English Gooseberry Cobbler

Summer is over, or so I hear. With the passage of Labor Day everyone starts to mourn the end of Summer and/or welcome the arrival of Fall. Well not so fast, is what I say! According to my calendar Fall doesn't arrive until 5:18 pm on September 22, 2009, so Summer still has a bit of breathing room (not to mention the hot weather that will last in these parts well into football season).

So, Summer it is, and nothing says "Summer" louder than a cobbler for dessert. And gooseberries, apparently, although I'd never tasted a gooseberry until last month when I scooped up two small containers at a wonderful farmer's market/Whole Foods hybrid store [edit to explain: Whole Foods took over a local international/farmer's market chain called Harry's, which resulted in this combination store, with regular Whole Foods products plus lots more international food and unusual produce than a typical Whole Foods] about 20 miles from my house. (I'd been obsessed with gooseberries for the better part of the summer - ever since Pinkstripes baked with them here so I was very excited to finally spot some around here!) I had 10 days by myself in August which was the perfect time to experiment with my bounty. I knew that I wanted to bake a Delia Smith's recipe and finally settled on her English Gooseberry Cobbler.

Delia also has a recipe for Gooseberry Ice Cream, which sounds delicious; in fact she suggests pairing the ice cream with the cobbler. That's when I realized just how tiny my containers of gooseberries really were. I was going to need both containers just to make a partial recipe of cobbler. There would be none left to churn into ice cream. I nearly drove back to the market, but that hour-long errand just for more gooseberries -for ice cream to go with cobbler that I would be the only one eating - sounded a little crazy even to me. But I have to say that I really kicked myself when I couldn't find a single gooseberry at the market the next time I shopped there.


The gooseberries were not the only common-in-the-UK-but-unusual-in-my-neighborhood ingredient in the cobbler. Delia's recipe also called for "elderflower cordial." I had no earthly idea what it is, but thanks to wikipedia, I learned that it's a kind of soft drink made from (what else?) elderflowers, and more importantly, that Ikea produces and sells an elderflower cordial. This was terrific news because Ikea is just minutes from my house. I made a beeline for the store and sure enough there was a lovely (tall) bottle of elderflower cordial in the Ikea food market.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- I made 1/3 recipe of the cobbler.

- Gooseberries are about the size of blueberries, but require a bit more maintenance. They have a pointed end and a stem end, and both must be removed from each berry. I've got to say that it's might tedious to "top and tail" the gooseberries. I started with a knife but found it faster and easier (but still not enjoyable) to just pull the ends off with my fingers. I was very grateful that I was not making a full recipe!

- 1/3 of the topping recipe was perfect for my little mini food processor. The cobbler topping was very similar to a cream biscuit. There was no sweetener in it, just a sprinkling of sugar on top.


the verdict:

The cobbler was delicious and tasted like Summer itself - very fresh, intense, almost grassy flavor. It was not very sweet at all, which I quite liked, but if you prefer a sweeter taste I'd recommend that you add sweetener to the biscuit topping. The tartness of the fruit played nicely off the crumbly plainness of the biscuit, but it also needed cream of some sort to mellow it out - ice cream, whipped cream, pouring cream. In fact, the cold sweetness of ice cream was perfect counterpoint to the tart berries and warm biscuits.

Happy last few days of Summer, y'all!

more of Delia's pasta

In the summer we love eating light dishes made from fresh ingredients (especially with all of the baking we've been doing). Delia's recipe-of-the-day yesterday was Lemon Pasta with Herbs and Cracked Pepper . I was intrigued by the combination of lemon with mint and basil - and arugula (I'm obsessed with arugula) - so when I was out running errands I picked up the things I needed to make it for dinner last evening. I topped the hot pasta with toasted pine nuts, and served it with crusty bread and a salad. Dessert was a fruit galette (more about that at a later date!)

The Verdict:
We loved this pasta. It was very refreshing. It looks like pesto but is lighter and has a bit of a bite from the herbs and the lemon. The flavors were balanced, but we could see that any one of the flavors could dominate if too much were added. The recipe is super-easy and can be eaten hot or cold, according to Delia.

I say "tomato"

After making gazpacho, we still had tons of very ripe tomatoes on our countertop. Time for Delia Smith's Classic Fresh Tomato Sauce! We have plenty of basil, so with just some onion and garlic we were all set.

This sauce is very easy, you just let the ingredients simmer on the stovetop for a couple of hours until "jamlike." I got mine almost as thick as Delia's, but then it thinned out a bit when the remaining uncooked tomatoes are added in at the end.


The Verdict:
This sauce is wonderful and will be my "go to" recipe when I have an excess of tomatoes. The flavor is very concentrated but still fresh. Much brighter than anything I've had from a jar, and I've had some delicious specialty jarred sauce.


Food in the freezer is like money in the bank!

Here's the recipe, with some of my notes:

Delia's Classic Fresh Tomato Sauce

ingredients:
2 lb 8 oz (1.15 kg) fresh, red, ripe tomatoes (around 12 plum tomatoes)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion weighing about 4 oz (110 g), peeled and finely chopped
1 fat clove garlic, peeled and crushed
approximately 12 large leaves fresh basil
a little Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano), to serve
salt and freshly milled black pepper

directions:

1. First skin the tomatoes. To do this, pour boiling water over them and leave them for exactly 1 minute or, if the tomatoes are small, 15-30 seconds, before draining and slipping off their skins (protect your hands with a cloth if they are too hot).

2. Now reserve 3 of the tomatoes (around 10 oz) for later and roughly chop the rest.

3. Next heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add the onion and garlic and let them gently cook for 5-6 minutes, until they are softened and pale gold in colour. Now add the chopped tomatoes with about a third of the basil, torn into pieces. Add some salt and freshly milled black pepper, then all you do is let the tomatoes simmer on a very low heat, without a lid, for approximately 1½ hours or until almost all the liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes are reduced to a thick, jam-like consistency, stirring now and then.

4. Roughly chop the reserved fresh tomatoes and stir them in, along with the rest of the torn basil leaves, and serve on pasta with a hint of Parmesan – not too much, though, because it will detract from the wonderful tomato flavour.

5. When serving this sauce, it is a good idea to give the pasta 1 minute less cooking time than you usually would, then return it to the saucepan after draining and give 1 more minute while you mix in the sauce.

Emphasis on the vinegar

I love Delia Smith's recipes, so much so that I'm considering subscribing to her site's premium content. I've cooked both sweet and savory dishes with great results.

I was excited to see her recipe for Chicken with Sherry Vinegar and Tarragon Sauce. It looked fantastic as pictured on her site, and I printed out the recipe. I couldn't wait to make it and purchased the ingredients. Saturday was the day!

First I browned the chicken, shallots and garlic as instructed, then sprinkled the tarragon and poured in the sherry and the sherry vinegar. Setting it to a bare simmer, I admired the beauty before me:


I expected that as the chicken cooked, the liquid would reduce to a nice syrup-y sauce with the lovely flavor of sherry and tarragon. Yum.

After the requisite 45 minutes, the chicken was cooked, but tons of thin liquid still remained in the pan. I removed the chicken and veggies and tried to reduce the sauce, but didn't have much luck.


After cooking the dish, I thought to check the forum posts on Delia's site and found that others had the same experience too much liquid, and that they found the taste too "sharp." Well, I do wish I'd seen this info in advance.


The Verdict:

I served up the chicken with some English peas (looking a little wizened). My husband loved it - gave it a full 10 on the scale of 1-to-10! In my opinion, there was too much vinegar flavor. Next time, I'd cut the sherry to 8 fl oz, and the vinegar to 1.5 fl oz.

[update]
Actually, upon further thought, I doubt that I'll make this again - there are just too many wonderful chicken recipes out there.