Black Boy Peach & Raspberry Jam

There have been some exciting things happen here in Christchurch in the wake of the February 2011 earthquake.  Many interesting activities that have popped up around the city as a result of the Gap Filler project, quirky cafes and bars have taken up residence on demolition sites, and many of the city's broken buildings have become the canvas for unique artworks, all of which have given the city a real vibrance that it didn't have pre-earthquake.

But one thing that is very sobering is the number of whole suburbs that have disappeared, and have now become what we know as the Residential Red Zone.  In these areas the land became highly unstable and the Crown determined that it was uneconomic to repair or stabilise the land.  As a result the Crown acquired all the land from the home owners and all the houses were demolished.  What you see today is large areas of land now devoid of houses and people, but the gardens still remain, like a spectre of the neighbourhoods lost.  Walking around the red zone has an almost eerie feeling to it.  But to every cloud there is a silver lining, and these well established but abandoned gardens are a forager's paradise.

My home is less than 100 metres from the beginning of the red zone, and this week I have been gathering pears and several buckets of Black Boy peaches.  I also have my eye on feijoas, walnuts, figs, more pears, and olives - all yet to ripen.

Some of you may have never come across Black Boy peaches.  They are an old heritage variety, with a dark almost purple skin and pink flesh.  You generally won't come across them in supermarkets;  instead you are most likely to acquire some only if you know someone who grows them, or you might stumble across some at a farmers market if you're lucky.  Unlike other peaches, they are in my opinion better suited to stewing or poaching than eaten fresh, and they are also beautiful made into jams and chutneys.

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs is Potluck Week, giving us the opportunity to cook with any one of our IHCC stable of guest chefs.  With the bounty of all the late summer produce around at the moment, preserving is high priority for me right now, and I've been spending a lot of time lately splattering the pages of Diana Henry's "Salt Sugar Smoke" with all manner of delicious sauces and jams.  I love Diana's approach to preserving and, seeking some inspiration for dealing with one of those buckets of peaches, this seemed like the ideal place to look.  I had been thinking along the lines of chutney actually, but then I stumbled across her recipe for White Peach & Raspberry Jam.  Since I had a stash of frozen raspberries to use up as well, I could go no further.

I made a few tiny tweaks to the recipe - firstly using these glorious pink fleshed peaches instead of white;  I included the zest from the lemons along with the juice, because why not:  and I added the grated flesh of one apple instead of the box of commercial pectin asked for in the original recipe.  Also once the jam has been made and bottled, Diana then puts the bottles through a canning process.  Personally, this is something I have never bothered doing with jam, and I've had no problem with them keeping for up to 12 months, but feel free to do so if you have concerns about keeping your jams for long periods of time.

The resulting jam, as you can see, has the most spectacular colour.  It's not overly sweet, has a softish set to it and incredible fragrance, giving this jam an almost seductive quality.  A dollop of this on top of some sourdough rye and carraway bread I picked up at the farmers market made the perfect start to the day for a Sunday morning breakfast.

If you're lucky enough to get your hands on some Black Boy peaches, I urge you to give this a try.

Black Boy Peach & Raspberry Jam Recipe
Adapted from recipe by Diana Henry
from Salt Sugar Smoke
Makes 4 large jars
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

1.2kg Black Boy peaches (or whatever peaches you can get)
5 cups raspberries
grated zest of one lemon
juice of 2 lemons
1x apple, flesh grated
5 cups sugar

Place clean jars and lids into a low oven to sterilise them.

Meanwhile remove the skins from the peaches by plunging them briefly into a pot of boiling water.  Remove and plunge into a bowl of cold water.  The skins should then slide off easily.  Halve the peaches, remove and discard the stones, and cut the flesh into slices or chunks.

Put all of the peach flesh into a large, deep saucepan, along with the raspberries, lemon zest, lemon juice, and grated apple.  Crush slightly to start the fruit juices running, then set pan over high heat and bring to a boil.  Add the sugar, bring back to the boil, and continue boiling until setting point is reached (100 degrees C/220 degrees F on a sugar thermometer).

Allow jam to stand for 10 minutes to cool slightly, and then ladle into the hot jars.  Leave to cool before sealing with lids.

If you would like to get to know Diana Henry or any of our other IHCC chefs a little better, and to see all the wonderful Potluck dishes my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

Double Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

When it comes to cookies, cakes, bars and slices, my all-time favourite treat, hands-down, is a brownie. And that applies when it comes to making them as well as eating them.  You know that I'm not the most enthusiastic baker on the planet, so I love that making brownies is beyond simplicity.  There is no dexterity required to separate eggs and, consequently, no separate bowls or beaters for whisking egg whites, and no creaming of butter and sugar.  One pot to melt some butter and chocolate, and one bowl to mix everything together.  Doesn't get much simpler than that.

The other thing I love about brownies, apart from the obvious decadent chocolatey fudginess, is the fact that if you aren't making these for a crowd, they freeze really well.  Frozen in individual serving size pieces, this is a great way to ensure portion control - perfect for those of us who have no self discipline and would never be able to leave a tin full of brownies alone.

So I was pretty excited that our theme this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs was Blondies and Brownies.  Donna Hay has a multitude of brownie recipes available - I think I found at least one in every one of her books that I own, as well as many others in her magazines and websites.

I had actually decided several weeks ago that I was going to make these Brownie Cookies with Peanut Butter Frosting for this theme.  It's a recipe that's been on my radar for a couple of years now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to indulge.  But as it turned out I've been a bit swamped with work lately and I was feeling tired and overwhelmed.  So keeping it simple was the order of the day.

I decided to run with the Classic Brownie from the 10th Birthday Edition of Donna Hay magazine, and I tricked it up a little with the addition of some raspberries and chunks of white chocolate.  The end result was delicious, and I'm sure there will be no complaints from my friends at work when I bring them in for morning tea, but I have to admit these are not the brownies that will bring you to your knees.  My personal preference, and whose wouldn't be really, is for a brownie which is intensely rich and fudgy - I found this lacking a little of the richness, and dense fudginess that I was hoping for.  Don't get me wrong ... this is a good brownie, and the addition of the raspberries and white chocolate definitely made it more interesting, but this is probably not the brownie that is going to earn the title "best brownie I've ever eaten".

Double Chocolate Raspberry Brownie Recipe
Adapted from a recipe by Donna Hay
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

280g (10 oz) butter
200g (7 oz) dark chocolate, roughly chopped
2 cups brown sugar
6 eggs
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1 cup frozen raspberries
200g (7 oz) white chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

Place butter in a small saucepan over low heat until melted.  Remove from heat, add the dark chocolate, and stir constantly until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.  Set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs and flour, until thoroughly combined.  Stir in the chocolate-butter mixture and mix well.  Add the raspberries and chopped white chocolate, and stir to combine.

Pour mixture into a 20cm x 30cm (8in x 12 in) tin, lightly greased and lined with baking parchment, and bake for 30-35 minutes (I suggest you test after 25 minutes).

Remove from the oven and cool in the tin, before cutting into squares to serve.

If you would like to get to know Donna Hay a little better, and to see all the fabulous brownies and bars my friends have come up with, then do go visit I Heart Cooking Clubs and check out the links.

I will also be submitting this post to Sweet New Zealand.  Inspired by Alessandra Zecchini, and hosted this month by Frances at Bake Club, Sweet New Zealand is an event for all Kiwi bloggers (whether living at home or abroad), or all foreign bloggers living in New Zealand, to link up their sweet treats.

I'll also be sharing this post this week at See Ya In the Gumbo hosted by the lovely Michelle at Ms. enPlace, Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth at Beth Fish Reads, and at Foodie Fridays hosted by Designs by Gollam.

          

Caramelised French Toast with Raspberry Compote

At I Heart Cooking Clubs we continue cooking (for just a few weeks more) with Mark Bittman, and our theme this week was "Damn, that's Sexy!"  An opportunity to cook (or have someone cook for you) the food that really turns you on.  What's your idea of sexy food?  Chocolate - goes without saying; some fresh fruit - almost any berries, mango, figs, pomegranate, papaya; certain seafood - oysters, scallops, lobster, and crab would all be on my list.  Also high up on my list of "sexy" is having breakfast in bed, and staying in bed until midday - even if you're on your own.  In fact, in my opinion, treating yourself to something special when you're dining alone is the ultimate indulgence (you may have read some of my earlier posts about solitary pleasures here and here).

But I digress.  It's been a funny old week here in Christchurch, and this morning seemed like the perfect time for a bit of self-indulgence - time for a big sleep-in, make a bit of breakfast, and retreat back to bed for a couple of hours.  Mark Bittman's Caramelised French Toast from How to Cook Everything seemed to fit the bill perfectly.  I also took some frozen raspberries out of the freezer to make a warm berry compote to accompany the french toast - now, you can't tell me that's not sexy!

First, you need to start with good, day-old bread - I'm sorry but Tip Top sandwich sliced simply will not do.  I used this Honey Vienna loaf from Vic's Bakery - it has a beautiful chewy texture, and the little bit of sweetness makes it perfect for things like bread puddings and french toast.

Cut bread into thick slices, and soak in a shallow "bath" of beaten eggs, milk, vanilla essence and sugar.

After a couple of minutes of soaking, turn bread over and sprinkle the top of the bread with brown sugar.  Soak for a couple of minutes longer.

Meanwhile, heat butter in pan over medium-high heat, and when the butter is melted and hot add the slices of bread to the hot pan, sugared side down.  Now sprinkle the other side of the bread with brown sugar.  Cook until the bread is nicely browned on the bottom, then flip over and brown the other side.

While the bread is cooking, put raspberries into a microwave-proof dish and microwave on high for 2 minutes.  Stir, add sugar, and microwave on high for a further 2 minutes.  Stir.

Remove browned toast from the pan to a warm plate and serve immediately, with raspberry compote on the side or spooned over the top.

Caramelised French Toast with Raspberry Compote Recipe

Adapted from Mark Bittman's

"How to Cook Everything"

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

Note:  The original recipe quantities below are for 4 servings - my notes in blue are my adaptations I made to serve one person

2 eggs (1 large free-range egg)

1 cup milk (1/3 cup milk)

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon sugar (1 teaspoon sugar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

brown sugar

butter for frying

8 slices bread (2 slices bread)

For Raspberry Compote:

1 cup frozen raspberries

1 tablespoon sugar

Break eggs into a shallow bowl.  Add milk, salt, sugar and vanilla extract, and beat lightly to combine.

Cut bread into thick slices, and add to the "eggy bath".  Allow to soak on one side for a couple of minutes.

Turn over and sprinkle thickly with brown sugar on the top side.  Soak for another couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, heat butter in pan over medium-high heat, and when the butter is melted and hot add the slices of bread to the hot pan, sugared side down.  Now sprinkle the other side of the bread with brown sugar.  Cook until the bread is nicely browned on the bottom, then flip over and brown the other side.

While toast is cooking, put raspberries into a microwave-proof bowl, cover and microwave on high for 2 minutes.  Stir, add sugar, and microwave on high for another 2 minutes.

Remove browned toast from the pan to a warm plate and serve immediately, with raspberry compote on the side or spooned over the top.

Eat alone or with someone you love!

For other great Mark Bittman recipes visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs or get the book:

Available from Amazon, Book Depository UK, and Fishpond NZ

Raspberry Gelato Recipe - Cooking Italy 9

It's still the "fag end" of winter here, and we are still being subjected to fairly regular polar blasts coming straight off the Antarctic;  the mountains are still covered in snow and, despite the emergence of daffodils and some early blossom, warm, sunny spring weather still seems a little way off.  But for all that, no matter how cold it is outside, the dessert of choice for me is still usually something frozen - give me a bowl of sorbet or ice cream over an apple pie any day!  I infinitely prefer, no matter what the weather, a cold dessert to a hot one.  There is, however, one notable exception - my all-time-most-favourite dessert (the one I would ask for if I was on death row, heaven forfend) - and that is my Dad's steamed pudding.  There is just something about a dish which is made with a father's love that tastes better than anything else on earth.  (Note to self:  see if I can get Dad to show me how to make it and share the recipe, so that I can share it with you.)

But I have digressed.  Such is my passion for frozen desserts that I always have several tubs, in varying flavours, in the freezer at any one time.  What's more, that passion seems to have grown immeasurably since I discovered how ridiculously easy it is to make your own.  Not only is making your own sorbets and ice creams incredibly easy, you also know exactly what is in them - no artificial ingredients (thickeners, stabilisers, emulsifiers, things you can't pronounce - ick!) - just beautiful, fresh, natural ingredients (fresh, seasonal fruit, free-range eggs, cream, milk, maybe some vanilla).  Little wonder that home-made ice creams and sorbets taste soooooo good!

So that I can enjoy my frozen desserts all year round, I freeze fruit during the summer for turning into sorbets and ice creams during the winter.  I poach or roast fruits like apricots, peaches and nectarines, then bag them up in whatever quantity I need for a batch of ice cream, taking care to note on the bag what sugar went into the preparation of the fruit.  Berries I simply freeze, free-flow, and then bag.  I do all this, rather than making big batches of the ice cream or sorbet when the fruit is in season, because frozen desserts don't really keep so well much beyond about 3 months - it's not really that they "go off" so much, but they tend to get icy and the texture changes.  So I find it is better to freeze the fruit, and make batches of dessert as I need them.

Given my love for frozen desserts, I was very excited that one of our assignments this month for the Cooking Italy group was gelato - any flavour we liked, using this recipe from PickYourOwn.org.  Immediately, my imagination started to run wild - I had some roasted peaches in the freezer, and some amaretti biscuits leftover from some Sweet Potato Ravioli I had made a couple of weeks ago (post for that coming soon - promise), so Roasted Peach and Amaretti Gelato sounded pretty darn good to me.  Sadly the roasted peaches, turned out to be poached peaches, and since they were already in a vanilla-infused sugar syrup I decided to turn them into a sorbet instead, rather than risk upsetting the sugar-balance of the gelato (sugar doesn't freeze, so playing around with the quantity of sugar will affect how soft or firm your ice cream becomes).  So instead I opted to use up a bag of frozen raspberries from the freezer for a Raspberry Gelato.  I do still have roasted apricots and roasted nectarines in the freezer so they will get their turn next!

Now, before I go on, a word about ice cream makers.  I know that I have told you this before, but if you don't already own an ice cream maker, go and get one - contrary to what you may think, you don't have to spend a fortune.  You can get one for as little as about $40 (which will do a perfectly good job), and then the frozen confections which will come out of your kitchen will be limited only by your imagination.  I keep the bowl of my ice cream maker in the freezer at all times, so that I am always good to go when the urge takes me.

So what, you might ask, is the difference between gelato and ice cream - the best explanation I have found is this one given by David Lebovitz - but the simplest facts that I have been able to discern from a variety of sources is that gelato generally has less air and less fat than a traditional ice cream, resulting in a product which is more dense in texture and in which the flavour is not masked by the taste and texture of fat coating the palate.

This gelato is as simple as making an egg custard, pureeing some fresh fruit, and then letting the machine do the work - churn away.  The result is lusciously fruity, and with a greater ratio of milk to cream is not overly rich.  Incidentally this recipe uses 8 egg yolks, and in case you were wondering what to do with 8 egg whites (they can be frozen), I can recommend either Nigella's Prodigious Pavlova or Giada's Egg White Frittata with Lox and Arugula, both of which just happen to call for, yes you guessed it, 8 egg whites.  Talk about serendipitous!

Raspberry Gelato Recipe

Adapted from recipe on

PickYourOwn.org

Makes approx. 1.5 litres

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

2 cups milk

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup skim milk powder

8 large free-range egg yolks

1 cup cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups raspberries

(if using frozen, thaw first)

Begin by setting up an ice bath - place a 2-quart (2l) bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water.  Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl.

Separate the egg yolks into a medium bowl.  The whites can be discarded or set aside for another purpose.  Whisk the yolks until thickened.

Next heat the milk, sugar and powdered milk together in a large saucepan, bringing it to a gentle simmer and stirring to ensure the sugar is completely dissolved.

Remove from heat and gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour.  Then pour the warmed egg yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan containing the remainder of the milk.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

Strain the custard into the bowl of cream, and stir over the ice bath until the custard is completely cool.  Add the vanilla extract.  Pour the custard into a jug (that will make pouring into the ice cream maker easier later on).  Cover with cling film, pressing the cling film right down onto the surface of the custard so that the whole surface is covered.  Refrigerate to chill thoroughly - at least about 8 hours, but preferably overnight.

Now you're ready to make ice cream.  Puree the raspberries for a couple of minutes in the food processor or blender, and strain if you prefer to remove the seeds.  Remove custard from the fridge.

Set your ice cream machine churning and pour in the custard followed by the raspberry puree.  (You could mix the custard and fruit together before pouring into your machine, but I found that my churn did a good job of mixing them for me.)  Churn according to manufacturer's instructions, then serve straight from the churn, or freeze for a couple of hours if you prefer a firmer texture.

Visit my Cooking Italy page  to learn more about the group, find links to other participants in the group, and links to all the recipes I have so far contributed.

Interested in making more frozen desserts?  Then, I recommend The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz - you will also find loads of great recipes and information on his website.

Available from Amazon, Book Depository UK, and Fishpond NZ

Making the most of summer's bounty

Well it's that time of year when my love affair with asparagus has given way to summer fruit. Really nothing says summer to me more than an abundance of apricots, peaches, nectarines, raspberries and strawberries, and this year (perhaps because the summer weather has actually been pretty crappy!) the fruit seems to be especially good. Interesting parallel - worst summer I can remember for about 15 years, best summer fruit I can remember for about as long.

So, needless to say, I have of course been indulging in plenty of unadulterated fresh fruit - big bowls of it every morning, but I've also been cooking with them and trying to set some aside to enjoy a bit of summer in the middle of winter.

I've made lots of sorbet ...

... raspberry, white fleshed nectarine, and apricot. My apricot sorbet is made using this recipe from Stone Soup. For my nectarine sorbet I used David Lebovitz's recipe - David is after all close to Godliness, in my opinion, in matters of frozen desserts! That's my nectarine sorbet in the top right corner of the picture above, which as you can see is quite a lot paler than that in the picture on the recipe link. I suspect that is because the nectarines I had were white fleshed ones, and that yellow fleshed ones would deliver a deeper pink sorbet, though I still think my pale pink version is very pretty. My raspberry sorbet is made using the following recipe adapted from the "River Cafe Italian Kitchen" cookbook. This has really intense flavour, and the colour is just drop-dead gorgeous.

Raspberry Sorbet Recipe

Makes about 1.5 litres

vegan, gluten free

800g fresh raspberries

1 whole Meyer lemon, preferrably organic, plus

juice of 1/2 lemon

350g caster sugar

Wash the lemon thoroughly, and if you are not using an organic lemon give it a good scrub to remove any wax that might be on the skin. Then cut the lemon (skin and all) into smallish pieces, discarding any pips, and put into a food processor. Put the caster sugar into the processor with the lemon, and blitz until you have a thick puree with little bits of lemon peel still visible. Add the raspberries and blitz again until everything is combined. Add the lemon juice, and taste. At this point you may add a little more sugar if the raspberries are too tart, or you may want to add a little more lemon juice - the lemon flavour should be noticeable but not overpowering.

Chill the puree for several hours (I like to leave it in the fridge overnight). Then pour the puree into an ice-cream maker and churn according to your machine's directions.

First note: You may want to strain the puree before churning to remove the pips. Personally I don't - I think it is inherent in the nature of raspberries to have pips, and I like the slightly more rustic nature and texture of an unstrained sorbet.

Second note: If you don't have an ice-cream maker - go and get one today before summer is over. I promise you won't regret it. Contrary to what you may think, this does not have to cost you a lot of money. Whilst it is true that I covet a "serious ice-cream machine", with a built-in refrigeration unit, that might set me back $1,000-$2,000, Mr Snowy here does the job just fine and he only cost about $40. I think normal retail for this is about $80, but I picked this up in one of those 50% off electrical goods sales that Briscoes have just about every second weekend. Or there are literally dozens of similar machines available on TradeMe at almost any time.

Of course the sorbet you make now is not going to keep all winter - after a while it starts to go all icy and the texture changes. But I'm very excited to have come across this recipe for Roasted Apricot Sorbet on Couldn't Be Parve. I haven't actually made this recipe yet (though I did pass the link on to a friend who has made it and declared it to be "absolutely divine"), but I have roasted several batches of apricots (6kg in all) and put them in the freezer to make into sorbet during the winter. Let me tell you that when I had a wee taste of the first batch I almost went weak at the knees - they taste soooooo good!! I know that these are going to make the most heavenly sorbet, but they would be divine as they are on good vanilla ice-cream, or dolloped on top of crumpets instead of jam, or used to fill a tart ... or just eat them straight out of the pan when no-one's watching.

I have plans to also roast some nectarines and some peaches this week, as I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to treat them exactly the same way. Will keep you posted on progress.

And speaking of jam, I've made some Apricot & Vanilla Jam using this recipe from Trish Deseinne.

I made this jam, exactly according to the recipe and I will definitely make this again. There is absolutely nothing that I would change about this - it is probably the best apricot jam I think I've tasted for years. It is not too sweet and the set is just perfect - I think it's the lemon juice that helps on both these fronts. I ended up with about a dozen jars, and don't you just love my special labels I produced ....

I'm so excited I have been labelling everything in my pantry!! These are relatively inexpensive, and available in any quantity - even very small quantities (just half a dozen, or even just 1 or 2) if you want them. If you're interested in some labels of your own for your pantry ingredients or preserves send me your query via the "Contact Me" box on the sidebar of this blog. I know that's a little bit Martha, but then for someone who is obsessive about folding (my folding of fitted sheets is legendary), this should come as no surprise.

I hope this has inspired you to do something with all that beautiful summer fruit that's out there right now. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you've been doing with summer's bounty.