Peach Blueberry Cobbler

 

I love the late summer when peaches and blueberries are in abundance, and I love that these two flavors taste so good together. I was able to get fresh peaches and blueberries at the farmer's market last week and used them to make a fruit cobbler. 

Before I get into the recipe though I must offer this explanation about the differences between a cobbler, a crumble, and a crisp: a cobbler has a biscuit topping; a crumble has a topping of butter and sugar; and a crisp has a topping with butter, sugar, and oats. Additionally we have buckles and Bettys. Buckles have the topping and fruit baked together (causing them to buckle); Bettys (like crumbles) have no oats, but the fruit and crumble are layered (source The Farmer's Almanac) 

And now, back to our recipe. I got this one from the New York Times Cooking Page. It calls for hazelnut flour which I did not have, but I did have some almond flour in the cupboard which I was able to substitute effectively. Otherwise I followed the recipe as written. James whipped some cream for us as a topping. A lovely dessert to complement our pasta dinner made with fresh pesto. So much goodness from the garden.

Cú Chulainn Pasta

Basil, garlic, and squash fresh from the garden!

Saturday was Lammas, a celebration of the late summer harvest. On Sunday and Monday I harvested garlic from my garden and then I got out my trusty Wicca Cookbook and found a recipe that in addition to the garlic used two other ingredients that I could get from my own backyard - yellow squash and basil. This also called for some other ingredients (some additional herbs, as well as carrots and zucchini) that I did not have, and so I simply did without. Nevertheless, this was a delicious, light meal for a summer's eve. I started by mincing and sautéing the garlic in lemon-infused olive oil and butter while I cooked the spaghetti. I sliced the squash very thin and added it to the skillet. Once the pasta was cooked I drained it and added it to the skillet as well, along with minced basil leaves. I let everything cook for a few minutes while I gently stirred. I served this directly onto plates, topped with parmesan cheese, and added a sprig of basil to garnish. Pleasing to the eye and the palate. 

Red Beans and Rice

I decided to make red beans and rice when I realized we had quite a few cans of kidney beans in the pantry. I turned to trusty Deborah Madison for a recipe. Of course her recipe called for dry beans with overnight soaking which wasn't necessary with canned beans, so I did my best to adapt the recipe using the canned beans. It was good news that we had the rest of the ingredients on hand (or some reasonable substitution) since our grocery store trip wasn't scheduled until the day after I made this.

I started by dicing a small onion, one garlic clove, a stalk of celery and the rest of a red bell pepper that I had used in a recipe last week. I sauteéd the vegetables in Chipotle Olive Oil. Once the veggies were soft I added some bay leaves, thyme, oregano, parsley, and some salt and pepper. I let it all cook on low for about 20 minutes and then added the beans and then cooked for another 7 minutes.

Meanwhile I cooked the rice, which turned out to be a bigger project than it should have been. I left the heat on too high and the water evaporated before the rice fully cooked, so I added some more water and turned the heat down, and then I had to do it again, and again, and again. Some to the individual rice grains had burned to the bottom of the pan, but we just scraped them off added them to the rest and called it cajun.

Creamsicle Dreamsicle

And is that with a Y or an I? So many questions, but they are not important once we have this in front of us, to start the birthday weekend festivities.

For those playing along at home, yes: the second full month of social distancing has included a birthday, and anniversary, and another birthday. Numbers adding up to, well, a number.

Pam found this delish recipe on delish, instigating a little panic when we realized we had not done anything about our lack of Triple Sec (I've somehow been making waffles without it).

We gathered the ingredients this week -- using appropriate Covid-19 protocols, strictly enforced. And I followed the recipe exactly, using one-half of each ingredient to provide a moderate serving for each of us. Minor chores and further celebrating are on the agenda, after all!

This was very easy and as delicious as it sounds.

Yet another frittata

On one of his early pandemic shopping trips James brought back a big tub full of fresh baby spinach expecting that we would find some uses for it. He was right, and it has since become a staple of his biweekly grocery runs. We have not only been looking for recipes in which to use it, but have also started putting it by the handful on our sandwiches in lieu of lettuce.

I originally found the recipe for this frittata from Food52 on a listicle from Huffington Post called "The Only 40 Egg Recipes you'll ever need" (I have prepared some of the others which you can find here).  The frittata called for chorizo but I just used regular sausage because it was what we had. I used canned chickpeas, and didn't roast the red pepper (even though James actually kind of likes to do that). I sautéed the pepper instead along with the onions and garlic.

The meal was quick, relatively easy, filling and delicious.

Cod Cakes - NYT

Today's linner began with what looks like an extremely austere soup. I put about one inch of water in a pan and brought it to boil with two bay leaves (because one seemed a very sad start), a squirt of lemon juice and several glugs of Tabasco. These were Coronavirus-related substitutions for the 1/8 of a lemon and 4 peppercorns called for. It sounds more like a scene from Grimm's Fairy Tales than the start of decadent recipe from New York Times Cooking, but this is how Sam Sifton begins his recipe with the equally austere title Cod Cakes. 

Of course, this recipe is not really austere at all; rather, it is subtle. Sifton calls for poaching cod (or other white fish) in this most subtle of broths so that the flavor of the cod itself prevails.

At this point, I should back up and explain how I ended up poaching cod on this lovely afternoon. It started about a week ago, when our friend Andrea posted photos of cod cakes she was preparing with a family recipe. Since she is from New Bedford, where these things are decided, we took notice. We  had everything needed for Cod Cakes a la Andrea, except for the salted cod, which she has been able to get at our favorite (really only) fishmonger -- place with customers in the front and boats in the back. The place is always sparkling clean, and has taken extraordinary public-health measures in the current pandemic, so I was comfortable heading over there yesterday afternoon. Alas! No salted cod was on hand. Andrea had suggested some alternate sources, but I decided to save those for another day; there must be a way to make cod cakes from fresh cod.

So I bought some VERY fresh cod and headed home to find a recipe. I pulled with the hefty volume Of Cod and Country from the cookbook cabinet, only to be reminded that author Barton Seaver is concerned mainly with reducing the use of cod, so his book is good for many things other than cooking cod. Turning to the interwebs, I of course landed on New York Times Cooking, and the fairly straightforward recipe I began describing above.

Once the fish was cooked through (that is, opaquely white), I removed it carefully to a plate to cool. I then minced onion and garlic (we lacked celery, so I added celery seed at a later stage). As I sauteed the aromatics, I crushed some croutons we had on hand, to substitute for the crackers or panko crumbs. I used a potato masher and a pastry cutter, alternating these ill-matched tools until I had something like bread crumbs.

I then placed the vegetables in a large bowl, while in a small bowl I mixed the eggs, mayo, mustard and Old Bay (some lesser seasonings are mentioned, but Old Bay is something we are never out of). All of this got mixed in a large bowl, along with the crumbs. Then I flaked the cod into the mix, preserving the structure as Sifton suggests. This became kind of a mushy mess, but I gathered it into balls as he indicates and managed to form some patties. I then followed his crucial advice of chilling these thoroughly. I can imagine they would not have held together had I tried to cook them right away. After more than an hour, I heated olive oil (we have no "neutral" oil like canola on hand) and cooked these up, covering one side in additional Old Bay for good measure. 

I cooked these until quite crispy, and we enjoyed them with some leftover vegetarian lasagna roll-ups that Pam had made yesterday. Regular readers will understandably assume that we opened some Malbec for the occasion, but Pam suggested something a bit lighter that worked out very nicely: Farmer's Fizz from our friends at Westport Rivers.

We thank Andrea for starting us on the path of making cod cakes at home for the first time, and we look forward to trying her recipe next time!

Lagniappe 

This very legitimate cod purchase took place a few feet away from the dock where the feds continue to impound a remnant of the fleet of the infamous Cod Father.

Do the crime and your boats will do the time.

Anniversary Dinner

I suggested to James that perhaps as a treat for our 33rd anniversary we could place an order for carry out or delivery since we had not taken advantage of either of those options during our eight weeks of pandemic stay-at-home orders.He pointed out that we would likely be disappointed in anything that we would be able to get here on the south shore of Massachusetts, and we'd be lucky if it were even served at the proper temperature. I had to concede on all points. So instead we decided to prepare some dishes that we knew we liked.

James made a trip to our favorite fishmonger Kyler's Catch and picked up a salmon filet from which I prepared salmon with blueberry sauce based on this recipe from The New York Times. I used blueberry vinegar from L.O.V. E. (our favorite oil and vinegar emporium) instead of white wine vinegar. I prepared rice with lemon and almonds as a side dish.

This paired perfectly with the Peach Bellini we've been waiting to enjoy

For dessert I reprised the sensual Grapes Rolled in Almonds and Ginger from our Intercourses Cookbook.

Both of these have been featured on this blog before. The salmon is from earlier this year and the grapes from this July 2013 post.