Cobbling It Together

It happens every year. Usually it starts mid to late May and goes in fits and starts through July & August. It's my ongoing love affair with Summer. Warm weather, flowers; all good. Hot weather, humidity; all bad. But them something that speaks only in the language of summer comes along and woos me, and as soon as it seduces me it runs off and leaves me for another year. Leaving me sitting and soaking in the oppressive humidity.

Well, here we go. Peaches. Blueberries. Together in perfect harmony and lightly spiced.


Peach & Blueberry Cobbler
by way of Smitten Kitchen

Fresh peaches and blueberries from some of our local farmers. The peaches were stupidly juicy and just the right amount of tart. The blueberries were bursting with sweetness. Add a little flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg and a pinch of salt.

The ingredients for the buttermilk cornmeal topping. Mix until resembling lumpy sand. Add buttermilk. Spoon on top of the peach/berry mixture.

I gilded the lily...sprinkled a pinch of coarse demura sugar. Bake at 425 for about 20-25 minutes.

When your kitchen is full of the heady, fruity aroma, you know things are gonna be good. Allow to cool for a bit.

Dig in. Serve with some whipping cream, ice cream or even some yogurt if you like. We skipped all and just enjoyed the delirious fruit flavors and tender biscuit topping.

Ooops, all gone. Good thing I made four individual cobblers...I'll have one for breakfast, with the yogurt.




This recipe will make a 9x13 baking dish full of goodness. I halved the recipe and made four small ramekins...portion control!


Peach Blueberry Cornmeal Cobbler
Via Smitten Kitchen
Adapted from The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern

For the fruit
1 1/2 (about 4 cups) pounds peaches, pitted and cut into slices*
1 pint (about 2 cups) blueberries, rinsed and dried
2/3 cup packed dark-brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the biscuit topping
3/4 cup (3 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fine stone-ground cornmeal (yellow or white)
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C).Toss peaches with blueberries, sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in the bottom of a 2-quart ovenproof dish.

Make the biscuit dough: Stir together the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter into the dry mixture with your fingertips, a fork or a pastry blender. Stir in buttermilk with a rubber spatula until a wet, tacky dough comes together.

Plop spoonfuls of the biscuit dough over the filling; don’t worry about covering entire surface. Bake until the cobbler’s syrup is bubbly and the biscuit tops are browned, about 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool slightly and scoop it into bowls. Top with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, of if you’re having an accidental run-in with this cobbler before noon, plain yogurt.

*Want to peel your peaches? Here’s how: Cut a small “x” in the bottom of each peach. Dip them in boiling water for 30 seconds, and the skins will slide right off.

Knock Knock

Who's there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock Knock.
Who's There?!?!
Banana.
Banana WHO?!!!!!!
Orange you glad you met me!

Oh bad jokes...sorry.

So, today...I'm going through my list of posts to do and think the best for today is dealing with oranges.

Orange Supremes to be exact...orange segments. No white pithy parts. No fiberous parts. Just juicy, sweet orange segments. Let's get started.

Pick your fruit from the market. Don't worry if you have a few blemishes on the skin, you're going to remove it anyway.

Start by cutting the top and bottoms off the orange. Cut in deep enough to expose the inside of the fruit.

See? Both ends cut off.

How we'll start to cut the rest of the peel off of the orange. Resting the orange on your cutting board, place your knife at the top of the orange, right at the edge of the fruit, before the peel begins. Carefully slice your knife down towards the bottom of the fruit, trying your best to keep the knife inside the orange and not cutting into the peel.

Continue this process all around the fruit. Then go back and remove what you can of the extra white bits that hang on. Save the peels and squeeze the juice out of those extra bits.

Now you need to pick up your orange and start to cut the segments. Look for the parts of the internal peel that delineate the segments. In this photo you see two white lines running from the top to the bottom. Place your knife as close to the inside of the white seam; cut into the fruit, roughly to the center of the orange. Repeat the cut on the opposite side of the segment.

There it is. Your first segment of orange. Now start working your way all around the orange, remove all the segments.

Here's what you'll have left when your done. Squeeze the remaining juice out and into the bowl you have saved your segments in.

These are the segments from one orange.

Here are three oranges and all the extra juice.

I don't know about you, but this is my favorite way to eat and orange. When I try to peel an orange and eat the segments, I often have trouble chewing parts of the fruit and kinda need to spit out part of the fruit. Unpleasant. But the supreme segments are just lovely. Small bites of simple, sweet fruit. The supreme segments are a great way to incorporate orange, or grapefruit into a freshing salad.

Enjoy!

Mango Mango

A little mango from tonight's dinner

Spicy coconut shrimp with mango salsa

Very tasty!