Well, things certainly have been buzzing around here. Even though I’ve neglected this blog for a while, I want to take a moment to pat myself on the back (gingerly, so I don’t dislocate a shoulder) for getting anything done at all. You see, I’ve been shooting another cookbook! (Not my own!) In my spare time! Which means every weekend! Minus the two vacations we’ve already scheduled! I’m hoping the exclamation points give me a little energy, because it’s a grueling pace, but I’m already so happy with the way things are going that I don’t mind the lack of rest. (OK, that’s not entirely true. My resentfulness does overflow on occasion when Gil’s taking a nap while I’m slaaaaaving away in the kitchen, but it’s what I signed up for, so I just suck it up.)

So in addition to the 2-3 recipes I’m cooking, styling and shooting for the book each day, I try to eke out a little something of my own to share here. This was my most recent stab at something new:

Asparagus and cherry tacos…whaaaa? I know, I wouldn’t have thought of that combination, either, but The Kitchn’s newsletter featured the recipe and made it sound so good, I had to give it a shot. I really should’ve made the asparagus salsa as well, but I was taaaahrd (a Southern kind of tired that hits you deep in the bone marrow) by Sunday afternoon and just couldn’t bring myself to cook one. more. thing. Still…it was quite luscious with just a spritz of lime juice and farmer cheese instead of the queso fresco.

And since cherries were still in the market, I took the opportunity to rework that jam I’d over agar-agared a week before. I still wanted to use agar agar as a thickening agent, because it doesn’t require cooking the fruit — I like the idea of a really vibrant and fresh-tasting jam. Halving the amount called for on the package yielded exactly the consistency I was hoping for, so yay for progress.

recipe after the jump

Strawberry-Cherry-Almond Jam

This recipe is based on ratios to start, then finishing to taste. Sorry, I know it’s kind of a pain, but also a great way to make it your own.

1 pint strawberries, hulled
1 1/2 quarts cherries, pitted
sugar
agar agar flakes
slivered almonds
almond extract

Weigh the fruit, place in a large bowl, then either mash or chop with an immersion blender to desired consistency. (I kept it a little chunky, but go ahead and purée away if that’s what you like.) Add sugar to equal 1/3 to 1/2 the weight of the fruit. I kept it on the lower end because the strawberries and cherries were already very, very sweet. Stir, and let fruit macerate on the counter for 6 hours.

Strain liquid into saucepan and set solids aside. Taste the juice — add a little sugar if it’s not as sweet as you’d like or some water if it’s too sweet for you. Add 1/2 tablespoon of agar agar flakes for every cup of liquid in the pan, bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the agar agar is dissolved. The package directions said this step would be about 10 minutes, but it took a full 20 minutes for me.

Remove pan from heat and stir in fruit solids, slivered almonds to taste (I had 1/4 cup in the fridge, so that’s what I used) and almond extract to taste (1/4 teaspoon for me because I love almond flavor). Cool to room temperature, then spoon into jars and refrigerate to set. Freeze any portion you don’t think you’ll use within a couple of weeks.

Gather ye cherries while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying…

Unlike the apple, which you can’t miss because it won’t leave, the cherry is ephemeral, making its arrival much more eagerly anticipated. I’ve been seeing them piled up on fruit carts around the city for the past month or so, but I can’t bear the thought of random street germs wafting over my fruit, so I managed (just barely) to hold off until I could be sure to get local, juicy, pesticide- and city stank-free versions at the market.

Though cherry season is fleeting, we’re blessed with an abundance during that time, which means I couldn’t decide between varieties, so they all came home with me — Queen Anne, sour cherries, and sweet. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the sour cherries other use them for cherry soup, so I googled and got a great idea from Chowhound: I’m now the proud owner of a jar of bourbon-soaked sour cherries, which will be just the thing with a Manhattan for old bourbon-soaked me.

The rest of these babies went into a jam. It was my first attempt at recreating my current (expensive, Whole Foods) favorite — cherry-strawberry-almond jam — and it came pretty close, I’m pleased to say, especially because I just winged it. Though the agar agar I used as a thickening agent went way beyond the call of duty and lent the jam more of a Jell-o texture than the loose jam I wanted, whenever I glanced at the packet I was happy enough to reminisce about my high school biology teacher discussing petri dishes lined with “aaaagah aaaagah” before she cut into a dead frog or fetal pig.

Anyway, after that lovely image, if you want the recipe for this jam, stick around. I’ll give it another go this weekend.

It’s been wonderful spooned over fresh blueberries (or as an old reliable topping for couche-couche), but I wanted to do a little more with it this time around. Drinks seemed like a natural pairing with the syrup, so I muddled some fresh cherries with it, added a lemon slice, and topped off the glass with cold club soda. (It was too early in the day for Prosecco, but I’ll give it a try for brunch sometime.)

Inspired by this success, my thoughts turned toward dessert. We had a few bordering-on-overripe peaches in the fridge that, when cooked down with about 1/2 cup of the syrup and frozen in my ice cream machine, became my new go-to sorbet.

If the sun we’ve had for the past few days holds (fingers crossed!), I may not need to experiment quite so much with my herbs next weekend, but I’m glad I was able to use the dreary weather to my advantage.

Rufus and recipes after the jump

I really think our boy’s going to be a surgeon someday, considering the precision with which he eviscerates his toys.

Don’t let the guilty look fool you. He’s only bored.

“Who, me?”

“Yes, you.” <Slump>

Rosemary-Peach Sorbet

4 large, ripe peaches
1/2 cup rosemary-thyme syrup (recipe follows)

Peel peaches and slice over a small saucepan to catch juices. Add syrup and cook over medium heat for about five minutes, or until peach slices begin to soften and break apart. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then purée in blender or food processor till smooth. Refrigerate until completely cooled, then freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Rosemary-Thyme Syrup

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons honey
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
4-5 sprigs fresh thyme

Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat, and cool completely. Remove and discard rosemary and thyme.

When I saw these babies at the farmers’ market yesterday, I scooped up a bunch for the clafoutis I’ve been craving since Spring first came to town. Clafoutis is just about the simplest dessert you can make, which is a real godsend for someone with my limited baking skills; it’s just a pancake-like batter poured over some type of fruit and baked until the top is brown and puffed and the inside is moist and firmly custardy. The traditional Limousin way of making a cherry clafoutis (it’s such a fun word to say, I’m going to repeat it over and over in this post for the sheer pleasure of saying it in my head — clafoutis, clafoutis) is to leave in the pits; now, I may not be the most traditional cook, but I am a pretty lazy one, so let’s just say my arm didn’t take too much twisting to leave them in. And honestly, spitting the pits is good summertime fun, like doing the same with watermelon seeds.

So I washed and stemmed the cherries and put them in a round baking dish roughly the size of a pie plate…

Do you know how difficult it was not to eat these straight? Gah.

And then I mostly followed Julia Child’s recipe for Clafoutis à la Bourdalone (cherry clafoutis with almonds) because hey, who doesn’t like almonds? Not me, that’s who. But if you don’t like them, I promise not to invite you over when I make this again, ok?

But I have a feeling you’d love this anyway.

See? CLAFOUTIS!

recipe after the jump

Cherry Clafoutis with Almonds from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Child, Bertholle, and Beck

I took a few liberties with the recipe, but minor ones. I used vanilla sugar for the clafoutis instead of vanilla extract and granulated sugar. Also, the recipe calls for cooking a thin layer of batter in the baking dish before adding the cherries and proceeding with the recipe, but I was too afraid of cracking the dish over the flame, so I skipped that step.

3 cups cherries, pitted or not
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar for topping
powdered sugar for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly butter a 7- to 8-cup baking dish or 1 1/2-inch deep pie dish.

Place cherries in buttered dish. In a blender, combine milk and almonds and blend until almonds are finely chopped. Add 1/3 cup sugar, eggs, almond and vanilla extracts, salt and flour, and blend at high speed for about a minute.

Pour batter over cherries, then top with remaining 1/3 cup of sugar. (I used less than the full amount because the batter tasted sweet enough to me. But I don’t like overly sweet desserts, so take that for what it’s worth.)

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Sprinkle clafoutis with powdered sugar just before serving. Best served hot or still warm.