An experiment gone awright

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sneak in the kitschy title here simply because over the years I have had so many experiments gone awry. This time however, something quite magical came about. It all started because of the need, as many of us have, for dessert. A dinner party for one of my regular clients was looking like it was going to be a culinary success. Smoked salmon blinis and zucchini fritters; check. Butternut squash soup; check. Roasted fillet of beef with port reduction; check. And then, all of a sudden, 4 more guests arrived and those coconut macaroons I had made earlier were just not going to be substantial enough for the mood of the dinner party. With no form of chocolate anywhere to be found, I couldn’t do a nice soufflé or cake. What to do? Well, my first thought went to berries, I have a go-to cobbler recipe that is fool proof and doesn’t require much that isn’t in most pantries. However, since this was a fancy dinner party, we decided that a rustic cobbler wouldn’t be quite as appropriate as other options. Don’t get me wrong, a giant heap of cobbler dumped in a bowl, perhaps with a scoop of vanilla gelato, is top of my dessert list. We needed something a little more presentable for this instance though.

Bars were the next thing that came to mind, lemon to be specific. But alas, I had less than two hours until dinner with still quite a bit of work to do and lemon bars take a considerable amount of time and detail. Since the client can only eat blueberries, and there just so happened to be a Costco sized container of fresh blueberries in the fridge, I knew I had to go with that. I decided to make a blueberry bar, something I had never done before. I went with my standard lemon bar crust since it is 3 ingredients and takes about 2 minutes to prepare and get cooking. The berries I knew I would have to cook, so I threw most of the container into a sauce pan with sugar and some sliced lemons. Since I didn’t have time to let the berries cool enough for them to thicken properly, I threw in some flour and then added the remainder of the whole berries. Then I simply poured the whole thing over the crust, threw on a crumble topping and popped it in the oven, able to do nothing more than cross my fingers, and toes, that this would be an edible product. The tray was picked clean by the end of the evening, I guess I did alright.



Blueberry bars

For crust:
1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9 x 9 baking dish by either spraying thoroughly with non stick spray or laying foil to lift out. This makes for easy removal from pan and is highly recommended. To do this, take a long piece of foil and lay it lengthwise in the pan. Then take another piece and lay it crosswise in pan, then spray with non stick spray. This allows gripping the foil and simply lifting the entire concoction from the pan to let cool and then easily cut. Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse about 10 times, until ingredients come together and mixture turns pale yellow. Dump into prepared pan and using the bottom of a glass or a measuring cup, pat mixture evenly over pan, pushing into corners and slightly up the sides. Bake for 20 minutes, until just starting to brown. Set aside until ready to use

For Filling and Crumble Topping

1 lb fresh blueberries
¾ cup sugar
2 whole lemons cut in half, seeds removed as best as possible
¼ tsp kosher salt
1 cup 3 Tbs all purpose flour, divided
¾ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
½ stick unsalted butter, cut into small chunks and softened

Place ¾ of the blueberries, the sugar, salt, 3 Tbs flour and lemons in a medium saucepan and add ¼ of water. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, until blueberries are broken down and sauce starts to thicken. Remove from heat and add the remaining blueberries, stirring to combine. Let cool 30 minutes. Combine remaining flour, brown sugar and butter in bowl and combine with fingers until ingredients start to come together and look crumbly. Pour blueberry mixture over crust and sprinkle crumble evenly over entire surface. Bake 30-40 minutes, until blueberries start to bubble and topping in browned. Remove from pan if using foil bed, or place pan on cooling rack. Let rest 15 minutes, then cut into squares and serve. Makes approximately 16 two inch squares.

Tomatoes With a Twist

One thing I love about living in LA (Probably one of the only things in fact) is that the moderate climate causes a blurring of the lines in seasonality. Since i love using ingredients that are local and seasonal, it is a huge advantage for me living in a place where you can get fresh tomatoes for a considerably longer period than in other regions. Tomatoes bring me great joy, but only if they are right. And by right, I mean they smell like a tomato and taste like a tomato, not like a mealy, plastic flavored substance that is perhaps a tomato's second cousin, twice removed. You know, like the ones you sometimes find in the grocery store. I like tomatoes in every form; raw, crushed, soup, sauteed, and slow roasted. I know it may sound like a strange thing to do, roast a tomato, but the heat concentrates all the deliciousness of the tomato into this juicy bite of sweet and tangy glory in your mouth. It takes a bit of time since they cook at a lower temperature, but it's set it and forget it, no work involved once it's in the oven time.

To momentarily digress, I feel the need to tell a little story about crazy farmers market lady from a few weeks ago. I am minding my own business, chatting with vendors and inspecting produce when I pick up a tomato and give in a nice whiff. This lady next to me gives me a look of contempt and declares how disgusting she thinks it is that I have smelled the tomato. Oh dear heavens, how could I have had the balls to actually Smell the tomato! So I turn to her and ask cordially how she tells if a tomato is ripe, and she replies, in her saccharine voice" Everybody knows, you squeeze it to tell if it's ready." So I start laughing and tell her she's off her rocker and squeezing it causes it to bruise and turn mushy and know this because my profession is a freaking chef. She just goes off on a rant about how gross it is that I have smelled it, as though perhaps I sneezed on the darn thing, or licked it while her back was turned. Yeah lady, because you man handling it in your grubby palm is sanitation nation. People are strange.

So enjoy the roasted tomatoes, and please don't squeeze them.


Slow roasted tomatoes

2 lbs of tomatoes (use whatever kind strikes your fancy, heirloom, plum, vine ripened, just steer clear of cherry), halved and seeds removed
2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbls balsamic vinegar
pinch of kosher salt
pinch of sugar
Lay the tomatoes cut side up on a baking sheet and drizzle olive oil, vinegar, salt and sugar evenly amongst them. Place baking sheet in preheated 400 degree oven for 20 minutes, then lower the temp to 300 and roast for another 20 to 30 minutes, until starting to brown on top and looking kind of shriveled and wrinkly. Let cool for 10 minutes, then start popping them in your mouth.

Delicious Peaches in January

When I decided to spend the summer working in Boston as a recipe tester, I knew that I would likely be foregoing one of my favorite summer activities: peach picking. I wasn't due home until late august, when there is a chance you may still get a crop of peaches, but no assurance. Lucky for me, summer was a late season this year and I was able to relish in an afternoon at my favorite orchard: Yingst Ranch in Littlerock. Yes, you read that right, Littlerock, as in way the heck out in the middle of nowhere Littlerock off the 14 freeway. It is a trek and certainly a commitment to do, but I also happen to have family in Palmdale, so I do the requisite visit in the same trip and not only do I have my lovely peaches, but I have done my familial duty for the month! And not to overly toot the pick-your-own method, but they cost 95 cents a pound if you do the grunt work. Um, yes please and thank you for your business.



I happened to get extremely lucky this year, and Yingst also had a september snow peach that just came to fruition on the trees, so this past weekend, I headed out to spend some time with relatives and visit my orchard. I picked to my heart's content and came home with 10 pounds of luciousness to do with what I will. And I am going to freeze them, so that when my peach hankering starts emerging in mid january, all I have to do is defrost (slowly, in the fridge) and voila, sumptious summer peaches at my fingertips. There is a way to freeze peaches that prevents them from breaking down and aquiring that frozen taste, and it's actually quite simple and takes only a bit of time to do. It's a wonderful treat to be able to have the orchard peach taste out of season, hopefully this method will be used far and wide.


2 pounds of ripe peaches
4 cups of either simple syrup (recipe below) or any of the following: white grape juice, peach nectar diluted to 50% with water, apple juice.

Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil over high heat.
Fill a large bowl with water and ice.
Score bottoms of peaches with an X using a small paring knife.
Drop peaches (carefully) into boiling water and submerge for 1 minute. Remove peaches and plunge into ice water bath to stop them from cooking.
Peel off the peach skins (ahhhh, now you see what the quick boiling was for)
Cut peaches in half, remove pits and slice each half into 4 slices.
Using either 1 large ziplock bag: Pour liquid of choice into bag and add peach slices. Zip up tight and freeze on side.
Or 4 sandwich size zip lock bags: Pour 1 cup of liquid into each bag and divide peach slices evenly among bags. Freeze on sides.



Simple syrup:Bring 3 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar to a boil over high heat, stirring often. Turn off heat and let sit for 20 minutes. Cool completely. Should yield approximately 4 cups.

Watermelon Whale Watching

Since there are currently a plethora of watermelons available at farmer's markets and grocery stores, i thought it appropriate to demonstrate how to make a very popular item in my house growing up, a watermelon whale. People think it is incredibley creative, and in all truth, it's a very easy way to add a little punch and humor to a piece of fruit most people adore. I fill my whale with fruit salad and have included a simple recipe for a delicious one. A note to selecting a good watermelon: Go knock on your door. Hear that sound? Tap tap tap, hollow wood. The more hollow a watermelon sounds when you knock on it, the sweeter it will be. Check the bottom for color, a pale yellow, you are good to go. This means it has been sitting in the sun for a while, incubating.



The general idea behind creation of the whale is to take the whole watermelon, carve off a top in the shape of a whale's back and tail, scoop out the flesh and fill with something fantastic. Step 1 is to slice a very small piece off the bottom of the watermelon to prevent the thing from tipping. This provides a flat and stable base. Stabbing yourself with a sharp knife because the watermelon rolled; very bad. Step two is to wrangle up a sharpie and draw the outline of the whale tail and the body. You need not be blessed with art skills to do this, it's a whale shaped watermelon! It will look great no matter how straight your lines are. Step three is to cut off the top using the sharpie marks as guidelines. I find a small paring knife is best for this, as a long blade has less control on the corners. Step 4 is to remove the top. If you have cut all the way through, it should come off easily. Any troubles simply run a long knife through the flesh all the way across and free the top. Ta Da, you have a whale! I use a standard ice cream scoop to remove all the yummy flesh, or a spoon will do the trick as well. Lastly, and this is the most important part of the process, give your whale a face! It is a happy whale, it's about to have fruit salad in it, yummy



I Shall Call her Eloisa!



Fruit Salad

1 bunch of green or red grapes
3 apples, cut into 1 inch chunks
2 bananas, peeled and cut into 1/2 in slices
2 pears, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 pint of strawberries, hulled and sliced1 cup of watermelon, cut into 1 inch chunks
1/2 cup of heavy cream, whipped with 2 tbls of sugar to form stiff peaks
1/2 cup low fat plain yogurt1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Mix all fruit in a large bowl. Add yogurt and vanilla to whipped cream and stir to combine. Mix into fruit and pour into watermelon whale.

9/26/09
by Kendra
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