Not Your Average Cobbler

Seasonal Fruit Tart

This is my rif on a recipe Sean Brock published in the Washington Post a couple of years ago.  Mine has a whole lots less eggs & sugar. You have to make it in two stages, but the good part is the first stage can be done ahead of time. I've made it with apples topped with cinnamin sugar, and last night Alice made it with peaches, and glazed it with plum jam!

BROWNED BUTTER

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise

1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine the butter, vanilla beans and salt in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring and watching closely, until the butter browns. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl and cool to room temperature. Discard the solids.


BATTER
5 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour·    

In a large mixing bowl whisk together the egg yolks, and then gradually add the browned butter.  Mix the sugar and flour together in a separate bowl. Gradually stir in the sugar/flour mixture.  This will form a thick batter. Pour or shape into greased tart pan.  Arrange fruit to cover it, lightly press down fruit into batter; SEE NOTE.

In a 350 degree oven, bake for 20 minutes, then rotate the dish from front to back. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes longer until the top is golden brown and the filling is just set on the inside. 

NOTE: For apples,  I used about 3 medium, slice in wedges about ¼ inch thick.   Then sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar.

For peaches I used 2 large.

AFTER TART Cools:

2 tablespoons of plum jam

2 teaspoons corn syrup.

Heat plum jam in microwave for about 20 seconds, stir in corn syrup. Lightly brush on tart.




We hope y'all enjoy this!

Break Out the Canner!

Last weekend Alice went down to State Farmers Market to check out what fresh veggies were in. She was mightily impressed with quality and value. We got out our Pressure Canner, asked Mama Glenda to bring down hers, and we washed quart and pint jars.  Then Tuesday I bought the produce. The corn and tomatoes were the best value at $8 a box.  So far we have about 3 dozen quarts of Vegetable Soup and twice that in Tomato Soup!  Alice is using Mama Lucy's recipe for both.  Because it is just the two of us now, she is putting up some in pints,  which we normally use just for fruits and jams. We figure they'd be just right for a weekend trip to the beach, or to let Catherine and Stewart take to school.

Generally,  we often wait for the dad-blamed hottest week summer to do things like this. This week wasn't too bad,  but as luck would have it, our main AC unit went out Wednesday afternoon!  

I'm back! (Mostly)

OK. We had a whole bunch of stuff to do at the beach house this winter/spring,  and no chaps to help us, so we had to go down there a fair amount of February and March.  That took up some time,  and then we had to get ready for my knee surgery, which took more time in April and May. We wound up doing pretty well at the beach and at home.  Anyway,  I'm now 7 weeks out from knee surgery, and normalcy, (or what we know of it!) is slowly returning.  I'm off the pain killers now, but still won't be going back to work for a while due to flexation issues. I've started puttering around in the kitchen, and going through cook books and magazines, while kinda sorta planning for some future events.  


I'm starting back with what's happening here and now, and hopefully  I'll backtrack to earlier this year in the next few weeks.  Maybe I'll be caught up by August!

This week is Corn, Peas, and Squash. Two different friends brought us two different kinds of corn: Bi-Color and Golden Jubilee!  The Bi-Color has the flavor Silver Queen, which as most of you know is outstanding.  We'd never heard of Golden Jubilee, which is a beautiful light yellow ear! My friend says it apparently does not freeze well, which is fine with us, since it eats very well as corn on the cob!  We have plans for it to be a co-star in a Frogmore stew tomorrow! 

Last year I planted a few Patty Pan Squash for the first time. The vine borers and cut worms pretty much left them alone, unlike what they do to my yellow squash and zucchini. This year I planted three varieties: Sunburst, Peter Pan, and Ron De Nice.  These all have flesh that is somewhat dryer than "normal" squash.  We are sauteing them in various ways  with various seasonings, with wonderful results. 

Another new variety on the table this week was Mississippi Silvertip Field Pea!  A friend of Mama Glenda's gave her about half a bushel.  With the inclusion of a ham hock to the pot, and they turned out to be wonderful!  Very creamy and tender, and  were pretty easy to shell, although I can only take credit for about maybe 10% of that. Mama Glenda did most of it.