; rather, just that little bit sooner, when it's been ages since you enjoyed something freshly picked and are tired of hearty stews and stout sweaters.

And, think of how unappetising a recipe can feel when the weather's all wrong. For instance, the Thanksgiving I prepared a three-day duck stew. It marinaded, then stewed, reduced, sat and thought about itself a little longer. And finally, on day three, was assembled into a divine pie, to be served with dry red wine-braised bitter greens.

A flash heatwave struck when I was too far in to turn back or adapt, and I sought refuge in the 100-degree heat of my balcony, which was immeasurably cooler than inside my flat where the oven blazed and the duck pie browned and crisped. Fatty fowl, parching cahors, cloying pastry, thick fat... nothing could sound, look or smell more revolting as the season jack-knifed from  
true autumn to false-July.

Therein lies the beauty of reading and writing about food-- a carrot of the coming season dangled before you on the page; gambling that the recipe will be all wrong for today; a chance for reading what impels you to your kitchen to make a dish from memory. The way a little thing about eating sends you out the door to the place that serves it better than anywhere else.

*

Amanda Miller lives, writes, and eats in Toronto, ON. Her work appears online at Well Tailored Cakes and Neckties, The Nervous Breakdown and in a guest piece called Salt Preserved Lemons at Kevin West's wonderful blog, Saving the Season, a site perfectly demonstrating "just a bit ahead of my own harvest" model.

watermelon p o e m. by Shelly Butcher

Watermelon Grace

Crack open the green womb
juicy red fertility within
freckled by black seed.

Touch the velvet surface
Feel it ooze beneath
the pressure of eager fingertips.

Smell the faint odors
of sugar cane and pollen
of hot summer sun.

Bite the soft fruit
hear the crunchy chatter
of teeth on flesh.

Slurp sweet red blood
runs down mouth
fingers
neck.

Lick the last sticky dew drops
breathe summer breeze
Remember
how sweet, how cool.

- Shelly Butcher

(circa 1996)

Shelly's wit, words & wisdom can be found at her own blog, An Open Cupboard & examiner.com & within the Wellfed Network.

As a reminder, while I'm buried alive by opening a restaurant in NYC, there's an open call for guest authoring on eggbeater! email me directly if you've got something...

Napa Grown Organic Produce Summer 2010. In Need of Home. Now.

About two weeks ago Patrick Ridder called me, worried. He'd planted what he calls a garden but what any chef would call a small farm, and he has no one to sell its growing produce to. He got too excited, he admits, when he began buying seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds...

and now he has too much of a great thing on his hands.

Are you interested in buying any or all of it for your restaurant?

Patrick's garden sits on a dash of ground between his house on the levee, and the Napa River. About a mile south of Yountville. The land is CCOF Certified Organic, but between all y'all and me, he farms 'beyond organic,' meaning he doesn't use any nasties, not even the ones the USDA allows for Organic Certification.

His dilemma means that you, or a restaurant, chef or food professional you know, in Northern California, could buy all or most of his garden's bounty, if you act now. 

You will not see Patrick at a farmers market. You will not see a stand by the side of the road. You will not even see a sign leading to the garden, or the fig trees, the cherry orchard or the grapes. Massa Ranch is not a U Pick or an advertised farm.

But, if you want to taste his okra, his 6 kinds of tomatoes, 4 varieties of eggplant, the best, most densely flavored Black Mission Figs from the ineffable Fig Church, roast his beets, make ratatouille with his summer squashes, char his peppers with fire on the grill or braise collards or slice melon or steam Blue Lakes or just wrap your tongue around Quadrato D'Asti Rosso {pepper}, Tondo Scuro Di Piacenza {summer squash}, Thai Long Green {eggplant}, Jaune Dickfleischige {cucumber}, Canton Long greasy-Back {pole bean} and more,

contact Patrick Ridder by leaving a comment here with your contact information. Or hit the email link on his gorgeous blog Root Cap.

Your information will not be published if you leave it here. It will be passed on to Patrick directly.

I hope you take me up on my fruit and veg pimping.

Believe me when I say you will not be disappointed if you do.

Lemon Marmalade Recipe

I used to be afraid of making Marmalade. Afraid is maybe a soft word. I don't want to admit to you all how afraid I was. Scared like a cat hiding under a car scared.

Scared still.

Maybe not, though, for the reasons you might think.

I was scared of making marmalade because I respect it so much. Its craft, its patience, its perfect balance of sweet, gel, bitter, bite, fruit to peel ratio. All of it. When citrus marmalade is right, like so many things, its perfect is quiet, soft, shy.

A je ne sais quoi perfection.

It stemmed from having once, perhaps 20 years ago, done a bit of work for the British Marmalade Goddess June Taylor. June did it the old school way. Really old school, ancient. Cutting thousands of citrus orbs by hand. With a knife. No cutting of corners, no electric machinery.

I even took a marmalade class from her.

But still. Scared.

And then I was forced. Pulled out from under the car by my tail.

By the most wondrous citrus marmalade! Kumquat Marmalade! Anna Hansen, possibly by way of Christine Manfield, had one of the best, most straightforward, citrus fruit marmalade recipes anyone could possess & execute. I arched my back, hissed, and then looked as if nothing was ever wrong with hiding under a big dangerous machine.

When I tasted that gorgeous, bright, fruity Kumquat Marmalade I never looked back. When I landed back in America and began working at 10 Downing all of Florida's citrus was a' raging, I set to task. And marmalade I made! I made grapefruit, lime-ginger, Meyer lemon, Orange-Mineola Tangelo-Grapefruit-Navel Orange, lemon and grapefruit-fennel. If you go into that restaurant now you will still be eating my marmalades. /yeah, I went a little crazy once the fear left.

So, without further waiting & hoping, I give you my "recipe" which is more of a method than anything else.

For real live Recipes please check out Elise's step-by-step instruction for a Meyer Lemon marmalade recipe on Simply Recipes. But beware: it's a time consuming, old school method. And David Lebovitz has a great recipe for Seville Orange.

**TAKE NOTE: For your health & safety if you plan on jarring your marmalade you must follow proper 'canning' procedure.** I am a restaurant pastry chef and am not making marmalade for resale to the public. I am cooling down swiftly & keeping my product refrigerated indefinitely. 

LEMON, ORANGE, KUMQUAT, TANGERINE, MEYER LEMON MARMALADE etc*

• prep your fruit any way you like. I like to think in terms of bite size pieces but I have also been known to shake it up a bit. know that you will lose size when it begins to cook, like a cotton shirt you put in hot water & a dryer on the first go round. your knife should be non serrated and be sharp.
  make sure to discard only the stem end where the little green button resides. taste your fruit! even if they are lemons, eat it rind and all. yes. no whining. you need to know how sweet or sour your overall batch of fruit is. you cannot be psychic about this step. you have to know. for certain. empirically.
• pull, push, nudge out any and all seeds. SAVE YOUR SEEDS!! the seeds are money. do not throw
  them away.
• when you have all your cut up fruit, and your seeds in a separate container, weigh your fruit. write this number {I like to work in grams because they are easier, better, easier to remember & make more sense} on a piece of masking tape. put all your fruit in a container large enough to hold it & the step you are about to take next.
• fill your container with cold water from the tap. you may use expensive water too if you like. the fruit should BE COVERED AND SUBMERGED but NOT DROWNING. my most common mistake is I drown the fruit. you become sorry later, I promise you. if you have OCD and are worried about that fruit that floats to the top you can lay a folded clean dishcloth over the top and put a plate on top of that. but none of that is necessary. place this container in the fridge and affix that important piece of masking tape to the outside.
• in order to make marmalade you NEED a stainless steel HEAVY BOTTOMED pot. your pot should be twice the size of the batch of marmalade you are making. please do not crowd the pot. you spent all this time prepping the fruit and taking out all the seeds...
• you will also need a piece of cheesecloth the size of a dishtowel. you may also use a jelly bag, but you may not use a paper coffee filter. if the mesh on the cloth you are using is too tight, your marmalade will not get thick enough. or, it won't get as thick as if you use cheesecloth.
• the next day {although truth be told you can also cook this two days after you submerge it under water} dump all the contents of the container into your stainless steel pot.
• you know you have just the right amount of water in there when, upon pressing down on the fruit, you feel a mass like washing a sweater in the bathroom sink. if it feels like floating, amorphous fruit, your fruit is drowning and you need to pour away some of your water.
• turn the heat on to medium or medium high.
• do not leave the house.
• but you may want to plan an afternoon activity. the next step, depending on your batch size, could take 3+ hours total cooking time.
• you are cooking your prepped fruit until THE PEEL IS TEETH TENDER. you are not making mush. you do not want a rapid boil. you do not want aggressive water or to stir the mass aggressively. be firm but fair with your wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula.
• AS SOON AS THE PEEL is palatable by way of feel and taste, you are going to measure out 40-60% of the fruit's total weight {which you wrote on that piece of masking tape} in sugar. white sugar. so. if you have 1500g lemon slices, you probably want 750 - 900g sugar. lemons are sour. but if you have 1000g Navel oranges or Meyer lemons you may only want 400g sugar. see? see why grams are better? easier, that's for damn sure.
• now you want to turn the flame down to an exact medium. not medium high, not medium low. call in one of the Three Bears if you can't decide. if you're lucky the Christian Right will not have locked up Goldylocks just yet.
• see those beautiful glistening seeds? touch them. fondle them. feel their slimyness? that slime is natural pectin. fruit protein of the gods.
• dump out your seeds into the cheesecloth. you probably want to have folded your cheesecloth in half, though, so it's not too porous.
• wipe out any excess pectin that's clinging to the sides, with your cheesecloth. every molecule matters. I'm not joking.
• make a little package of your seeds. NOT TIGHT. do not suffocate your seeds. they are like bees-- give them room and you will be much rewarded. tie top with food grade twine or a rubber band. plop in the center of your hot fruit mess.
• stir infrequently, but intentionally.
• do not leave the house. but you may water the garden or dust.
• place a saucer or two in the freezer.
• this is what you are looking for:
• your marmalade is done when it begins to thicken and your bubbles get lazy. yes, bubbles. you want your mixture to simmer on the high side.
• your marmalade is done when the mixture darkens but it is overcooked if it begins to take on a golden hue.
• when you think you're getting close, spoon out a bit of the mixture & drop it onto your frozen saucer. when the droplet firms up instead of melts out it is ready.
• do not plotz if your first batch does not set up stiff like a tight skirt. like a three piece suit. you are making a homemade something wondrous and it will not look like any commercial jam, jelly or marmalade you have in your condiments section.
• when you think your marmalade is done, pour it immediately into a large vessel and place that in a larger vessel filled with ice. or you can leave it out at room temp, uncovered, until it can be handled.
  

*This recipe is good for "soft" skinned fruits. By this I do not mean limes or grapefruits. If you are dead set on making either or both, let me know in the comments section and I will tell you how I deal with these fruits. I definitely do not suggest starting your marmalade making with limes or grapefruits as they are tricky in the frustrating kind of way.

Lemon Sherbet Granita, Olive Oil Relish & Honey-Orange Blossom Sabayon

Lemon Sherbet Granita, white fig-golden raisin-preserved lemon-fennel seed-roasted candied fennel-arbequina olive oil relish, honey & orange blossom sabayon.

I love lemons. Lemony lemon lemonness.

But so few lemon desserts are everything I love about lemons.

too many hide the lemon's trickier sides ~ its bitter skin oil, it's catch-you-in-the back-of-your-throat-&-attack-your-eardrums kinda sour.

its pucker.

Not me. Not mine. I love love love me some citrus. I have been known to have a not-so-secret love affair with these orbs of sunshiny autumn leaf colored palette of tight pored shiny skin and segments of closely bound pressed droplets of juice.

mmmmmmm citrus.

acid.

perfume.

wet.

juicy.

thick, waxy, smooth, dense, Irish-Green leaves.

infusable blossoms.

citrus.

need I say more?

so when I began planning a winter dessert menu. I need not have looked further than this multi-shaped family of fantastic fruits.

{hey, I'm not the only chef smitten. David Kinch does an entire many coursed menu paying homage to rare & intriguing, beguiling citrus.}

When I come up with a dessert I think of one flavor. Then I close my eyes and think about what other flavors I want to have with that one lead.

I begin thinking about textures, about temperatures.

I write lists.

I consult my foundation component recipes. They may lead me to themselves, like an unplanned walk in London, or they may lead me to another idea, at which point I write a recipe as I move through weights & methods.

But a plated dessert needs composition. Arranging. Foreground, lead singer, front flavor, primary focus, shading, burning & dodging, cropping, sanding, priming, dress rehearsal, reading the play aloud, auditioning-- these are all metaphors, tools, for creating a composed; a plated dessert.

Because a film has to have a leading actor, because a band a signature style, because a company needs a vision, because a community-- a heart, because a structure needs walls before a roof, a plated dessert needs a thought process.

sometimes it takes plating it a few dozen, or hundred times, to get it just right.

sometimes a plated dessert will lead you, with its ingredients, its parts, to a shape, a vessel, a molding tool.
sometimes I have to ask for help. lay out all my mis en place, like paragraphs, and re-arrange them to fit the narrative.

and then you have to think about portioning. how much of this component leads you to eat that component? what overpowers what? who speaks first, who waits their turn, who interrupts, who acts like a cowboy, who is the wallflower, who can't whisper low enough?

and the crazy thing?

you'll never get it right.

Just Right.

you will always be tweaking. in your head. you will move the couch, centimeter by centimeter, and still feel like the Princess & The Pea.

This dessert may sound familiar to you. Yeah, I like these flavors together. I find I need to keep working on a dessert, job after job, kitchen after kitchen, menu after menu, season after season, in order to get it there. or get it out of my system. like the person you continue to sleep with long after the break up. or the wine you continue to drink long past the point of pleasure into drunkenness. or the record you wear out because you love it. to death.

or

you wear that sweater until it falls apart, and then you start wearing it to bed.

it's not about judgment. it's about attraction.

and then you might move on. or take it out when winter comes around again.

This is my favorite dessert on the menu. I know it's a little esoteric for the average person, but out of 3 desserts on offer for New Year's Eve, it sold neck in neck with the chocolate offering. If you make it in while it's on the menu, I'd love to know your thoughts.

dessert poems. V {winter in nyc

apple cider ice cream
fried apple pie
rosemary caramel
Macintosh apple salad with warmed brown butter vinaigrette

frozen honey nougat
grapefruit supremes
kalamansi lime gelee
butter-toasted brioche croutons

bay leaf cream-carnaroli risotto
juniper berry & cocoa nib shortbread
comice pears
pine nut brittle dust

butterscotch pot de creme
pile of brown sugar-cumin-buttered pecans
vanilla egg cream, chantilly

panzanella of devil's food cake & sour cherries
chocolate chocolate twig ice cream
chicory cream
hot milk chocolate sauce
vanilla salt

warm persimmon pudding
persimmon-roasted shallot-walnut-dried white fig salad
labne sabayon

membrillo filled sheeps milk cheese doughnuts
rose petal tea sugar
earl grey cream

parfait of ~
various peppercorn & jaggery roasted pineapple
black sesame-amaranth jaconde
spicy coconut sorbet
tahini-toasted coconut jelly cubes
coconut caramel
black sesame-almond milk foam

semolina "custard"
fennel seed-broken almond-golden raisin-preserved lemon-candied orange peel-honeycomb-olive oil relish
burnt orange caramel ice cream & frozen honey mousse creamsicle
poppy seed lavosh

thyme & buckwheat crepes
cream of pear & parsnip soup
orange flower water roasted pears
sizzling buckwheat groats
white coffee chantilly

fudgesicle granita
grilled pound cake
marshmallow-milk chocolate-sourdough pretzel lumps
shuna's famous hot fudge sauce

previous dessert poems  ~

I  II  III IV

plated dessert III - tropical_meringue

 

hazelnut meringue, coconut-guava-vanilla bean sorbet, tropical fruit salsa of mango, pomegranate seeds, pineapple, lime leaf, ginger, fresh coriander {cilantro}, palm sugar, mint, galangal and lemongrass.

plated dessert II - pumpkin_pomegranate

 

pomegranate & brown butter vinaigrette, toasted kataifi, warm spice butternut squash custard, amchur sugar-salt dusted pumpkin & sesame seed crunch, feta & goat's curd sorbet.

Newington Green Greengrocers & Fruiterers

Living in London has humbled me, when it comes to fruit loving & eating. The seasons baffle me, (rhubarb appears to be in season right now!}, not to mention that seasonality for all of the world's fruit has to be taken into consideration! Because when you're buying fruit and vegetables in the UK, it comes from as nearby as 100 or as far as 4000 mile. oy vey. And you thought keeping up with all the peach varietals was hard.

I can't keep up.

So instead I buy what looks and smells good. And I relish in the fruit America won't import. HehI feel especially lucky because I just happened to move into an area that is home to one of the best produce shops I have ever come across in London. Newington Greengrocers. All they sell is fruit & veg. O, and locally made jam/preserves, and little 1/2 dozen containers of eggs. 

If I'm not sure what's in season on British soil, I go here. If I want the best price (better than a restaurant's produce purveyor!) on Pakistani or Indian mangoes, I go here. If I want to make sure my fruit and veg hasn't been in the crates since last week, I go here.Live in London? Have a great Fruiterer in your postcode? Post a link in the comments section-- it would be great if we could make a list together for all the other nerdy fruit lovin' people of Londontown.

~ Yours humbly in Greengage & Damson plums. (Two new varietals I might not have otherwise been introduced to had I not moved here.)

Duck Breast on Apricot & Red Onion Tart. The Harwood Arms

More photos on Flickr.

Yes, I like the Harwood Arms. A lot. /too much.

One can't help but appreciate a chef who can create savoury food and desserts, both exceedingly well & delicious. I'm talking about Stephen Williams.