Time for dem pears again, hon

I finally tasted the creme de cassis, and darn if it isn't good! Got that confirmed by a couple of "tasters" of the kir royales that I made, who agreed that not only was it good, but it was doing a good job of covering up some rather miserable bubbly someone had given us as a freebie (thankfully, that was after we'd had some good champagne). Note to self: always use decent sparkling wine!

Since the kitchen I have is considerably smaller than the doctor's in Sonoma, and not very conducive to hot water canning, I decided to continue with the alcohol-based preserving. The marketeer gave me some beautiful pears she and the lawyer had picked last weekend, so I mixed some Red Bartletts and Boscs in a lovely, big Italian jar I bought recently, and added vanilla, sugar, and about 5 cups of vodka. Since it needs to sit for at least 3 months (preferrably 4), it'll probably be New Year's before we can try the resulting liquor. Just when we'll need it!

Here figgy figgy!

Figs ruled Labor Day weekend: both the preserved and the fresh variety. We started by making fig chutney, a rich concoction updated from a Victorian cookbook. Amazing when served with a triple cream like St. Andre or maybe a really runny Camembert!

I'd found a recipe for grilled figs on the NY Times Bitten blog, and the doctor and I decided we should try 'em Saturday evening. I picked the grape leaves, tied the little bundles up with a rosemary skewer, and boy were they a thing of beauty! We ate them with chicken and some sausage, and relished the creamy goat cheese with the fig, drizzling some of the leftover fig chutney "sauce" over the top of the grilled figs. Yum!

The garden is looking fabulous, and we also spent time working on peaches and tomatoes, returning again to the fabulous 1948 tomato preserve recipe we'd tried last year. The doctor modified the peach conserve recipe and used white peaches and lemon. Quite happy to know there will be plenty more tomatoes before the season is out, so we can keep trying more recipes, including putting up some salsa.

Peachy

Given the popularity of my peach marmalade with vanilla and cognac, I felt compelled yesterday to do a big batch of peach preserves. Armed with almost 15 pounds of peaches, I launched into preserving while everyone else was drinking frosty drinks in the summer Sonoma heat. Once again, the peach marmalade recipe I have proved fussy, and it's clear I'll have to re-trench and experiment with it to make sure I don't end up with caramelized peaches (as I did yesterday). While waiting for the peach marmalade to cook down, I indulged in a hilarious Wii game, Samba de Amigo, much to the amusement of the doctor and the gamer.

I did manage to succeed with peaches in brandy (ready in about a month), which resulted in a bit of leftover simple syrup that we put over ice cream and happily gobbled up.

Peaches - I'll have to consult with the marketeer to get 'em right the next time....

Ready in a month

Experimenting today - found new Italian canning jars (single lid variety from Bormioli, very Euro), and decided to try two new recipes: creme de cassis and eggplants in olive oil (from my "bible").

As usual, new recipes and new methods mean experimentation, and for the eggplant recipe I used a lovely, fruity Sciabica olive oil which I found at the farmer's market yesterday.

The creme de cassis is a huge experiment - couldn't find black currants so I used red and added a few blackberries for color.

We'll see how they both turn out in a month or so!

Is it Kir time?

I'm thinking of creme de cassis right now - any local (NoCal) sources for currants?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/dining/22currant.html

Fruity drinks at the farmette

While at the Sonoma farmette yesterday, I pulled out the frozen watermelon and plum juices yesterday to whip up a batch of drinks. The watermelon was light and frothy - especially with the addition of some lime juice and mint, freshly picked from the garden. For the plum, a dark rich purple jammy juice, I added a bit of basil that I'd gathered, and it really highlighted the sweet-sour of the juice. (Next time I might add a bit of seltzer or more ice to lighten the plum as some found it a bit too thick.)

We also had occasion to pick some more cucumbers as well as some green beens (tiny haricots verts ready to eat raw!) as well as eggplant and zucchini which the doctor grilled up to accompany the sausages and brats the marketeer had sourced from her North Beach butcher. The marketeer also brought along a few of her creations for the doctor and the gamer to try: cherries in wine and the apricot conserves. Being the marketeer, her preserves were beautifully labeled, unlike my scrawls using any indelible marker on hand. :) Time to up my game!

We had some fabulous wine and great conversation, enjoying the visiting sailor's tales of the South Pacific, especially his trip from Easter Island to Pitcairn. (I briefly wondered what food preserving might be like on that incredibly remote and isolated island!)

The marketeer and market goods

I had the great good fortune of spending some time yesterday with my friend the marketeer who has been on a canning roll in the last week: white peaches, apricots, strawberries, and (as of last night) cherries. Inspiration for some of this comes from the Eugenia Bone book, Well-Preserved, as well as Mes Confitures, by Christine Ferber. (Both of which were featured in the recent NY Times article; thanks to my incredibly generous friend, I now have copies of my own!) I love the focus on savory in the Bone book, and as the marketeer noted, the Ferber book has more of a preserved whole fruit approach which resembles that of my own preserving bible, the Oded Schwartz book, Preserving. I wonder if this is a more European approach to preserving?

We prepared cherries in wine last night, and while they'll have to sit for a little bit before we use them, I'm looking forward to sharing the bounty with the doctor once she returns from the wilds of Wisconsin.

In the meantime, I'm on the search for good fruit in alcohol recipes, so if anyone has ideas for recipes or sources for purchasing copious amounts of eau de vie (we will have a LOT of pears!), please post them here!