Birthday Burgers & Gifts in the Mail

I decided when I got up this morning that we were going to have burgers for dinner. Ridiculous burgers with everything on them including the kitchen sink.

What I didn't know when I got up was Mr. Mailman was going to deliver a package with homemade Bread and Butter Pickles and homemade Peach Preserves from Ann and Melinda!!

WOW!

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What a fabulous surprise! I immediately opened the box, opened the jars - and dug in! What a treat! These were not intended as a birthday present, but they did arrive on my birthday. I just love presents!

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And words will never do justice to the taste! I'm officially spoiled. They're sweet but not sweet, crunchy but tender. Perfect texture and perfect flavor. No other pickle will ever do. Ever.

And the preserves...

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This is stand-in-front-of-the-refrigerator-with-a-spoon-good! It is peaches. Fabulous, ripe peaches. No cloying sweetness - just give-me-more peaches. My grandmother made peach preserves when we were little and I always thought hers was the best on the planet. I think grandma may have met her match.

Wow, indeed!

So, tonight's burger didn't get peach preserves on it, but it did get a hefty helping pf pickles. And cheese, mayo, homemade Irish Whiskey mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, bacon, avocado, and red onion. On a poppy seed roll.

Fresh fruit doused with Fico d'India - prickly pear liqueur - helped balance the burger. I mean... I could have gone for french fries, but... I needed to save room for Carrot Cake!

Happy Birthday, to me! What a great day it has been!


Pre-Birthday Bash

Tomorrow is my 62nd birthday. I remember as a child of the '50s thinking that in the year 2000 I would be 48 years old. Ancient. Decrepit.

2000 came and went. Add 14 additional years and 62 doesn't seem all that bad. Other than a few aches and pains I'm hanging in there. It's all perspective, I guess...

I did a rare Sunday work, today, so Victor decided it was the perfect day to make me a birthday dinner!  And what a treat it was!

Several years ago, he found a recipe for Ricotta Rollatini - it's a sheet of pasta spread with a ricotta filling, rolled, boiled, sliced, and baked. Seriously one of the most fantastic pasta dishes on the planet. Mere words cannot explain the lightness and tenderness and sheer deliciousness! Even Nonna went back for seconds - and would have gone for another but she wanted to save room for cake!

The ingredients are simple, the actual preparation and cooking is a bit more complex - but it is totally worth the time and effort. Totally worth it!

Victor started out by making the dough...

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The recipe calls for rolling the dough with a rolling pin. Victor used his pasta machine and then just glued two sheets together...

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After it's rolled, no one knows the difference.

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From here, the roll gets wrapped in cheesecloth in preparation for its water bath...

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Now it gets tricky. You need a pot large enough to hold the rolls. Fortunately, we have a fish poacher we got from our friend, Ruth.

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After it cooks in the water, it comes out, cools, and then is sliced and placed in a baking dish with just a bit of sauce.

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Just unbelievably good.

Ricotta Rollatini

Pasta:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • water, if needed

Filling:

  • 4 oz diced prosciutto
  • 4 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
  • 1/2 cup grated Locatelli
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 minced flat-leaf parsley
  • freshly ground black pepper

Make pasta:

Mound flour on counter and make well. Add eggs and yolks and gradually work in the flour to make a firm but pliable dough, adding a few drops of water, if necessary. Divide into two pieces, cover, and let rest about 30 minutes.

Make filling:

Fry prosciutto until crisp. Drain and set aside.

Mix ricotta, eggs, cheese, pepper, and parsley. Stir in cooled prosciutto. Set aside.

Roll pasta to a 15″ x 7″ rectangle. If you have a pasta roller, bring it through to about 15″ on level three and then roll it width-wise to about 7″.

Spread half of filling on pasta sheet and brush ends and edge with egg. Roll jelly-roll style and seal ends and edge.

Repeat with second roll.

Wrap each pasta log in cheesecloth and tie ends with kitchen twine.

Lower into barely-boiling water and cook for 15 minutes.

Remove from water and place on racks to cool.

Remove cheesecloth and slice each roll into 3/4″ slices.

Cover bottom of baking dish with marinara sauce and lay out slices. Drizzle with marinara and sprinkle with additional grated Locatelli.

Cover with foil and bake until heated though – about 30 minutes at 350°.

Serve with additional sauce, if desired.

And then... because we had some eggplant, he decided to make Little Gram's Eggplant Appetizer.

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This is another awesome dish made by Marie's grandmother.

Little Gram's Eggplant Appetizer

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium eggplant
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 3/4 cups halved or chopped green olives
  • 3 cups thinned Italian tomato sauce
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 6 tablespoons vinegar
  • 1/4 chopped Locatelli cheese
  • 2 tablespoons capers
  • fresh basil and mint

Cut eggplant in strips the size of French fries. Salt and let stand about an a hour. Dry on a paper towel. Deep fry in hot oil. Keep oil as hot as possible without burning. Add eggplant one at a time and keep adding one at a time to keep the oil at the same temperature. Fry each one until tender and cooked. Drain on paper towels.

To Make Sauce:

Parboil celery for ten minutes. Add olives and cook another five minutes. Drain all water out of the pot. Add the thinned tomato sauce and boil for ten minutes. Add vinegar and sugar. Cook for three minutes. Add cheese. Make it come to a boil and then turn off heat and allow to cool.

Pour sauce over fried eggplants. Garnish with fresh Basil and mint that have been sliced into very thin strips.

And there's Carrot Cake for dessert.

In fact... time to stop typing and get a piece.

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It is really good to be me.

No question about it.


Corn Cakes

 

I was going through the links on the site today - seeing what was new and making sure they were all still current - when I got to David Lebovitz.

Now... I have been unashamedly in love with David since forever. He was the pastry chef at Chez Panisse for years, and his approach to desserts is everything I love - uncomplicated but intense. His Lemon Bars are the gold standard by which all others are judged.

So... while perusing his website I came across a recipe for Corn Cakes. Oh my goodness. I am a corn junkie. Fresh off the cob, ground up into corn chips or tortilla chips, corn bread, corn sticks, hushpuppies, or corn dogs, I loves me some corn.

I knew at that moment we were going to have them for dinner.

David warned that corn flour is not the same as corn meal - which I did know - but I did a bit more research since I always have masa harina on hand and learned it was not the same, either. Masa harina and corn flour look a lot alike, but they are different types of corn processed in very different ways. They are not interchangeable. Fortunately, corn flour is available right up the street from me.

So... armed with my bag of corn flour, I went to work. In absolutely no-time, I had corn cakes on the table. It's a ridiculously-easy recipe.

They were fantastic and as we were eating them we were thinking of other ways to use them - as in the base for a take on eggs benedict, for one... I would love a gooey runny yolk on one of these...

Fresh Corn Cakes

adapted from David Lebovitz who adapted it from Alice Waters

  • 1 1/2 cups corn flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 ears of fresh corn - about 2 cups
  • 2 large eggs, separated
  • 1 large egg white

Blend the corn flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

Warm the butter with the milk and honey, until the butter is melted. Set aside until barely warm.

When cool, stir it into the dry ingredients alomng with the 2 egg yolks, and the corn.

In a separate bowl, beat the 3 egg whites until stiff and then fold them completely into the corn mixture.

Heat a pat of butter in a skillet. Using a 1/4-cup ice cream scoop, scoop batter into the pan, spacing them comfortably apart.

Cook the cakes until browned on the bottom and starting to bubble around the edges - like a pancake. Flip the corn cakes and cook on the other side until lightly browned.

Serve with sour cream, if desired.

David added cayenne and hot peppers to his. I left both out as Nonna is no longer a fan of spice, but I'll definitely add some in next time I make them. And there will be a next time!

So thank you, David and thank you Alice. It was fun...

And speaking of fun... there's a couple more of your cook books I'm going to have to get real soon...

 


Fried Apple Pie

We have a work party coming up next week and I need to come up with a dessert for the Party Hearty Dessert Table. We thought it would be fun to have a bit of a dessert throw-down. I work with some pretty clever and creative folks, so I really need to think outside of the [Pillsbury Cake] box on this one.

It's a simple contest - no rules, no categories. Bring anything you want. You don't even have to make it, yourself. No rules.

But not having any rules or categories means that anything goes. And if anything goes, well... one needs to be a bit over-the-top if one wants to win.

Victor told me I should just make a pie - because he likes my pies. I like my pies, too - but this is war. Sorta.

On the other hand, I actually do make a fairly decent pie - and even won a 2nd Place in a Cherry Pie contest once upon a time... so... I started thinking about what I could do do make it award-worthy. I took a concept from my days at UCSF - If we fry it, they'll buy it - and the Fried Apple Pie was born.

The concept is pretty simple. Roll out your pie dough, add scoops of filling, cover with another crust, cut, crimp, and fry.

I didn't want it overly-sweet because I thought it would need a sugar-drizzle for looks when it was done. I also wanted to use one of the liqueurs we brought back from Sicily. No rules means it's fair game to use ingredients not readily available to the other entrants. There are moments when I have no morals or scruples, whatsoever. This is about fame and glory, after all...

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Apples blended with a cinnamon liqueur... How could it be bad?!?

It couldn't. And it wasn't. They came out awesome! Totally freaking awesome.

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But even though Victor and Nonna both loved them, I'm not sure if they're totally award-winning awesome and not just merely really freakin' good. This is tough. Low as they may be, I do have standards and if I'm going to throw morals and scruples to the wind it had better be a pretty heavy wind.

Dilemma, dilemma...

So I'm going to have to think about this. I still have three days before the event - that's plenty of time to completely over-complicate this and drive Victor crazy. And in the meantime, we have a pretty awesome dessert to finish up!

Fried Apple Pie

  • 2 granny smith apples
  • 2 braeburn apples
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 3 tbsp Cannella - cinnamon liqueur
  • pinch salt
  • 1 egg - for sealing
  • oil for frying

Make crusts - or buy them if you must - and roll into two equally-sized rectangles.

Peel and slice apples and cut to about a 1/4" dice. Mix in the liqueur and then the sugar, flour, butter, and pinch of salt.

Place small scoops of filling evenly-spaced along the first piece of dough in neat rows. The neat rows are important.

Beat the egg, and with a pastry brush, brush between the scoops of filling in both directions, making sure to get the edges, as well.

Carefully cover with the second piece of dough. Press firmly along the edges of each pie and cut with a fluted pastry cutter or pizza wheel. Or use a sharp knife.

To cook... in a small pan heat about 3" of oil to 360°F. Carefully add 2 pies and cook about 4 minutes, or until crispy-browned. Place on rack to drain and continue with the rest.

When cool, mix a bit of powdered sugar with milk and a splash of vanilla and drizzle over.

So... I just ate another one - totally for research purposes - and I'm beginning to think maybe they are award-worthy...

And maybe if I made them smaller...

Stay tuned.


Bastille Day

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It's difficult to believe it's been 10 years since we were last in Paris. That's a long time to be away from such a beautiful place... I think it may be time to head back for a visit.

We were there for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. I'd love to be there For Bastille Day! D-Day was a very somber and moving experience. I imagine Bastille Day to be a bit more raucous!

The Bastille...

It was torn down 225 years ago, but the very name evokes the pride and power of the French people as they rose against the King and the ruling classes.

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Paris really is a beautiful city. Parisians get a really bad rap but they are really nothing more than New Yorkers who speak French. They don't suffer fools but can be extremity helpful and friendly if treated with just a little bit of courtesy. I went armed with two simple phrases "Pardonnez-moi, parlez-vous anglais?" and "Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas Français." and folks went out of their way to help us. It really would be nice to make another trip over there...

In the meantime, I get to relive the trip and think of where I'd like to go, again... Maybe see inside Versailles... the workers were on strike when we were there and we only got to see the grounds. I can imagine Louis XVI sitting on a veranda while the Bastille was being ransacked and the gunpowder being taken to fuel the revolution.

But I digress...

Bastille Day 2014 and I didn't think of cooking anything special until it was almost time to start cooking dinner. I was actually thinking breakfast for dinner, tonight, so I rearranged things and made quiche!  C'est très Français!

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I went crustless because I was feeling just a tad lazy, but a couple of eggs, milk, bacon, spinach, cheese, and French herbs sent me dreaming for a little cafe in the Marais where I could have a real one.

I'm going to have to start thinking about how we could pull this off...

 

 

 


Blueberry Peach Pie

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I had planned to make a blueberry caramel the other day, based on the raspberry caramel I made last week. Notice I said planned. I didn't make it. I also had a half-dozen peaches that needed eating.

Now... I could have made a simple fruit salad and left it at that - but to paraphrase Tina Turner... we never ever do nothing nice and easy... It was time to bake a pie.

I thought of several possibilities, from crumb-top to lattice-topped to a biscuit-topped cobbler, but in the end, a traditional pie won out. A not overly-sweet traditional pie, I might add. I like my sweets, no question about it, but with fresh fruit, I want to taste the fruit. If it's good, it's sweet enough, already. And if it's not good, no amount of sugar is going to make it better.

I made my standard pie crust and while it was relaxing in the refrigerator, I went to work on the filling.

I did a quick blanch-and-peel on the peaches and cut them into fairly thick slices. Ofttimes I will leave fruit unpeeled because I actually like the taste and texture of the peel, but this time around I went for it. I used a mixture of brown and white sugar and a bit of vanilla. No other spices. Feel free to add what you like, but I thought the fruit was too good to mask.

Pie Dough

for a double crust:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/3 cup cake flour
  • 1/2 lb butter, frozen
  • pinch salt
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 3 tbsp ice water
  • 3 tbsp chilled vodka

Using a food processor, add flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse to mix.

Chop up frozen butter and add. Pulse until butter is incorporated and mixture looks grainy.

Slowly add ice water and vodka. Pulse until mixed.

Turn out onto counter. Press and form mixture into 2 disks . Wrap in plastic and refrigerate about an hour to allow the flour to properly absorb the water and to relax the gluten.

Roll out crust and place in pie plate. Crimp edges and fill.

It really does make a difference refrigerating the pie dough. I usually end up pulling it out at 30 minutes, but an hour is best.

Today, I made a goodly amount of filling because I was using up what I had in the house and I was using a 10' deep pie plate. And I used it all. The pie bubbled over, but I had placed it on a sheet pan, so it was not a problem. You can definitely get by with less. Adjust sugars and flour, accordingly.

Blueberry Peach Pie

  • 6 medium peaches
  • 1 1/2 lbs blueberries
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 3 tbsp butter, melted
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • pinch salt

Peel and thickly-slice peaches. With clean hands, gently mix in blueberries and remaining ingredients until well-blended.

Pile into prepared pie shell and cover with second crust. Crimp edges to seal and cut steam vents into top.

Place into a preheated 425° oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375° and bake an additional 50 minutes - or until crust is browned and filling is bubbling and cooked.

Cool completely before cutting.

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This went over well. Really well.

When I was a little kid my grandmother would occasionally give me a piece of homemade peach pie and vanilla ice cream for breakfast. It wasn't all of the time and she rationalized that it really was no different than a peach danish and a glass of milk.

I'm thinkin' grandma would approve if I had a piece of this tomorrow morning...

 

 

 

 


Sausage, Peppers, and Boursin

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Last night was subs. Sausage and onion and peppers subs. And boursin cheese.

Every now and again I have to take something pretty basic and traditional and throw  wrench into it. This time, it was the boursin.

Boursin was très élégant back in the day - along with Mateus Rosè. It was like the first adult cheese and having a Boursin Burger was really hip and cool. Really. No making fun. We didn't have Pinterest and Facebook and the internet to instantly see what gastronomical delights were being devoured in Sicily. Food was still local. It was before the celebrity-chef-of-the-moment and 1001 ways coconut oil will make your life perfect.

And that crockery Mateus bottle - perfect for candles when you didn't have a straw-covered chianti bottle - showed you had graduated from Boones Farm. Playing grown-up was so much fun.

Fast-forward a few years and I still buy boursin. Mateus?!? Nah. I still like Chianti, however, albeit a little better quality...

Boursin is still a go-to cheese for mixing into mashed potatoes or melting over vegetables. It makes an instant sauce for steaks and is great in macaroni and cheese.

And stuffed into a burger. Can't forget that one.

 

 


Dinner with Old Friends

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It is so much fun seeing old friends. Susan and I first met in 1989 when we worked together at San Francisco General Hospital. She was a registered dietitian and I was a food service supervisor. What a wild place it was. From the AIDS wards to the prison wards, crack babies to naked people coming into the Emergency Department on any number of drugs, gun shots and trauma, there was never a dull moment. It was actually fascinating. looking back. However, while I was there, I think my main goal was just to stay out of the Director's way. To say that the place was disorganized and morale was always low would be painting a rosy picture. It was a difficult job, but we always made the best of it - and did a great job in spite of the many obstacles.

You know how jobs are often about who you know?!? Well... that's how I was originally hired. Bob, the manager who interviewed me, was best friends with Wayne, who I had recently worked with at the Westin in Indianapolis. Bob called Wayne, Wayne said hire him, and Bob hired me.

I ended up going to UCSF a year later - I was a provisional employee with the city with no prospects of getting on permanent - and needed to get into a retirement system.

In the meantime, Susan met a cute Dr named Rob who has become a renowned robotic cardiac surgeon. Two kids and a half-dozen cities later, they may be moving east and becoming our neighbors - or, at least, neighbors withing an hour's drive! And we're all still friends.

It's amazing how things work out.

Susan sent me an email saying they were going to be back here doing some interviewing and we needed to get together for dinner. She said they'd take us out. I said we'd cook. It's easier to sit around and talk for hours when there's not a waiter hovering, ya know?!?

Besides. We like to cook. And they brought along their friend Patty who is also an SFGH alumni. She is a Respiratory Therapist. We didn't know each other at General, but we all became fast friends tonight.

We chose a rather eclectic menu - a couple of goodies from our Sicily trip, and a couple of favorites. And an awesome dessert.

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We started off with the Focaccia Ragusa - two varieties, peppers and eggplant. It has become one of my most favorite things to eat.

Focaccia Ragusata

(makes two)

  • 9 oz all-purpose flour (Italian “00″ if you have it!)
  • 5/8 cup warm water
  • 1/2 tsp yeast
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • pinch salt

Proof yeast in warm water. Add flour, salt, and oil, and mix well. Knead about 5-6 minutes or until a smooth, elastic dough forms. Roll into a ball, cover, and let rest 30 minutes.

Divide dough in half and roll into a large, very thin circle. Spread with a very thin layer of tomato sauce and then top with a thin layer of ricotta. Add slices of fried eggplant.

Fold sides to almost meet in the center. Brush new tops with a bit of sauce and cheese. Fold in half, again, and press lightly to seal. Paint a bit of sauce on top.

Put into a preheated 475° oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until dark brown. Take out of the oven and cover with a towel to trap steam and soften the top.

I tell ya - it is one easy dish to make. And it's really, really good.

The second thing to come back from Sicily was the Bresaola and Arugula pictured above. This is i=one of those pure genius recipes. All it is is bresaola wrapped around arugula and drizzled with olive oil and a bit of parmesan cheese. I placed them on thick slabs of beefsteak tomato. Really, really good.

Then the eclectic started...

Phoebe's Baked Beans. My go-to baked beans for years, now. They are perfectly spicy and always a crowd-pleaser.

Phoebe's Baked Beans

  • 1/2 cup minced shallots
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1/2 cup tomato puree (I use tomato paste – I never have puree in the house!)
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons molasses
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped
  • 2 (28-ounce) cans baked beans

Preheat oven to 300°.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shallots; sauté 4 minutes or until golden. Add cumin and garlic; sauté for 1 minute. Add tomato puree and oil, and cook for 2 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Add remaining ingredients (except beans.). Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine beans and shallot mixture in a 2-quart baking dish. Bake at 300° for 1 hour or until thick and bubbly.

And a couple of coffee-rubbed tri-tips. The first one was a bit over done. That's what happens when you're talking instead of paying attention to cooking. Oh well. It was still really good - and the second one came out better.

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And what's a summer gathering without corn on the cob?!? I made a sun-dried tomato butter to spread over it. Pretty good stuff - and the kids loved it!

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I used a small food processor to chop the ingredients and then just smooshed them into a cube of butter.

Sun-Dried Tomato Butter

  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 2 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes in oil
  • 2 tbsp fresh basil
  • 2 tbsp Italian parsley
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/2 tsp pepper

Finely mince all ingredients and fold into softened butter.

You can add anything to a cube of butter. Anything.

And then when we were all nice and full, we had dessert. Grilled peaches with homemade lemon ricotta and raspberry caramel.

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This rocked the casbah.

Victor made his fabulous fresh ricotta and added just enough lemon and sugar to make it even more awesome than it normally is. I mean, awesome.

Fresh Ricotta

1 cup heavy cream
3 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

Add all ingredients to a heavy pot and simmer 15-20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 30 minutes.

Scoop curds into a cheesecloth-lined sieve and drain about 30 minutes. Squeeze to remove as much whey as possible.

Cover and chill.

Omit the sugar and lemon for a traditional ricotta.

And then the raspberry caramel...

Raspberry Caramel

  • 2 cups raspberries
  • 3/4 cup sugar + 2 tbsp
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tbsp Chambord
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of raspberries with 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of water. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the berries start to burst.
Smash them as they cook until they are nearly smooth. Whisk in the cream, raspberry liqueur, vanilla and salt. Strain out the seeds.

In a medium saucepan, combine 3/4 cup of sugar with 1/4 cup of water. Cook over moderate heat, swirling the pan and brushing down the side with a wet pastry brush, until the sugar dissolves.

Cook undisturbed until an amber caramel forms, about 7 minutes. Add the raspberry cream and simmer, whisking, until the caramel is smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.

Let cool slightly, then stir in the remaining 1 cup of raspberries; let cool to room temperature.

 

This works over grilled peaches, over pie or cake, and as a fantastic ice cream topping. You can switch out the berries to just about any fruit you can imagine.

So we ate, talked, laughed, and ate some more. Great fun and a great time.

Can't wait to do it, again. Of course, we need to get Bob back here, as well...