Recipes – Page 12 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Fritatta for One

I’ve been reading Daniel Silva’s books this past month, and in one, Chiara makes a zucchini and potato fritatta. Out of potatoes, but do have a zucchini. This is what I did – for only me! (Josh was still in bed, and I was hungry!)

Zucchini Fritatta
3 small eggs
1 T. milk
2 cloves garlic
1 small zucchini, sliced fine using mandolin or grater
3-4 T. pecorino romano cheese, grated
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

Preheat oven broiler. In oven-safe saute pan, over medium heat, pour in 2-3 T. olive oil, coating sides if necessary. Heat. Saute chopped garlic and grated / sliced zucchini until lightly cooked.

While garlic and zucchini are sauteeing, vigorously whip together the milk and eggs. Grate the cheese.

Once the vegetables are slightly cooked, pour the egg-milk mixture into pan. Let cook for a minute or so. Sprinkle cheese on top of egg mixture. Remove pan from stove, place under broiler for 1-2 minutes (watch it closely!). Remove from broiler. Set aside to allow eggs to continue cooking through, about 3-5 minutes.

Gently pull edges of fritatta away from pan, invert over plate. Salt and pepper to taste.

Apricot Tart

With summer, the stone fruits beg to be eaten, made into jam, baked in pies and tarts, added to fruit salad! The beauty of this recipe is that you can use any summer fruit, adapting the recipe as necessary for whatever fruit you choose. I hope you enjoy my recipe!

Apricot Tart
You will need about 12-18 apricots for the tart, depending on size.

The puree should be made ahead of time and cooled – if it is not cooled, the buttery dough will melt and the tart will not be as pretty as it could be – but it will still taste good!

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place rack for tart pan in lower 1/3 of oven.

Apricot Puree
12-15 ripe apricots

Make this before you begin the dough – you can make it the day before you plan on serving the tart.

Cut 10-12 apricots in half, removing seeds and any spoiled areas. Add more apricots if necessary. Put into heavy pan with 2-3 T. water; cook apricots in water until tender, stirring so as to make sure apricots do not burn. Cover apricots between stirring to reduce water evaporation. This will take about 10 minutes. Once apricots are soft, add 3 T. white sugar and any spices you may wish to use as flavoring, such as mace or cardamom. Cook in open pan until thickened – another 10 minutes or so. If it does not get too thick, don’t worry about it. Cool thoroughly before placing in tart.

Crust
2 c. flour
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. sugar
12 T (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
4 egg yolks

Cut butter into small dice; work into flour until resembles coarse meal. Knead into ball in bowl. If dough is crumbly, add a little bit of water (1/4 t. at a time) until you can create a smooth dough. Do not overwork. Cut off about 1/4 to 1/3 of ball. Reshape both into balls; wrap in plastic and let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Apricot Slices
4-6 ripe apricots

Cut apricots in half, then cut the halves into quarters. These will be used to top the apricot puree.

Assembling the Tart
Take larger of the two balls of dough, flatten a bit, then mush into a 9-10 inch tart pan (one with a removable rim), covering the bottom and up the sides.

Use about 1/3 to 1/2 c. apricot preserves (I microwave mine a bit to make it easier to spread) and spread in a thin layer on top of dough.

Pour apricot puree over the jam, spreading evenly. Place sliced apricots on top of puree in a pretty pattern, or randomly. Just try to cover the top of the tart evenly so it will look nice.

Take smaller ball of dough and break off small pieces and place them evenly over the top of the tart.

Bake at 350 F for about 60-75 minutes. At 60 minutes, check it. If you use a convection oven, check it at 45-50 mins.

Very good served warm, at room temperature, with a bit of cream or marscapone or ice cream, or all alone!

Saturday Morning Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins with Streusel Topping

While the rest of the country is sweltering, here along the south central coast of California it is dripping, damp and foggy. Perfect morning for warm, fresh berry muffins!

Muffin Recipe
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line or grease muffin cups – this recipe yielded 9 cups filled to top before addition of streusel topping.

Muffin Batter
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. oatmeal
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg
1/2 c. milk or yogurt (thinned with water) or kefir
1 c. picked over fresh blueberries

Mix together all dry indredients and walnuts. Beat together oil, egg, and milk. Pour liquid into dry ingredients, stir until lightly mixed. Fold in blueberries. Batter is a bit thick. Spoon batter into muffin cups, patting down to make flat.

Streusel Topping
1/3 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. butter
1 1/2 t. cinnamon

Work together all streusel ingredients until they resemble coarse meal – use your fingers, pastry blender, or two knives. Sprinkle over tops of muffins, gathering topping into tidy mound over muffins – if you don’t do this, the topping will melt onto the metal of the muffin tin.

Bake 25 minutes; check with toothpick to make sure center muffins are done.

Cool. Devour.

Terry Lee Stone & The Cakes of Booze (and sknitter, too)

I am sooooo excited that my friend Terry has gotten her cook book out! Terry is a talented knitter, fascinating knitting blogger (sknitter) who always finds something interesting in the fiber world, graphic artist, and now, a cake maven. One thing I really like – I mean really, R-E-A-L-L-Y like – are cakes spiced with alcohol. Rum cake comes to mind in the summer, filled with whipping cream and strawberries. But, Terry and Krystina have gone far beyond this. Just the cover makes me drool! I will definitely be checking this book out. In the meantime, check out their website to get a glimpse into a delicious world of sweet seduction. And Terry and Krystina – congratulations to you both!

Blueberry-Blackberry Cornmeal Scones with Lemon

Scones before topping with kefir and sugar

Sunday morning breakfast – what to make? Blueberry pancakes? Muffins? Go to ‘fridge, no eggs. No one wants to go to the store so . . . scones! And scones it is, as there is butter and everything else you need in the house to make scones. But, I have only 1/2 c. blueberries and about 1/2 c. of blackberries, so this is what we’ll use. The result: A made-up recipe filled with juicy, fresh berries and a slightly crunchy texture. Enjoy!

The Recipe

2 c. flour
1 c. yellow cornmeal
1 T. baking powder
pinch salt
3/4 c. chilled butter (1.5 sticks)
1/2 c. white sugar
grated zest of one lemon
1 c. 1% kefir
1/2 c. blueberries
1/2 c. blackberries

Scone before baking, with kefir and sugar topping

Preheat oven to 425 F. Spray cookie sheet with oil or use parchment paper. Cut butter into chunks. Combine flour, meal, powder, sugar, salt, and lemon peel into mixing bowl. Add butter. Cut butter into flour mixture, or work by rubbing through fingers, until blended and crumbling. Mix berries into flour mixture to coat. Dump kefir into flour-butter-berry mixture and stir up quickly with a fork. Dough will be soft in texture. Flour cutting board very generously. Put dough onto board and work into ball. You may need to add more flour as the dough is wet. Continue until dough will hold a light amount of flour. Cut ball in half. Shape each half into a ball, adding a touch of flour if you need it. Flatten into circle 1″ thick. Cut each into 6 wedges. Place on cookie sheet. Using paper towel tip or pastry brush, coat the top of each scone with extra kefir and then sprinkle lightly with sugar. Bake in top 1/3 of oven for 20 minutes. If you wish to brown the scones a bit, broil them briefly. Yield: 1 dozen scones.