In Memory of Ted Kennedy

A sad day for the United States. We have lost one of our greatest law makers. Rest in peace, Ted Kennedy.

Super Millionaire - Double Dipping

Double Dipping is de rigeur. Bob does it here, Assemblyman Weisenberg does it in Long Beach, and today, Blue Heron Kitchen is double dipping with a recipe from one of our own farmers!

Zappa Plays Zappa - "Peaches En Regalia (Live)"

Ultimate peach crumb cake is in the oven at Blue Heron Kitchen.
peach and love,
jane

Ultimate Peach Crumb Cake (en regalia)

This summer's peaches are extraordinary. I combined yellow, white and donut peaches to make this perfect and simple peach crumb cake that can be adapted to other fruits as they appear in the market.

Ingredients that are available at the market are asterisked. Support our farmers! If you're raising your eyebrows a little because the prices are slightly higher than at Waldbaums, just don't. The produce at the farmer's market is brought by individual farmers and is grown in small quantities. The quality is extraordinary. Much of it isn't sprayed. And the taste is incomparable. Truly. It's the way fruit and vegetables should taste. When you bite into a donut peach at Red Jacket Orchards, and the juices run down the side of your mouth or when you bite into a sweet and crisp ear of just picked corn from Carucci Farms or an organic mushroom from Dan Madura, you'll become a farmer's market member for life. Eat pickles, live longer! A whoopie pie never hurt anyone.

Check out the recipe below for BLUE FISH, just published in today's Times. I heart blue fish. But get to Casey's early - he runs out of blue fish quickly. It has all the good for you oils and it's a real recession buster too. Don't think it's too stinky .. it's not. When it's fresh and cooked well, blue fish tastes fabulous. Try this recipe and leave a comment.

Don't forget to stop by the Market Manager's table and tell Bernadette what an angel she is and how she has single-handedly changed the lives of so many people around here because of the market.

peace and love,

jane

Ultimate Peach Crumb Cake

Adapted by Blue Heron Kitchen from Gourmet Magazine

The fragrance and perfume of peaches will permeate your home when you bake this perfect peach crumb cake. Use fresh peaches from the market. As they come into season, be creative and substitute other fruits such as berries or apricots or a mixture of several fruits. When apples come into season, this will be fabulous! And you can play with the crumbs! Add some chopped candied ginger (or powdered ginger) – which pairs well with peaches. Throw in some sliced, toasted almonds (also a fantastic marriage with peaches). This will be great with pears in the fall. Just add a little Poire William instead of vanilla extract to the batter.

This rivals any ‘ultimate crumb’ you’ve ever tasted, and you can pronounce every ingredient!

Serve this warm, at room temperature, ‘as is’ (if it makes it out of the cake pan), with some vanilla ice cream or some whipped cream.

Ingredients for crumb topping:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

6 oz. unsalted butter, 83 % European style preferred, softened

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Ingredients for cake:

8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, 83% European style preferred, softened

1 1/3 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs*, room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

6 large ripe peaches* (about 2 1/2 pounds), peeled, sliced about ¼ - ½” thickness and then

cut in half

Procedure:

Make the topping: In a food processor combine the flour, the brown sugar, the butter, and the cinnamon and pulse the motor until the topping is combined well and crumbly. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350º F.

Butter and flour a 9 x 13- inch baking pan.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter and the granulated sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, add the vanilla extract and the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add flour/baking powder/salt mixture to the batter and mix until just combined, taking care to not over mix.

Spread it evenly in the pan. (An offset spatula works perfectly.) Arrange the peaches evenly over the batter, sprinkle the topping over them, and bake the cake in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean.

Bluefish With Lemon-Almond Butter and Swiss Chard

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Bluefish fillets*, 6 to 8 ounces each, preferably center cut and about 3/4-inch thick

Kosher salt and black pepper

1/4 tsp. grated lemon* zest

1 tsp. fresh thyme* leaves

1 Tbsp. butter, cut into bits

2 Tbsp. slivered almonds

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 garlic cloves*, minced

1 large bunch Swiss chard*, ribs removed, leaves torn into pieces

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Lemon wedges, for serving.

1. Preheat oven to 400º F. Place fish skin-side down on a rimmed baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Smear lemon zest all over fillets and sprinkle with thyme. Dot top of fish with butter and sprinkle with almonds. Roast until fish is just opaque and almonds are starting to brown at edges, 6 to 9 minutes.

2. While fish cooks, sauté chard. Heat oil in a skillet and add garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper. Let cook for 30 seconds, then add chard. Sauté until chard is very tender, about 5 minutes. If pan starts to dry out before chard is cooked, mix in a tablespoon of water. Season with more salt, pepper and nutmeg. And serve with fish and lemon wedges.

Yield: 2 servings.

Aout You

August ... ("Aout" or "oo" in French)

Aout You!

from Blue Heron Kitchen.

peace and love,
jane

Aout You

Aout You

Aout (pronouned "oo") (It's French, silly) is here, and I've been cooking up an aouray of salads and a chowder too for friends and family, thanks to our fabulous farmers at the Kennedy Plaza Farmers Market in Long Beach. The market is open every Wednesday from 10-7, and the variety and bounty is peaking. Ingredients you can purchase at the market are asterisked*.

What's going on in the kitchen has so much to do with aroma. The scent of basil, parsley, mint, cilantro and fresh fruit .. punctuated by some sugar cookies and wild flowers... how can anyone claim they don't like summer?

Today, I cooked some corn chowder. There are a zillion corn chowder recipes .. all interesting and good. Last week, I published one for roasted corn chowder . But this one, I created in about 15 minutes, and it's really good. You'll need good chicken stock (I make my own, using good quality chicken ... Murray's Chicken - go to the link and check it out. It's a nice piece of chicken.)

Corn Chowder, Blue Heron Kitchen

When corn is peaking, and you’ve bought more corn than you know what to do with, here’s a rapid chowder. Very easy too.

If you don’t have homemade stock, use low sodium organic chicken broth. But the next time it rains, make chicken stock. It takes a couple of hours, and you can freeze it in containers and ice cube trays.

Ingredients:

4 oz. slab bacon

6 ear of corn*, kernels removed (but keep 3 of the cobs to cook in the soup)

½ yellow pepper*, diced

2 medium potatoes* (not baking type), peeled and diced

2 cups homemade chicken stock, or alternatively, good quality low-sodium organic chicken broth

½ cup whole milk (organic is best)

kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

Procedure:

Sauté bacon until browned and remove from soup pot. (Discard the bacon)

Sauté diced potatoes, yellow pepper and potatoes in rendered bacon fat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables begin to lose their raw quality and just start to brown.

Add 2 cups of chicken broth and 3 cobs. Simmer, partially covered for 20-30 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Cool slightly. Remove and discard the cobs.

Remove 3 cups of mixture and purée in a blender.

Return to the soup pot and add ½ cup of whole milk.

Season with freshly ground white pepper and kosher salt, heating gently. (Don’t boil soups that have milk!)

Yield: approx. 2 quarts

The rice noodle/squid* salad is light and refreshing. You can substitute shrimp* or scallops* or even chicken if squid makes you gag. I like squid.

Rice Noodles with Squid and Herbs

Adapted from Gourmet, August 2009, by Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 lb. cleaned squid*, bodies cut into 1/3” thick rings and tentacles halved

8 oz. dried rice-stick noodles (vermicelli)

6 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

5 Tbsp. Asian fish sauce

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. hot red pepper flakes

6 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp kosher salt (more or less, to taste)

1 small carrot*, peeled and grated

1 Kirby cucumber*, seeded and sliced into thin half-moons

2 scallions*, thinly sliced

1 cup mixed coarsely chopped herbs such as mint*, basil* and cilantro*

Procedure:

Whisk together lime juisce, fish sauce, sugar, hot red pepper flakes and vegetable oil. Add salt, to taste. Add grated carrot. Set aside or this dressing may be made several hours in advance and refrigerated.

Cook squid in a 5-qt. pot of well-salted boiling water, stirring once, until just opaque, about 1 minute.

Transfer with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to stop cooking, reserving boiling water in pot.

Boil noodles in same water until just tender, about 3 minutes.

When squid is cool, gently lift from the ice bath with your hands, gently squeezing water from the squid and transfer to the serving dish.

Drain noodles, then transfer to ice bath to stop cooking. Drain well, then snip with kitchen shears 2 or 3 times.

Mix together drained and snipped noodles and squid. Add sliced Kirby cucumber, sliced scallions and chopped herbs. Pour dressing and toss.

I make bulghur wheat salad by soaking Bob's Red Mill brand whole grain bulghur (Fairway carries a huge amount of their line, but local markets like Bob's Natural and Associated also carry some Bob's Red Mill stuff. Or you can order Bob's Red Mill products , which, by the way, are of the finest - check out the site! - online), chopping up massive quantities of mint*, parsley* and cilantro*, throw in diced white and tender part of scallions*, lots of lemon juice and excellent quality olive oil. Toss in whole cherry tomatoes* and diced Kirby cucumbers* (but take out the seeds first). When you think you've added enough lemon juice, add more. This salad is always a crowd pleaser. It keeps well and it travels well too.

For your pesto, toast (and cool) your nuts first. I combine walnuts and pine nuts. Use the best quality pasta you can find and DON'T overcook it. NEVER rinse it with cold water. That washes away the starch and the starch is why stuff sticks to the pasta. Make a big batch of pesto, but DON'T grate in the cheese. You can freeze it in small batches without the cheese. Add pesto to whatever you'd like .. pasta, fish, meat, legumes, veggies, smear it on baguette and broil it. But grate the cheese to taste, after you've added the pesto base ... to taste. Always use the best quality cheese. Always. And you don't have to always add cheese.

Peel and grate a raw beet* on the large side of the grater (or if you're chicken, do it in the food processor). Toss in feta, chopped mint*, some lemon juice and muscat vinegar (or add a little orange juice if you don't have a sweet--ish vingegar), some extra virgin olive oil, chopped parsley* and/or cilantro*. For fun, you can add some chopped toasted walnuts and some golden raisins. This is tart/sweet/crunchy/refreshing and it's almost confusing. And it's gorgeous!

peace and love,

jane