Summer Fruit Galette (Tuesdays with Dorie)

These nectarines and pluots are perfect. And the galette makes them even better.

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie event, Michelle from Michelle in Colorado Springs selected Summer Fruit Galette on pages 366 - 367 of Dorie's book.

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A few entries ago, I made this crust for the blueberry pie. Here's what I did...mind you, I don't know if I'm doing this correctly... Measure dry ingredients and place in the food processor unit (with blade). Cover with plastic wrap and let chill in freezer with the butter and shortening (on separate plate). Process together until small bits appear. Slowly add ice water (from a container of water with 4-5 ice cubes in it). When dough will clump together in your hand, dump onto plastic wrap - it will look loose. Use the plastic wrap to gather together (you can see little flecks of fat in the dough). Let chill in refrig.

After a nice rest in the refrig, I rolled out the dough, covered it with plastic and left it chilling overnight.


The next morning, I place some apricot jam and graham cracker crumbs on the dough. I used 4 nectarines and 2 pluots from my farmer's market. Fold over the sides and sprinkle with sanding sugar.

Midway through, I added some custard filling. I used less than half of the filling...and just waited for it to bake! This was delicious! I want to try it with a dozen different fruits.

Be sure to check out the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers!

P.S. I just got back from a great library conference (Digipalooza 2008) in Cleveland. As Drew Carey says, Cleveland Rocks! I had a great time at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame + Museum - Reading a letter by college freshman Madonna is classic, and Jimi Hendrix's childhood drawing of a UCLA Football player (Go Bruins!) is the best. And I won a Creative MP3 player! You know that one house on the street that all the kids go to on Halloween because they give the best candy? Well, Digipalooza is THAT conference and more. Excellent panels and presenters (really, I learned a ton!), yummy food, embossed swag, fun outings, and the killer part...full-size Snicker bars at breaks. :)

However, I came back to Los Angeles with a cold and a very unhappy cat who I am trying to get to take 28 antibiotics...and she's putting up a fierce fight. Greenie pill pockets? She thought they were frozen pizza and turned her nose at those. Cocktail of liquid antibiotics? It was sugarfree Rock Star to her (Remember this Brian?) and spit it out...all over my duvet cover. I'm down to trying this kitty-TMJ inducing technique but it's not going well. I'll let you know how my recently diagnosed kidney-disease kitty is doing later...

Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler (Tuesdays with Dorie)

Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler
Rhubarb... who knew?

I'm a native Southern California girl...growing up with two lemon (one Meyer, one regular), lime, Fuyu persimmon, avocado, and guava trees in the backyard. My neighbor had a peach tree that hung perfectly near our playhouse. And we even had passion fruits growing near the front porch. I'm still in So Cal, visiting my farmer's market weekly to find excellent locally grown stone fruits, figs, grapes and delightful cherries and strawberries. I'm also in a serious committed relationship with the mango, papaya and lychee fruit.

Therefore, rhubarb and I never crossed paths.

When I told my co-workers I was going to have to find rhubarb for this recipe, someone said, "Isn't rhubarb for those people who don't have real fruit near them?" (Okay, I'll admit, that someone was me).

I did find organic rhubarb at Whole Foods ($5.99/pound!!) so I bought one stalk. When I was checking out, the cashier said she had just sold some...and that she also got a call from someone looking for rhubarb! So, if you are a Torrance, California TWD baker, shot out to you!

How did it turn out? I just pulled it out of the oven and tried it...and I really couldn't tell. I made 1/4 of the recipe, but I think I used too much ground ginger. So everything tasted a little gingery (which is great), but it may have masked the true flavor of the rhubarb. The topping was great! I'll definitely use that again...probably with some stone fruits - especially the mango-flavored nectarines I get at the Farmer's Market.

Yum!

Blackberry Crumb Squares

Blackberry Crumb Squares

I bought a new white square serving tray. Yes, I must have missed the sale at Barney and settled for something white from my local kitchen supply store.

So, square food for the square tray!

Here is the recipe: Blackberry Crumb Bars from Everyday Food

Made in an 8 x 8 pan, this was a very simple recipe. Bottom batter, fresh blackberries and a crumb topping (refrigerated for a bit)

Seriously, isn't the blackberry beautiful? Those perfect spheres of goodness are just perfect!

P.S. Shout out to Sunshine in Duluth...who is NOT in Los Angeles yet. Oh, the planning. I thought for weeks now that Sunshine was arriving tomorrow (Tuesday) in Long Beach for a conference. We made plans to go to dim sum and everything...but she is actually arriving next Tuesday. Bummer! (And I saved some of these squares for you!)

Berry-Lemon Bundt Cake (Everyday Food)

Yippee!
Project Runway's 5th season starts tonight!

I had a meeting at work this morning so I made a Berry-Lemon Bundt Cake from Everyday Food. You can find the recipe here.

John B. originally made it with 2 cups of fresh blueberries but I made it with 2 cups of frozen mixed berries from Trader Joe's (left overs from the cobbler). I lost a bit of the top coming out the pan, but that just provided a window to the cake! :)

There are two sticks of butter, one cup of sour cream, and 1 cup each of sugar and brown sugar. How can that NOT taste good? Just have a small slice and it's all good.

On the PBS show, John makes a glaze of 1/4 cup lemon juice + 2 1/2 cup powdered sugar - this isn't mentioned in the recipe, but was a nice addition. (I made mine with too much lemon juice so it was a bit runny).

Cake for Breakfast!

Ultimate Ginger Cookies

I Love Me The Ginger Cookie

My ever increasing love for ginger continues...with these Ultimate Ginger Cookies. (You can find the Barefoot Contessa's recipe here)

a. 1 1/4 cups of crystallized ginger make this a yummy cookie.
b. Lots of spices including ground ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.
c. The dough is pretty sticky and hard to mix...I broke my spatula!
d. I used an ice cream scoop to makes these blobs of dough. Then they were dipped in sugar.

Moist and chewy. I wish you could smell them!

This was super easy to make and has no dairy (uses oil instead of butter) but one egg. Try it!

Chocolate Pudding - Tuesdays with Dorie

Pure and simple. Pure and delicious.

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Chocolate Puddin'! Melissa from It's Melissa's Kitchen has picked this wonderful recipe from Dorie's book (page 383) and you can find the recipe on her blog.

This is a recipe that can be made all year long - and eaten every day... which is exactly what happened to me.

I made half the recipe (three ramekins) on Saturday. I planned to offer one to my friend who came to the South Bay for a visit to the Curry House...but I completely forgot. I ended up eating all the pudding!

It is super easy to make using a food processor, but many other bakers have had luck using their KitchenAid mixer, blender or elbow grease and a big whisk (Note to 2.46%: Since you are lacking in all electrical appliances, this is your option! :).

Give it a try! You won't be disappointed.

Elite Restaurant Dim Sum, Monterey Park, CA

Yet another friend leaves Los Angeles for places far away...my heart is sad, but momentarily consoled a bit because this good-bye involves eating a delicious meal.

Jonathan Gold said Elite Restaurant in Monterey Park is better than The Kitchen, Alhambra (which I visited in April 2008). And, who could doubt a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist? Not me. Mr. Gold, you saved us again.

By the way, Cris, who is leaving Los Angeles to take a job in her native Portland (I'm in denial about the whole thing), is really going to miss the variety of ethnic food in Los Angeles...she recently read a review of a Mexican food place in Portland. It said, no kidding here, "put the cilantro on your taco and squeeze lime juice on it - really, it's good that way." Oh dear. Dear Mr. Jonathan Gold, could you clone yourself for Portland?! Cris needs someone who has reviewed all the taco trucks! If anyone has recommendations for good ethnic food in Portland, pass 'em along!

There were nine of us, so we ordered a bunch of stuff. As the name implies, this is elite dim sum (hee hee) and you order off a menu - no carts. Here's the take:

Round One:

Shark's Fin & Red Clam Dumpling
Click here for the internal view

Vermicelli Singapore Style
I could eat this everyday. Every meal in fact.



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1. Deep "Fired" Bean Curd "Warp" (This was our favorite misspelling. Who cares about the spelling? It was delicious. Sorta like a laminated dough/puff pastry of bean curd!)
2. "Fired" (or Fried) Taro Cake
3. Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce

4. Baby Bok Choy with Fish Stock

Elite BBQ Pork Bun

The breather between round 1 and round 2. Insert a serious discussion of fire fighters, how the DVR transcends the time-space continuum, and the uncanny ability of pre-schoolers to use the remote.

Round Two:

Macau Roasted Pork
One word: Suc-cu-lent

Shredded Pork Rice Noodle


Baked Durian Pie
The menu said "Duran" so it was the Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes pie. Here is an internal pic. The durian filling (from the smelliest fruit on the earth) wasn't Cheryl's favorite. I thought it was okay but the crust was too greasy.


Sesame Balls with White Bean Filling
If there was an election for favorite dim sum dessert, my bumper sticker would read: "Sesame '08"


Pan Friend Turnip cake with X.O. Sauce (Nikki's favorite!)


Crystal Sweet Cake (although not what we were expecting when we ordered it, this was a light jello with flowers) and Fresh Mango Pudding (if Mango is on anywhere on the menu, it's in front of me)


Snow Bun with Almond Flavor
Delightful. In a little cloud of heaven.

Yes, we ate even more food. We also had: Crystal Shrimp Har Gow, Pork Shui-Mai, Bean Curd Wrap (yummy!), Steamed Turnip Cake (get this! get this!), and egg custard tarts (Cris' favorite)

Elite Restaurant
700 S. Atlantic Blvd.
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 282-9998

Eat Drink & Be Merry's blog has a review from 2007. His photos are much, much better! Take a look!