Spinach & Persimmon Salad with Prosciutto, Pistachios & Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Persimmons are my favorite late-fall fruit followed closely by pomegranates, and I love to throw the two together whenever I can, which leads to a great many fruity salads around this time of year. This is probably my preferred iteration though, because persimmon wedges and swatches of prosciutto make for a heavenly pairing. It looks so festive, too - this salad was actually my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner, and it looked quite nice mixed with with the spread if I may say so! Can't please everyone though; my husband likens persimmons to tomatoes injected with watermelon juice, and no, he doesn't mean that in a good way. More for the 'simmon lovers to enjoy!

Spinach & Persimmon Salad with Prosciutto, Pistachios & Pomegranate Vinaigrette
Makes 4-6 servings

*1/4 cup pomegranate juice
*1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
*1/3 cup fruity EVOO
*1 squeeze honey
*1 dollop (about 1/2 teaspoon) Dijon mustard
*1 small clove garlic, minced
*S&P
*6 cups baby spinach, washed and dried
*2 very ripe persimmons, sliced (I prefer the flatter, squat variety)
*4 slices of prosciutto, ribboned
*1/4 cup pomegranate arils
*1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
*1/4 cup pistachios, lightly toasted and chopped

In a small mason jar, combine the first 7 ingredients to make the vinaigrette. Shake the jar vigorously until everything is well incorporated, and taste for seasoning. Prepare the salad with the rest of the ingredients and drizzle with the vinaigrette.

Paw Paw Ice Cream

Anyone out there a fellow fan of the paw paw? I'd wanted to try one ever since hearing of a "paw paw" in Baloo's jaunty song from The Jungle Book and I am eternally grateful to a rural DE pal who has been furnishing me with an allotment of paw paws around this time of year from stock growing wild on his property ever since he heard of my fascination. They're quite delicious, mild, sweet and creamy like a ripe banana, but with a decidedly tropical tang in the mix. They also have big oblong seeds, which make extracting the fruit pulp a little unwieldy, but are fun to use in all sorts of crafty business. For the past couple years I've been using my paw paws in a personal recipe for ice cream since it's a very easy and tasty preparation for the amount I get (usually around 4-5). They spoil very rapidly so I usually make the base the day before I know I'm going to get them. I do always feel slightly bad when I post a recipe featuring a highly elusive or specialized ingredient, but if you live east of the Mississippi, and are into foraging, go looking for some paw paws! The hunt will make them all the sweeter.

If you have cooked with paw paws before, please share your recipes so I can branch out next September!

Paw Paw Ice Cream
Makes about a pint

*3/4 cup paw paw pulp, pureed (from about 4 paw paws)
*1 cup heavy cream, divided

*1/3 cup whole milk

*1/3 cup vanilla sugar (sugar left to sit in a jar with a spent vanilla pod)

*A pinch of salt

*3 large egg yolks, whisked

*Juice of half a small lime, about 1 1/2 teaspoons 

Set up half the cream in a bowl within an ice bath to thoroughly chill it. Warm the other half of the cream and the milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan with a pinch of salt and the sugar until steaming, stirring to dissolve. Carefully temper the yolks with some of the hot milk before adding the eggy mix back to the saucepan. Cook over medium until the liquid thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. At that point, pour the custard through a strainer and into the chilled cream. Stir well and pop in the fridge for at least 5-6 hours, preferably overnight. When you're ready to make the ice cream, extract the pulp from the paw paws and puree, stir in the lime juice, then combine with the custard and freeze in the ice cream maker. Eat soft-serve when it's done, or put it into a proper container to let it ripen in the freezer.   

Ultimate French Toast

Last year at the fabulous Rose's Luxury, my husband and I encountered the best dessert of our lives: a small piece of decadent French toast, topped with foie gras and served with a wee scoop of cinnamon toast crunch ice cream. We were informed that the toast had soaked IN melted cinnamon toast crunch ice cream before it was fried up. This detail stuck in my craw, naturally, so when my husband made a rash but delicious impulse buy of a bourbon barrel aged maple syrup the other day I decided to try my own version of ice cream battered toast for an old-school breakfast-for-dinner evening. Uh, sans foie. I might have the budget and the frivolity necessary for melting down some Ben & Jerry's, but I leave the foie to luxe professionals. I'd heard a tip somewhere along the line about toasting rolled oats and crusting them on dipped french toast before frying, so I decided to go all out and do that too. AND invite caramelized bananas to the party.

Freshly whipped cream spiked with bourbon too, if you please.

Drizzled over this behemoth was the bourbon barrel aged maple sizzurp. I daresay this is the Ultimate French Toast.

Bear plate by Rachel Kozlowski for West Elm

Ultimate French Toast
Makes 3 servings

*3 tablespoons butter

*2-3 egg yolks

*1 heaping cup vanilla ice cream, melted

*Pinch of cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, pinch of salt

*3 slices thick, hearty bread (challah, brioche, French or Italian)

*1/2 cup rolled oats, toasted until lightly browned and nutty

*1 tablespoon brown sugar

*Bourbon barrel aged maple syrup (or regular grade B, for plebes)

*Fruit of choice (caramelized bananas for me*)

*Freshly whipped cream (OR, a scoop of the vanilla ice cream you used if there's any left)

Melt butter in a wide cast iron skillet over medium. Whisk the egg yolks with the melted vanilla ice cream in a shallow dish, and stir in the seasonings. On another plate, toss the oats and brown sugar together. Dip the slices of bread in the ice cream mix, soaking nicely on both sides, before crusting one side of each with the oats. Fry the bread in the butter about 3 minutes per side. Top with the syrup, fruit and whipped cream (can be made a little before you start the toast prep and kept in the fridge). 

*To caramelize bananas quickly, cut up a few ripe (but not overripe) ones and saute in a couple tablespoons of butter over medium. Sprinkle in some brown sugar and splash in a little bourbon. Cook down for a few minutes, then serve hot.

Cream Scones

In an effort to have some palm-able breakfast options around the house, I started looking at scone recipes and was intrigued by a couple that were made with only cream, no butter. The recipe in this post on Chowhound was my eventual inspiration, as it looked like an incredibly simple and fantastic base recipe to incorporate into the rotation. I decided to doctor up the scones with orange zest and dried cherries, but customize yours in any way you'd like! I think next time I'll be trying caramelized onions, sharp cheddar and bits of bacon for a super-savory version.

Cream Scones (with Dried Cherries & Orange Zest)

Makes 8 servings

*2 cups flour

*1/4 cup sugar

*1 tablespoon baking powder

*1/2 teaspoon salt

*Pinch cinnamon

*2/3 cup dried cherries

*1 tablespoon orange zest

*1 1/4 cups heavy cream

*1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Raw sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425. Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl and add the dried cherries and zest. Stir together the cream and vanilla extract and then combine with the dry ingredients, using a fork. Still using the fork, mix to a rough mass, then turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead briefly (only a couple times) just until the dough holds together. Pat into a 7 inch circle, or thereabouts. Brush the top with the drips and drabs of cream left in your measuring cup, then sprinkle with the raw sugar, if you'd like (I opted not to). Cut into 8 wedges. Separate the wedges and place on a parchment-coated baking sheet. Bake approximately 15-17 minutes until golden brown. Best eaten while still warm!

Winter Citrus Salad

Currently burdened by a nasty headcold in the midst of an unending winter, I yearned for a big bright hit of vit-C today. Luckily, my fruit bin just happened to be bursting with citrus. Halfway through absentmindedly peeling an orange, I was suddenly moved to cut and pare and arrange ALL my fruit into something pretty and sunny and worthy of a wee blog post. It's barely a recipe, but don't discount the mood-lifting power of a plate of glistening, jewel-like cuts of orange and vermillion and pink!

I whipped up a couple tablespoons of plain yogurt, minced mint, squeezes of citrus and a little honey and drizzled the dressing over the salad as you can see in the bottom picture, but feel free to use some mint infused simple syrup or a mere squeeze of lime to add a little extra zing to your salad.

Winter Citrus Salad
Makes 2 servings

*1 grapefruit
*1 blood orange
*1 orange (or clementine)
*Sea salt
*Palmful of shelled unsalted pistachios or pepitas
*Mint leaves

Cut the fruits into slices and then using a paring knife, remove the pith and rind from the rounds. Arrange the pieces on a platter and dust with a teensy pinch of your best sea salt and scatter some pepitas around on top. Tuck some mint leaves in for garnish.

Pro-tip: zest your oranges before cutting and paring and then either use the zest immediately or freeze for another use later.

Mixed Greens with Black Grapes, Hazelnuts & Manchego

Local, seasonal grapes were on sale at the store the other day, and I could not help but buy a bursting bagful of some very alluring black specimens. Besides nibbling them straight from the woody stems hedonist-style, which is my preferred method of dispatching grapes, I decided to showcase some of the juicy glaucous orbs by nestling them in a bed of green. A simple balsamic and oil emulsion, some shaved Manchego, and a smattering of toasted hazelnuts completed the scene to make a very tasty and exceedingly simple meal, pleasing to both the eye and mouth. A great late-August-grape-harvest salad!
 

Mixed Greens with Black Grapes, Hazelnuts & Manchego
Makes 1 serving

*1 teaspoon very good quality balsamic vinegar
*1 tablespoon of your finest EVOO
*Pinches of sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste 
*3 handfuls mixed greens ( I used a spring lettuce mix and some watercress)
*Decent-size sprig's worth of black grapes, some halved
*Shaved Manchego cheese
*1 tablespoon crushed hazelnuts, lightly toasted

Emulsify the oil and vinegar with salt and pepper to taste, drizzle over the greens and toss. Arrange the grapes, cheese shavings and nuts as it suits you.

Quick Peanut Butter-Banana Ice Cream

I've posted uses for overripe bananas a few times already, but this is now far and away my favorite method of using up those speckled stragglers squirreled away in my freezer. I've used frozen bananas to add oomph to smoothies for ages, but I'd never tried to blitz them on their own until the other day when I wanted to make some cool and delicious treat, only to find I was out of dairy (save a couple cans of condensed milk). After some experimentation with the sweetened condensed milk and some peanut butter (and lots of scraping down the sides of my blender), I achieved my goal, and how! I'm shocked at just how well this mimicked ice cream with a solid custard base, in both mouthfeel and scoopability. I credit that to the higher levels of sugar in the overripe bananas as well as the addition of sweetened condensed milk. Whatever the sorcery, it made for a scrumptious, easy (and mildly healthier!) dessert.

Quick Peanut Butter-Banana Ice Cream
Makes about cup and a half, or 3 servings

*2 frozen bananas, peeled and sliced
*2 tablespoons peanut butter (I used chunky-style for some textural fun, but feel free to use smooth)
*1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Blitz it all together in your most powerful blender or food processor. My blender isn't the greatest, so there's a fair deal of scraping I have to do to get it all to blend properly, but if you have something top shelf like Vitamix, this should be a snap. Once it's getting...for lack of a better word, goopy, scrape it out into a container, press a round of Saran-wrap on top to prevent ice crystals from forming, lid it and pop into the freezer to harden again until you're ready to serve.

Note: Some googling turned up plenty of other delicious additives - must try Nutella next time!

Banana-Walnut Muffins

After a generous cluster of bananas had seen me through breakfast for nearly a week, the stragglers were starting to turn gory-looking - just right for banana bread. However, I couldn't find my bread tin (!?), so I went the muffin route. Which, as it turned out, worked wonderfully...can't beat the convenience of palming a muffin before you dash madly out the door on the way to work. I slightly modified a banana bread recipe from Cooks Illustrated, a recipe had been loitering in my "To Try" folder for a while, and it produced delicious muffins! I'll have to keep this recipe around for the next time my banana bunch dwindles down to the dank dark dregs. Now, to find my bread tin....

Banana-Walnut Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

*2 cups flour

*1 cup toasted walnut pieces 

*3/4 cup sugar

*3/4 teaspoon baking soda

*1/2 teaspoon salt

*3 large grossly overripe bananas

*1/4 cup sour cream 

*2 eggs, beaten

*6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

*1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and walnuts together. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas well with a fork, then add the sour cream, eggs, butter and vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined (don't overmix). Divide the batter evenly around the greased muffin tin. Bake until the muffins are golden on top, approximately 20-23 minutes.

(Pro-tip - they're best warm, split, with a small pat of slowly melting butter)

Seared Scallops with Blood Orange Sauce and Bitter Greens

After nearly two weeks straight of soups, stews, and other hearty fare consumed to chase away the flinty chill of deep winter, I felt compelled to make something light and dainty for dinner - especially since the air has warmed and sweetened over the past few days! A flavorful vision of seared scallops, one of my favorite "dainty" foods, and a citrusy, piquant sauce immediately came to mind. My local fine foods grocer has a huge cache of blood oranges right now, so I picked up a few for the sauce cause - it's always a little thrill to slice into a blood orange and see vivid wet crimson, striations of rust and oxblood, when the eyes are primed to expect plain orange.

A small knoll of bitter greens and little ruby-red jewels of pomegranate scattered around the plate completed the scallop scene. It was exactly the kind of delicious and delicate dinner for which I yearned! If you have heavy winter food fatigue as well, you should give this one a go.

 

Seared Scallops with Blood Orange Sauce and Bitter Greens
Makes 2 servings

*6-8 sea scallops
*Juice of 2 blood oranges (about 2/3 cup)
*1 teaspoon dry sherry
*1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
*2 cups assorted bitter greens (I used rocket, dandelion greens and chicory)
*Seeds from about a quarter of a pomegranate
*Tiny lengthwise snips of a scallion, for garnish
*1 1/2 tablespoons butter + canola oil

Wash and dry your greens and winnow the pomegranate seeds out from within the annals of the fruit, set aside. Rinse and thoroughly pat dry your scallops, making sure to trim the muscle off the sides if need be. Lightly toast the peppercorns until fragrant and grind into a powder in a spice grinder.

Meanwhile, melt the butter with a dribble of canola oil in a cast-iron skillet on medium-high and season the scallops with the pinch of peppercorn dust and kosher salt on each side. When the skillet is hot and the butter has foamed, lay the scallops in and sear on each side for about a minute and a half. Remove to a warm platter, reduce the heat and add the the orange juice, sherry, and the rest of the ground peppercorns to the skillet. Stir, scraping the bottom, until the liquid has thickened and reduced, which will likely happen quickly. Divide the greens and scallops between two plates. Pour the pan sauce through a small sieve and over the scallops, and then scatter some pomegranate seeds around the perimeter. Garnish the scallops with snips of scallion.

Venison Steaks with Blueberry Sauce

One of my best friends is a bird trainer, and routinely hacks down donated deer carcasses for raptor food...however, on occasion, she will casually set aside a nice backstrap or two for me when their freezers runneth over. I am very spoiled by this, and have come to love the subtly feral taste of venison even more than I like the taste of beef. If you can't come by venison from a local source, a reputable online source would be D'artagnan. Of course, you could make this recipe with other meats, but I highly suggest searching out venison. It pairs exceptionally well with a savory fruit sauce, and after trying a few different fruit sauces over time, I think I've concocted something here that I'm going to stick with in the future. The picture may not look like much, especially since I didn't have my new DSLR on hand, but I promise you that the blueberry sauce is delicious. You could skew much classier than I did and serve the venison over something that isn't egg noodles, but I wanted a good catch-all for that sauce!

Venison Steaks with Blueberry Sauce
Serving sizes will vary depending on the size of your backstrap

*1 venison backstrap
*1 tablespoon plus 1/2 tablespoon butter
*1 teaspoon high smoke point oil
*1/3 cup abbey-style ale (Ommegang's Abbey Ale, if you please)
*1 cup beef broth
*1 heaping cup blueberries (I only had frozen on hand)
*1 tablespoon minced shallots
*1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
*S&P

Take the backstrap out to temper for about 30 minutes before preparation, and then slice it into steaks about 1 1/2 inches thick. In a small saucepan bring the beef stock and blueberries to a boil and reduce down until you have a cup of the stock/blueberry mixture.

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and melt a tablespoon of butter drizzled with the oil. When hot, sear the venison steaks 2 1/2-3 minutes on each side, in batches if necessary. 3 minutes and you're verging into medium-rare territory which is the absolute limit - venison will become unpleasantly tough if you cook it past medium-rare. Using tongs, briefly kiss the sides, and then transfer to a warm platter. Reduce heat to medium-low, add the shallots and saute quickly before adding the abbey ale. Deglaze, stirring and scraping up brown bits with a wooden spoon before adding the cup of broth and blueberries. Sprinkle in the thyme and simmer, stirring, until mixture has reduced and thickened. Remove from heat and then whisk half a tablespoon of butter, plus salt and pepper to taste. Ladle over the steaks and serve with a salad of dark greens as well as something to mop up the sauce.

Mango Margarita

I had a cut-up mango on hand; I wanted a margarita. 1+1=2. Done. 

Mango Margarita

Makes one cocktail

*2 oz tequila resposado

*1/4 cup fresh mango pulp (about half a mango, cut up in chunks)

*Juice from one lime

*3/4 oz triple sec

*A couple ice cubes

*Optional: Good coarse salt and chili powder to rim the glass

Cut up about half a fresh mango and puree in a blender - enough to yield about a quarter cup of pulp. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth. Throw in the freezer to chill a little longer before pouring. You can also sub frozen mango chunks for fresh and nix the ice. Optional rim job: Prepare a small plate with a little bit of salt and chili powder mixed together. Take a spent section of lime and run it around the rim of a cocktail glass to wet it, and then dip the glass rim into the salt mixture. Pour the margarita into the glass when chilled, and enjoy!

Grilled Peche Pork with Smoky Peach Salsa

One small silvery lining to the persistently dry and oppressive heat is that the local peaches this summer are fantastic. I bought a bunch of them at the West Chester Growers Market with the intention of making a peach lambic sorbet, but with the lambic sitting miles away in a Wegmans, yet to be purchased, and facing a fine stash of Festina Peche and some pork chops already in the fridge, my mind wandered to more savory applications. I still intend to make the sorbet down the line but I'm so glad I went the savory route this time.

Hate having to use flash...I promise it looked and WAS much more appetizing than it appears!

Grilled Peche Pork with Smoky Peach Salsa
Makes 2 servings 

*1 12 oz bottle of Dogfish Head Festina Peche
*Sprig of rosemary
*2 crushed cloves of garlic
*Sprinkling of salt and cracked black peppercorns
*Two bone-in, center cut pork chops
*2-3 fresh peaches, peeled, sliced in half and pitted
*1/2 small red onion, finely diced
*1 habenero or jalapeno, finely minced (wear gloves, y'hear?)
*1 large heirloom tomato or a couple Romas, seeded and diced
*2-3 large leaves basil, cut in chiffonade
*1 scant tablespoon EVOO
*Juice of half a lime
*1/2 teaspoon adobo sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo
*S&P

After taking a healthy swig of the Festina, pour the rest of the bottle into a ziplock bag with the rosemary, garlic, and S&P. Marinate the chops within for at least 3-4 hours, turning the bag occasionally, before taking them out about 30 minutes before grill-time. Whisk the olive oil, the lime juice and the adobo sauce together. When your grill is coursing along at medium-high heat, brush the cut sides of the peaches with a bit of olive oil and place on the grill for a couple minutes. Remove, and then dice when cool. Combine the peaches, onion, tomato, pepper, and basil and then toss lightly with the vinaigrette and S&P to taste.

Pat the chops dry and grill them for about 6 minutes per side, depending on how thick your chops are and how hot the coals are. 

Serve with the salsa -or... the other household half requested a sauce instead of a red-onion-laced salsa, so I threw another peach on the grill and pureed it with some of his favorite BBQ sauce and a chipotle pepper in adobo, much to his relief. I dished out rosemary-roasted potatoes on the side, but these chops would also be nice with some sauteed fresh runner beans drizzled with balsamic, I think.

Note -  I strained and boiled down the leftover marinade, adding in squeezes of honey and a bit of balsamic vinegar, until it reduced to a thickish glaze to brush on the chops while grilling, but after tasting the BBQ sauce I made for the other household half, I think I'd brush that on next time instead. Feel free to try both!

Lychee Sorbet

After absorbing the entirety of David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop to the point where I have the ins and outs of putting together a frozen treat recipe down cold, I felt like this was a good time to start experimenting with my own concoctions. The flavor of this particular iced treat is inspired by a drink at a restaurant I used to frequent - the "Drunken Geisha" cocktail. If you like the lightly floral taste of these opalescent little lychee fruits, you'll be quite pleased with this sorbet.  

Lychee Sorbet
Makes a little over a pint (~2 1/2 cups)

*1 20 oz can of lychees in syrup
*1 lime, juiced
*1/2 teaspoon grenadine

*1 teaspoon lychee vodka

Puree all the ingredients together until smooth. I don't mind a bit of texture in my sorbets but if you'd rather strain it to remove all the solids, go for it. Chill thoroughly and then churn in your ice cream maker for about 20 minutes, at which point you can scoop it into a pint container to ripen a bit longer in the freezer, or have soft-serve sorbet right away! If you do pop it in the freezer, make sure to take it out a good 5-10 minutes before scooping, because it does freeze hard.

Wrecked Rose Cocktail

An email from terrain popped into my inbox the other day, promising cocktail recipes within, so naturally I swiftly clicked over. The first one that caught my eye was "Wecked Rose", which I initially misread as "Wrecked Rose" - which was less a recipe and more an advertisement for their "Weck" glass jars and various types of overpriced syrups sold at the store. The wistful poetry of my misread stuck with me though, so I decided to concoct my own cocktail to fulfill that name, and am pretty happy with what I tinkered into existence. It's what I'll take on to the porch when I'm musing about the beautifully sad impermanence of my seasonal blossoms.

And yes - it tastes as girly as it looks.

Wrecked Rose
Makes one drink

*2 oz lychee vodka

*10 raspberries, fresh or frozen
*Half a lime, juiced

*1 oz rose water (see note)

Muddle raspberries in a shaker with vodka, rose water and lime juice. Strain into a glass with ice and garnish with a lime slice. You can substitute regular vodka if you don't feel like springing for some lychee business.

Note on 'rose water': I had rose syrup on hand, which I diluted in a solution of about 1 part syrup to 5-6 parts water.

Mulberry Mule

The mulberry tree on my block shades a deep bruised-purple stain that grows wider as foot traffic tramples fallen berries. Before I realized what a boon it was, the tree remained a disgusting obstacle during the month of June, something that I'd usually cross the street to avoid. Last year, however, in a feverish foraging streak I finally approached the tree and its indigo-hued berries with a newly enlightened eye (and left with stained fingers and a happy tongue). Hopefully you're lucky enough to have a mulberry tree near you; if you haven't already, make fast friends with it.

Mulberry Mule
Makes one drink

*10-12 mulberries
*4 oz ginger beer (I love Fever Tree)
*2 oz vodka
*Juice from half a lime (about an ounce)

Put the mulberries in a shaker and muddle well with the vodka and lime juice. Strain into a glass with ice, add ginger beer and lightly stir. This cocktail is so named for its riff on the Moscow Mule.