Fruit Challenge #3: Gooseberries!

(Getting weirder, right?!)

I made it home from work in time last week to make it to the Allston Farmers Market which runs Fridays from 3pm - 7pm.   This was my first time going to this specific market and I have to say, things were winding down by the time I got there, but still a solid showing by local farms.  I ended up getting, among other amazing things, Gooseberries!  I don't know about you, but I had never tasted a gooseberry.  When I asked the guy from Lanni Orchards what they taste like, he looked at me and said, 'Not to be a smartass, but it tastes like a gooseberry.'  Hmm, ok smartass.  There was a green variety and a red variety.  I tasted the green and it was like a super-tart-blueberry-meets-kiwi kind of taste.  Interesting.  He then told me that the red variety, while still tart, was a touch sweeter.  Sold.  I grabbed a container and was on my way. 

 Gooseberries are pretty peculiar things.  It seems, however, that there is one pretty common thing you make with strange fruits.  So, what do you make with Gooseberries, you ask?  Why, a Fool, of course, whereby we reduce the fruit in their own juices with the help of some sugar and fold them into a delicious cream mixture.  Duh.

Started by cutting the spiny ends off these guys one by one.  The ends must be the only thing giving this fruit its shape because once you cut them off it is no longer a berry, but rather a gooey, shapeless blob full of black seeds.

I ended up with about a cup and a half of berries all said and done.  Tossed those into a pan with some sugar and let them do their thang.  From what I can tell, gooseberries are made for sauces and jams.  Probably about 103% water by volume, they break down immediately and look amazing.
After about 30 seconds:

Again after about 2 minutes and some careful mashing by Boy:

The next part of this is where it gets ridiculous - bear with me.  The next step in this recipe requires beating a cream/creme fraiche mixture to hold peaks.  Unless you have been lucky enough to be living under a (nice, cool, mossy) rock for the month of July, you know that it has been one of the hottest streaks of weather we have had in recent memory. Perhaps my recollection is slightly skewed, but if I am correct, it has been like 125F and 300% humid for the last 3 weeks straight.  I don't know how many of you have tried beating cream to stiff peaks in the last three weeks, but let me just save you the frustration.  It. Don't. Work.  (Yes, I know that is grammatically incorrect, thanks.)

I loaded Sebastien, my French Blue mixer, up with the cream/creme mixture and began mixing.  It was moving along wonderfully.  Then, all of a sudden, these beautiful peaks began to form.  Then, as quickly as they came they plummeted back to the bottom of the mixing bowl.  (If only I had been sly enough to catch a picture of my "WTF-just-happened" face to post...)  Boy and I stood over the mixer like two defeated children.  But wait, it started to look creamy again so what did we do?  We turned up the mixer, of course.  Let it go for about a minute and to our surprise we ended up with butter.  I don't think there is anything I love more in this world than butter, so, although I did not have the beautifully stiff cream I had originally hoped for, I was pretty excited.  Put it in a bowl and tossed it into the fridge for later consumption.

Tangent aside, I was dead-set on making this Fool successfully.  Once I was over the excitement of the butter I promptly grabbed Sebastien in one arm and supplies in the other and ran to the bedroom - the only air conditioned room in the house.  (More like a meat locker actually.) Boy walked in shortly thereafter and, once done laughing at me, snapped an action shot of a girl hellbent on a mission:

The moral of the story?  All it takes is one well-chilled room in your house to make a Fool.  It worked.  And it was everything we thought it would be and more.  Way more. 

(Obviously had to photograph and then consume said Fool in said air conditioned bedroom quickly to prevent any falling peaks.) 

An update on the butter: it wasn't long for this world.  Between Boy and I and a couple house guests, we polished it off in about 10 days.  However, I will be doing some research into how one makes butter the real way.   If making butter is as simple as I think it is there will be no more store-bought buttah for this household.

If you have air conditioning and would like to try your hand at fruit fool this summer, I used this recipe.  As always, drop me a line with any comments or suggestions!

Veggie Challenge #4: White Eggplant

We were away for the 4th and the local market had white eggplant.  (Apologies for the rapid-fire posts from the long holiday weekend.  There was a lot of cooking happening.  In case you can't tell, I had some time on my hands between beach time and cocktail hour.  What else was I to do?) I had never seen a white eggplant, but after some quick research on my Google-machine I learned that the white eggplant is actually the original variety and is only available seasonally.  Hence the name EGGplant.  Hmm.  Who knew?  Anyway, it is the trendy new thing.  Old is new again.  Kind of like leggings and big belts, I guess.  

 So, let's start this off with a full disclosure.  I hate eggplant.  But, before you judge, I have tried it many times and I just can't get into it.  I don't know if it is the texture or what, but I just can't do it.  Baba ghanoush on the other hand?  Now we're talkin'. I could devour that stuff for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, and midnight snack.

 Anyway, I decided that I was going to make myself like it this time.  Sliced that baby up and threw it in a delicious marinade of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, and some random spice mix I found in the cupboard.  Proceeded to let grill master Boy cook it up.  It came off the grill with picture-perfect grill lines and looked beyond delish.  Amazing enough that I knew I would like it.   

The verdict? 

Still hate it.  Sorry!  Boy thought it was delicious though!

An Update: Tuna Ceviche

 An update on the ceviche that I made a couple of posts ago.  Boy and I were away for the 4th and ate a lot of seafood.  Like, an obscene amount.  Par for the course, I guess.  We were at our fave fish market and the Yellowfin looked amazing so I grabbed some to do ceviche that evening.  Now, I have to say, I love scallops - don't get me wrong, but the tuna we had was out of this world.  We are talking melt-in-your-mouth-out-of-this-world.  I did a repeat of the exact same ceviche recipe and used tuna instead.  A-mazing.

Veggie Challenge #5: Horseradish Root!

Ok people.  This is where the idea for the whole blog thing started.  We will have to take it offline if you want to know the story though, sorry.

Horseradish root.  Where do I begin?  Why, how about with a picture of this wonderful root vegetable?

I have no comment.

So when you think of horseradish, what comes to mind?  I don't know about you, but coming in a close second - right after the sauce my mom puts on her homemade flank steak sandwiches - I think of cocktail sauce.  Ohhhh yeah.  Just another lame excuse to eat seafood, I know.

So, I furiously scrubbed this guy with a veggie brush and then gave him a peel to see what his guts looked like.

Doesn't look like much, but let me tell you the aroma was unbelievable.  Just think of the freshest jar of grated horseradish you have ever bought at the store and multiply by a factor of about 75,345,445,106.  Let's just say I will never buy the stuff in a jar again.  Ever.  The other factor that makes me love it so much in its fresh form is the fact that I get to grate it with my trusty microplane and we know how much I love that.  (Yay!)

 I was taught that good cocktail sauce consists of three things: Heinz Chili Sauce, Horseradish, and Capers.  My dad would always add hot sauce because he was convinced that our horseradish had "died" a slow death in the fridge and was just not going to provide that nasal burning hot that cocktail sauce should have.  Well Dad, I have to tell you that while the fresh stuff is plenty hot and clearly better, I don't know that ours was always necessarily "dead".   I have, however, come to realize that, for some odd reason, I like my cocktail sauce atomic compared to what normal people eat.  Hmm.  Anyway, try it with the fresh stuff and you will never go back.  

Enjoy!

Veggie Challenge #3: Curly Endive

I have decided that there is an inordinate amount of 'ambiguous leafy green things' in my produce section. The only thing left to do is dive in. This weeks weirdness? Curly endive. And what do you do with weird green leafy things that you have no idea how to cook? You guessed it. You flash grill them and throw 'em on a grilled pizza!

Boy and I were introduced to the beautiful world of grilled pizza a couple years ago by a friend of a friend at an annual summer party. Out of the corner of my eye I see this woman stretching pizza dough over a hot grill and, naturally, immediately thought she was nuts. Curiosity got the best of me so I ran over like a lost puppy and asked her what she was doing. The rest is history. A beautiful history.

We get our pizza dough from the grocery store. Like pie crust, it is more effort to make it that it is worth (thanks for that tip, Mom, you have saved me lots of time over the years.). Granted, you can chop up whatever you want to put on a grilled pizza, but I used the following on this one: trumpet mushrooms, a vidalia onion, curly endive, and brie. Oh, and delicious, fresh-brewed, Vermont-local Switchback. Optional of course.

I threw all the veggies on the grill for a quick char before starting on the pizza. (I have to say that curly endive on the grill smells a lot like many of the freshman dorm rooms at UVM... if you get what I mean.) This was our first grilled pizza of the season, so obviously they memory wasn't super fresh.  You must ALWAYS remember to spray the grill before you put the pizza dough down.  (Boy managed to use brute strength and free the pizza from the grill, but  I have to say it wasn't pretty.)  So, put the dough down and let it cook for 5 minutes on a low-medium heat.  Once you flip it, immediately put toppings on and let grill for another 5 minutes.

The verdict on this one?  Idea was amazing, execution was flawed.  I had never tried grilled pizza on charcoal, but let me tell you, it is really difficult. Our crust was a little more well-done than I would normally care for.  Boy and I will be the proud new owners of a gas grill soon and fully plan to try this exact recipe again then.

By popular request, here is a loose version of the recipe for this one:
Pizza dough
Olive Oil
PAM (to spray the grill)
trumpet mushrooms, sliced
1 vidalia onion, sliced
1 bunch curly endive, rinsed
brie
Lightly grill veggies to get a nice flavor.  Remove from grill.  Stretch pizza dough and place on grill immediately after spraying the grates with PAM.  Let cook for 3-5 minutes.  Flip the pizza and top!  (I simply used olive oil on this one, but I normally use red sauce.) Let cook for another 3-5 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Let your friends "ooh" and "ahh".  Enjoy!


As always - drop me a note or leave a comment with any suggestions or ideas!