Berries !!

I was fortunate enough to visit my brother last week, he has managed to grow a great stand of berries: loganberries ( similar to a raspberry but with a more exotic flavor), boysenberries, olallieberries and a few other odd varieties. He is a generous soul and allowed me to pick to my heart's content. I frozen a large bag full and brought a container home to eat, which I did each morning for breakfast. I had plans to make great creations with these berries but they were just too tasty fresh like that.

With berry season in full swing here are a few of my favorite recipes, they use all kinds of berries and mostly can be substituted. Hopefully they will inspire you or like me maybe you will just eat they fresh !!

Raspberry Rose Curd

Summer Fruit Tart

Fruit Crisp

Easy Fruit Jam

Fruit Ice Cream

Strawberry Tart

Strawberry Cake

Dried Strawberries

Strawberry "shortcake" for the chocolate lover.

A couple weekends ago our friends, Rex and Margaret, came for a visit. Rex is a true chocoholic, so I usually try to come up with some new amazing chocolate dessert.
It is strawberry season, I really wanted to showcase our local fruit and I had made almost every very chocolate dessert in my repertoire...

Somehow I had to get chocolate into my strawberry shortcake, suddenly it hit me, use a brownie for the "shortcake" !!

I love my brownie recipe. It calls for 3 ounces of cream cheese which I didn't have handy so I used the same amount of my thick yogurt instead. And instead of chocolate chips, I took the time to chop some nice dark chocolate into small pieces. The results were fantastic. The brownies were great by themselves and as a base for the strawberries and whipped cream.

It's always a food festival with Rex and Margaret in the house. Here is the rest of the menu from that evening.

Freshly picked asparagus roasted on the grill. Margaret brought us a huge bag from her brother's farm.

Laurie's potatoes.

Three different kinds of sausages from local charcuterie, El Sachichero, also on the grill.

A huge green salad.

Here is happy Rex and that's even before dessert !!

Cape Gooseberries, Husk Cherries and Strawberries, a fruity post.

A while back a friend of ours had a fruiting plant in her yard we had never heard of. Of course we were very curious, she plucked a funny paper lantern from the plant. She removed the paper to reveal a small orange yellow fruit that resembled a small cherry tomato. I tasted it and immediately fell in love with that cape gooseberry. We took some cuttings and after a few failed attempts we had our very own huge vine growing in the corner of the backyard.

When I describe this strange fruit, I liken it to a tomatillo that married a cherry tomato.

The flowers give it away as a nightshade.

To harvest them, you wait until they are ready to fall off the plant. I collected this bowl of them the other day.

I have used them in salads, mostly I just eat them out of hand. I did make a jam, it was surprising to find some many recipes on line for cape gooseberry jam. It was seedy but fun.

I made another rendition with cinnamon, clove and allspice which I strained. That one was amazing, it was patterned after a cherry tomato condiment I tasted at Green's.

We have never seen cape gooseberries for sale...until last Sunday. We were at the Live Oak farmer's market where we saw something that looked just like our funny fruit except they were smaller. The sign called them husk cherries or golden-berries and claimed they tasted tropical. We were offered a taste...that sold us.

In this photo the new fruit is on the right, smaller and lighter in color. THE FLAVOR IS AMAZING!!
It is quite different from our cape gooseberry, tropical is a good description.

You locals can buy these great treats at the Lonely Mountain stand at the farmer's market!!

Now for a rant about strawberries.

Strawberries grow in abundance in our area, the plants last for about two years and then must be replaced. As with other fruit, growers often choose varieties more for the ease of growing and shipping than for the flavor. We have noticed this to be true even with our local farmer's market berries.

As strawberry connoisseurs we prefer the Seascape and Chandler varieties for their flavor and soft texture. The current Albions grown by a lot of farmers are tougher and less flavorful. Locally you can get Seascapes at Windmill Farms at the farmer's markets. I have heard rumors that Swanton has Chandlers, we will check it out.

When you go to buy strawberries at your local farmer's market or store ask about the variety and let them know which ones you prefer.

Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream

Tis' the season here at Strawberry Fields Forever, USA... did you know that a third of  this country's strawberries are grown right here along the central California coast.

This time of year I buy three cartons of fresh berries every Saturday at the farmer's market. While I eat most of them straight up, I decided to try making strawberry ice cream the other day.

It was so good I had to share it.

I use the basic techniques from my peppermint ice cream recipe.

Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cup fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and chopped

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cup whole milk

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1) Chop the strawberries in a food processor, you should get about 1 1/2 cup of puree.

2) Refrigerate this puree until later.

3) Combine cream and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling, stirring for 5 to 8 minutes, then reduce the heat to low. 

4) In a bowl add the egg yolks, sugar and the extract and mix together well. This mixture will be very thick, just keep whisking it or you could even use an electric hand mixer.

5) Add four tablespoons of the hot milk/cream , one tablespoon at a time, stirring each tablespoon in fully. This helps to warm up the egg/sugar mixture so the egg yolks don't cook when you add it to the hot cream.

6) Cook over low heat until slightly thickened, about 4 to 5 minutes. The ice cream will coat the back of the spoon.

7)  Cool the ice cream base completely in the fridge, overnight preferably.

8) Just before freezing, combine 1 cup of strawberry puree with the ice cream base, mix well.

9) Freeze for 20- 25 minutes.

10) Remove the ice cream into a bowl for further freezing. Swirl in the remaining half cup of strawberry puree.

Allow to harden before serving, about 2-4 hours.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

It may not be as American as apple pie but this strawberry rhubarb crisp is a great summer dessert !!

Rhubarb is an odd ingredient for a sweet dish being the stalk of a vegetable plant.

Someone figured out that it pairs beautifully with strawberries.

Genna recommended a recipe by Ina Garten, (the Barefoot Contessa) which I took and made mine as usual.

Ingredients
Filling:
3 cups rhubarb
3 cups strawberries
zest of one orange
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup water *
2 tsp. cornstarch

Topping:
3/4 cups flour
3/4 cups rolled oats (not instant)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter diced

To make this vegan use Earth Balance in place of the butter. To make it gluten free use brown rice flour and gluten free rolled oats ( Bob's Red Mill makes them).

1) Preheat oven to 350 F , place a glass baking dish,( 8 by 8 inch) on a cookie sheet.

2) Chop the rhubarb into inch long chunks and stem and cut the strawberries into halves or quarters.

3) Toss the fruit in a large bowl with 1/2 cup sugar and the orange zest.

4) Dissolve the 2  teaspoons of cornstarch in 1/3 cup water. * The photo below shows me whisking the cornstarch into orange juice which is what the original recipe calls for. I found the orange flavor overwhelming. Genna made it with water and pronounced it great ;-)

5) Mix the cornstarch liquid into the fruit and pour into the glass baking dish.

6) For the topping, place the flour, oats and brown sugar into a mixing bowl with a paddle attachment. Mix together.

7) With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the cold butter in pieces until the dry ingredients are moist and the mixture crumbles.

8) Sprinkle the crumble over the fruit to cover it as completely as possible.

9) Bake at 350 F for one hour.

10) Serve it warm for dessert with ice cream, whipped cream or creme fraiche. Or have it for breakfast with plain yogurt !! Yum !!

Summer Fruit Tart

Last Sunday some friends came over for dinner and I wanted a dessert that would highlight my fresh raspberries and blueberries.

The very first post in this blog was for a winter fruit tart, it has a wonderful shortbread cookie crust and a light, versatile cream cheese filling. 

It was the perfect match for all that fresh fruit. It's simple and a great way to impress your dinner guests !!

Strawberry Tart, another way to go...

As a challenge, I decided to make a fresh strawberry tart for a gathering that needed to be vegan and gluten free.
It was actually very easy. I found a simple crust by googling "vegan gluten free tart crust", then, of course, made my own changes. And I did have to chuckle when the food blogger whose recipe I was using said it was "almost vegan" since she used butter ;-)

Tart crust

Ingredients

11/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup oat  flour or any other gluten free flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons melted earth balance

1) Preheat the oven to 350 F. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

2) Add melted Earth Balance.
3) Mix together to moisten all the ingredients.

4) Dump the crumbly mixture into a tart pan with a removable bottom.
    Gently spread the mixture evenly in the pan.

5) Pat into tart pan with the bottom of a measuring cup, starting at the center and working toward the edges.

6) Cover with the crust with foil  and set on a baking sheet.
     Bake for 20 minutes, uncover and bake 10 more minutes.
7) Allow to cool before filling.

Strawberry Filling ( you can also just use 1 cup of strawberry jam)
Ingredients

1 cup chopped strawberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 juice of lemon
 2 cups of strawberries for the top

1) Remove the stems and cut up strawberries to measure 1 cup.
2) Place in small saucepan with the sugar and lemon juice.

3) Cook over medium low until soft. Set aside to chill.

To assemble the tart
1) The crust and the filling must be cool.
2) Spread the filling over the bottom of the tart.

3) I like to cut the strawberries as I place them on the tart, use any pattern or design that suits you and your berries.

 4) Chill for a couple of hours. Serve with something dairy free for your vegans or creme fraiche, sour cream or whipped cream.

This dessert will make your friends very happy !!