ALONE IN THE KITCHEN

I'm so thrilled to have my own column over at Food52 called Cooking What I Want. Here are excerpts from my first three posts. Click recipe links for the complete stories.

"I wake up to my six-year-old son painfully yanking tearing braiding my hair. I carefully lift his hands from my head and place them on my back and beg for a back massage. No way mom. So I sit up and say, dude, we have five days together just the two of us so what are we going to do? He says, pancakes please, I want to eat lots of pancakes. I say, as long as we eat white bean salad with avocados, please, lots of it. Deal, he says." 

Avocado Bowls With Citrus Herb White Bean Salad

"They line the streets, their sprays of blossoms lighting up the nighttime sky for a few weeks in early spring.

Children shake their trunks, covering heads and shoulders and wet March sidewalks with a neon-pink petal rain.

And then it’s business as usual. They seem like any old tree. We forget what’s coming.

Until one morning, splat splat splat, their plums start hitting our windshields." 

Grilled Plum and Lemon Ricotta Toasts

"I always cook what I want. But I don’t mean that in a snarky or selfish or overbearing way: the bottom line is that I don’t let my kids’ whims run the kitchen. Often their enthusiastic desire to help me plan, shop, and cook results in a dreamy, perfect dinner hour. But more often than I’d like to admit, at the end of a long day, my kids arrive at the table all crabby and tired and desperately wanting a cheeseburger and instead of that, an enormous cruciferous mash-up slaw made from every single vegetable in the CSA box sits right in front of their faces." 

Anchovy, Creamy Havarti, and Pesto Panini

SPIRIT

The boy crawls in at his parents' feet, spelunking his way through jumbled legs and sheets until he emerges at their sleepy heads with a huge involuntary inhale. Flip flop sneeze cough and he's on his back tugging at the comforter and complaining that he doesn't have enough pillow room. He closes in on the mother, grasping her face and decorating lips cheeks chin neck with kisses. He rolls over and delivers the same to the father.

"Hey, Dash," says the mother, "I think daddy got more kisses."

And he's back with thirteen more for the mother.

"Mama, can I be in the Winter Olympics?"

"There's no snow in Berkeley. You might want to try for the Summer Olympics."

"What are the sports in Summer Olympics?"

"Weightlifting, running—"

"Mama, I already know how to run."

"Right. You'd totally win that race."

The father continues the list, "Swimming, archery, gymnastics, fencing, cycling, shooting, diving—"

"Wait. Wait. WAIT!" shrieks the boy. "Shooting? Can I learn shooting?"

The mother pretends she has fallen back to sleep.

"When you're older," the father replies. "When you're much older."

The mother has so much to say and says none of it.

The father nudges the boy, "Why don't you ask that woman over there to be a good mama and get out of bed and get us some cobbler for breakfast."

"Believe it or not, we are out of cobbler. And I'll just have to be a bad mama this morning because I'm staying in bed."

"You're not a bad mama," the boy whispers into the mother's ear. "But I have a question. What are you thinking about with your eyes closed?"

"I'm thinking about my coffee," the mother whispers back.

"Mama's thinking about her coffee," the boy relays to the father.

"She's always thinking about her coffee."

The father leans in to the boy and asks, "Should we hug her?"

The mother doesn't resist as the boy and the father execute a slow motion eight-limbed envelopment.

The father murmurs, "Isn't mama delicious?"

And for a fleeting moment the mother is floating on an unfamiliar raft in the middle of a crazy perfect domestic ocean. 

The mother slips out of bed, puts on the kettle, and starts making her fifteenth cobbler of the summer.

A few thoughts on cobblers: 

Before adding any sugar, taste the fruit. In general, peaches and blackberries need very little additional sugar (only a tablespoon or two). Plums and blueberries will need need a bit more. Just try to keep the fruit tasting like it was just picked. Not like it was preserved in sugar.

Small amounts of lemon juice and zest, Grand Marnier, vanilla extract, vanilla bean, or orange flower water can help enhance the fruit flavor without dominating.

It takes a few extra steps, but I'm loving the combination of tart dough topped with streusel (made with Marcona almonds). This is a great way for kids (or grownups) to start playing with dough. Let them roll, cut, press, and tuck the dough in any way they want. Cobblers should look funky and messy.

Because the streusel topping is spread on top of the tart dough, the brown sugar sweetness doesn't dive down into the bubbling fruit. This helps maintain three very distinct layers of texture and flavor: pure fruity bottom, gooey doughy middle, and crunchy nutty sweet top. 

Remember, you can (and should) add a fourth layer of creamy and sweet with vanilla ice cream. Or crème fraîche. Or heavy cream (the best breakfast ever).

SUMMER FRUIT COBBLER WITH MARCONA ALMOND STREUSEL

printable recipe

(Serves 4  for dessert with leftovers for breakfast.)
I've baked this in every possibly tart, cake, pie, and gratin pan. Just don't use a dish with a removable bottom or it will leak.

for tart dough:
1 recipe for basic tart dough (make sure dough is refrigerated for at least 3 hours; you will have leftover scraps for your next cobbler)

for streusel:
4 tablespoons salted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour (for streusel)
1/2 cup finely chopped Marcona almonds (or try blanched almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts)

for fruit (totaling about 6 cups when cut up):

5 large peaches and 5 large nectarines (or any combination of pluots, plums, apricots)
1 pint blackberries (or olallieberries)
1 pint blueberries 
2-6 tablespoons sugar (depending on sweetness of fruit and size of your sweet tooth)

juice/zest from 1/2 lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

pinch salt

2 tablespoons flour (for fruit)

for egg wash:

1 egg

2 tablespoons heavy cream

assembly:

Remove tart dough from freezer or fridge and let it soften a bit. Roll out tart dough (about 1/2" thick). With a pizza cutter or knife, cut into 1" strips or any desired shape and place flat on a sheet pan. Refrigerate until fruit is ready.

For the streusel. Melt butter. Take off heat and mix in brown sugar, flour, and nuts. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

For the fruit. It's best to peel all stone fruit (though plum skins can add nice tartness and color) by placing it in boiling water for 15 seconds and then shocking it in ice water. Skins will (usually) slide right off with the help of a paring knife. Cut 1" wedges directly into your baking dish. Add berries. Sprinkle with sugar, lemon juice/zest, vanilla, salt, and flour. Stir gently to combine.

For egg wash. Combine egg and cream.

Assembly. Place strips of dough over mixed fruit so that the pieces are overlapping a bit. You want to leave some lovely little pockets for steam and oozing juices to escape. Paint dough all over with egg wash. Spread streusel on the top of the tart dough (no need to cover all the dough).

Bake until golden brown and bubbling (about 45 minutes but check after 30). Poke the tart dough to make sure it's almost firm and crisp on top and still a bit soft on the bottom. Serve immediately with ice cream. Or room temperature with heavy cream.

RED, ORANGE, PINK, AND GREEN

DETAILS + RECIPES:

Summer Squash and Onion Gratin with Garlic Chive oil and Lime. Trim squash and chop into somewhat even chunks (no need to peel it). Peel and thinly slice onion. Use your hands to coat squash and onion with salt, pepper, and lime zest/juice. Finely chop garlic chives (or regular chives). Mash chopped chives and olive oil with a mortar and pestle. Taste. If it's too pungent, add some more olive oil. Generously drizzle chive oil over the squash. Use your hands again to combine. Finish off with bread crumbs, grated parmesan cheese, and quarter-sized dollops of butter. Bake at 375°F until top is crisp and brown and the squash is just tender. Eat right away. OR use as the base for a pasta sauce. OR serve in a pita with yoghurt, cucumber, and garlic chive oil raita (topped with chopped mixed herbs).

These are Bella's summer aspirations involving peaches. The smudged final item on the list is "grilled peach salad." She added it for me. Reluctantly.

Galette of Nectarines and Foraged Plums. Store bought (always) puff pastry. Macerate pitted stone fruit with lemon juice/zest, salt, vanilla, and a vigorous sprinkling of turbinado sugar. Maybe a splash of Grand Marnier? Paint the edges with a mixture of 1 egg + 2 tablespoons heavy cream. For extra crunch, coat glazed edges with more turbinado sugar. Bake at 375°F until fruit is bubbling and puff pastry is crisp and lightly browned. Eat the galette for breakfast topped with crème fraîche. Or ice cream. Ice cream for breakfast. Fuck yeah. It's summer.