Fresh Tart

I bought the loveliest local blueberries at the market last week, as plump and pretty as as my Grandma Meyer. I got them home, popped a handful in mouth because I'm greedy, and was shocked to discover...sour! Oh so sour!

So I dumped them into a saucepan with some (not too much) sugar and turned them into a quick, warm sauce that tastes great with almost anything, sweet or savory. We've so far spooned the sauce over yogurt, pork tenderloin, raw nuts, soft cheese...

...and crepes! Recipe for Crepes with Warm Blueberry Sauce at Dara & Co./Minnesota Monthly Magazine.

Gluten-free note: I did a crepe test run with Bob's Redmill Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour at 11:30 pm tonight - yep - and they worked beautifully! So...adapt away. Don't forget to eat them with butter!

Well, John and I abandoned moderation yesterday in the name of Julia Child crêpes stuffed with ham and mushrooms, napped in sauce Mornay, and run under the broiler.  I came to the idea in my typical way - I, er, stole it.  We had a version of a similar dish the night before, at Bar La Belle Vie, which planted a little craving in my brain, and as luck would have it we had some good ham in the cooler...and crêpes are really so easy to make...  So voila, crêpes with ham.  A little paging through Mastering the Art of French Cooking got me thinking mushrooms too, as well as sauce Mornay (cheese sauce made with a roux), and pretty soon restraint flew out the window, the butter was on my cutting board, and the blender was whirring away (crêpe batter is a cinch in a blender).

The only actual recipes I used were for the crêpes and sauce Mornay; the ham and mushroom filling, I just winged.  I sauted a small, minced clove of garlic in some melted butter for a few minutes, then stirred in about 3 oz. of thinly sliced wild mushrooms.  When they were tender and starting to brown, I add about 6 ounces of chopped, shaved ham and stirred until warmed through.  By then I had also made the sauce Mornay, so I stirred in a generous spoonful or two to bind the filling, seasoned the whole with salt and pepper, and was ready to roll (literally).

After prepping the crêpes (I made six and saved the remaining batter for later - it keeps perfectly in the fridge for a few days, ready to go, a rather dangerous convenience), I put 2-3 Tbsp. of warm filling on each crêpe, rolled them up, and laid them out in a buttered casserole dish.  To finish, I topped the rolled crêpes with sauce Mornay and ran the pan under a moderate broiler until lightly browned.  We ate them - tender, salty, lightly cheesy - with a glass of champagne and felt fine.  And full.  Salut!

From Mastering the Art of French Cooking, re: Crêpes Farcies et Roulées:

Every French household makes use of crepes, not only as a festive dessert for Mardi Gras and Candlemas Day, but as an attractive way to turn leftovers or simple ingredients into a nourishing main-course dish.  Crêpes may be rolled around a filling of fish, meat, or vegetables, spread with sauce, and browned under the broiler.  More spectacular is a gâteau de crêpes in which the pancakes are piled upon each other in a stack of 24, each spread with a filling. This is then heated in the oven and gratinéed with a good sauce.  Or the crêpes may be piled into a soufflé mold with alternating layers of filling, heated in the oven, unmolded, and coated with sauce.  Whatever system you decide upon, including rolled crêpes, the dish may be prepared in advance and heated up when you are ready to serve.

Happy Labor Day! Flew by, of course, as all holiday weekends do, but this one was particularly fun because my brother David was here. That meant extra hang time with Stacey and Cooper too, and as a group we had a grand old time. We pretty much just chatted, cooked, ate, and hung by the pool. Yeah, that pretty much covers it.

The foodie highlights:

• I made a tomato-goat cheese tart for a late din Friday night. Nothing more than a short-pastry crust, smeared with minced garlic, filled with tomato slices, a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, and dabs of soft goat cheese. I baked until golden brown and soft, served alongside a salad, in the dark on the deck, with a glass of crisp white, and it was nice.
• Scrambling for a brunch idea Saturday morning, I innovated crepes filled with softly scrambled eggs and a "sauce" of cherry tomatoes sauteed with onions and fresh herbs. With a few slices of Nueske's Canadian bacon on the side, we were well-fortified for a day of...lying around in the sun, listening to music, reading books, and chatting. Hey, what can I say?
• Saturday night we dined deliciously at 20.21. As usual, the star was the lobster risotto with crispy spinach, I'd say one of Minneapolis' top five restaurant dishes. It hits all the notes, baby - creamy, spicy, sweet, salty, chewy, crunchy. And it's gorgeous. And delicious. Oh yeah, I already said that.
• Last night I made not just shrimp saltimbocca, but scallops saltimbocca as well, due to a bit of a screw up in purchasing frozen shrimp at Whole Foods. A tasty mistake, turns out, since Stacey, David, and I all love scallops (while John and the kids opted for shrimp). With grilled bread, topped with ricotta cheese and grilled tomatoes, we had ourselves a summer feast.
• And the wrap up today, more tomato goodness, this time in the form of post-exercise BLTs at Stacey's. Garden-ripe tomatoes and Nueske's bacon. 'Nough said.

David (pictured at right with Etta, a couple of weeks ago in Wyoming) left around 5 pm this evening, unforch totally missing the chicken I roasted tonight, whole on the grill (with my Weber poultry roaster), this time with a Mexican spin - garlic, lime, and ancho chili powder. We ate the crispity slices in warm corn tortillas alongside potatoes roasted with jalapenos, onions, and green pepper.

The End to a lovely Labor Day weekend.

Moderate it: yeah, a pretty big food weekend. I biked in the wind, walked in the heat, and most surely didn't come close to working off that lobster risotto. Good thing the weekend is done and we're back to "normal" tomorrow. Uff.

I am in some sort of cooking slump lately, I have to admit. I'm not sure why - just feeling less, I don't know, inspired. Is it the hot weather? Overly-busy days? I'm sure part of it is that I feel like I should just be grilling food, instead of heating up the oven (and the whole kitchen), and that limits my options a bit (as happy as I am to grill pretty much anything). I guess this just happens, where inspiration wanes, and you reach a little further for something interesting...

...like tonight, I faced a fridge full of CSA shareveggies, a boatload of eggs, and decided to make crepes filled with a simple saute of diced carrots, onions, green pepper, garlic, and mushrooms. With a tablespoon each of creme fraiche and minced fresh herbs* to finish, it really did make a light, lovely din. With a French white, on the deck, very nice. And - thank goodness - Not. Our. Usual! Don't forget about crepes, they're easy, delicious, and mix things up nicely.

* My poor fresh herbs, in pots on my deck. The parsley and dill are completely defoliated by black swallow-tail caterpillars, and the basil is being sucked dry from the inside out by hideous, bronze-y Japanese beetles. Luckily the oregano, rosemary, summer savory, and chives (as well as the tomatoes and chilis) are just fine - plenty of flavor to carry us through the season - but the buggy (and batty!) infestation is a bit disgusting, sigh.

And oh, I DID get the scanned pic of our dinner at Morton's with Andrew& Rishia Zimmern, and Carol & Aaron Mack, to celebrate Aaron's birthday. We were very...BLUE that evening! Fun night, great to see everyone, and once again, Happy Birthday Aaron.

Moderate it: thank goodness that just a little creme fraiche - one of the most delicious creations on Earth - goes a long way. Just a teaspoon to finish scrambled eggs, or a dab in a pan of sauteed veggies (above), or a smidge with fresh berries, makes a dish over-the-top delicious.