July. Summer. Fruit Season. Blueberries… {swoon} As someone who didn’t grow up with access to fresh ones, I’m grateful that I’ve been able to enjoy them as much as I can want for the past decade, call me a late blue-mer, if you wish. I bought close to three kilos of these plump indigo-colored berries last week: I ate them, baked with them, made smoothie pops with them, and made jam. Nothing says ‘I love you, fruit!‘ than consuming them in different ways every single day.

One thing I haven’t posted on this blog are jam recipes and I have no good explanation for this. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that I make them late at night when food lighting sucks (and I couldn’t be bothered to shoot photos by the stove with its incandescent lighting), or early in the morning right before breakfast and I simply have no time (or brain power) to think about photos. I know, it’s all about the photos for us food bloggers. And Instagram.

Today I have good reason to be talking about jam because I recently received a copy of Mary Tregellas’ new cookbook, Homemade Preserves & Jams: Over 90 Recipes for Luscious Jams, Tangy Marmalades, Crunchy Chutneys, and More. It’s a beautifully designed paperback that’s just the right size and weight for bringing everywhere (I do this with cookbooks) — like grabbing it last-minute before going to the farmer’s market to get some ideas. I’m thinking of packing this on our next island trip to make full use of the fresh fruits we find.

The recipes are very approachable, clear and concise. Each recipe is laid out in a single page, with often short ingredient list on the left and the step-by-step instructions to its right. Most are accompanied by photos. The book contains a primer on equipment, ingredient notes, and preserving tips, which are very helpful. I appreciate that it doesn’t inundate you with too much information, but has enough to get you started. As you can guess from the title, it does have more to offer: pesto, salads, scones, breads (yes, bread), tarts, and infused liqueurs. Recipes are grouped according to: Luscious, Juicy, Crunchy, Tangy, Tropical, Wholesome, Aromatic, Wild, Intoxicating and Daily Bread. That’s the most part if you would like to know what you can make with the produce you have on hand. Thankfully, the index does its job of pointing you in the right direction.

All in all, it’s a well-rounded book that’s best suited for beginners and preserving enthusiasts like me. This is the perfect gift for friends who are interested in making jams and preserves, but are too intimidated by the process and perceived “complicated know-how” — I know, because I used to be one of them. While it is not a comprehensive reference, this is a great Let’s-Make-Something-Now book, which to be honest, is what you want while the summer fruits and vegetables last.

Because I’m all about the blueberry right now, I made half the recipe for Blueberry Jam with a dash of lime. It made enough for us to last for a few weeks, plus a jar or two give away.

toast + butter + jam = Love

The hint of lime becomes more pronounced after a couple of days. Next time I would even add some finely chopped Moroccan mint for the jar that we’ll consume right away. The jam just has that kind of blueberry mojito character.

BC Blueberry Facts: 1. We have a BC Blueberry Council, which sounds like a cool company to work for, just because of the name. 2. British Columbia has over 800 blueberry growers. 3. BC is the number one highbush blueberry-growing region in the world.

For those of you who are still undecided whether jamming is something you’d like, just invest about half an hour of your time to try this out. It really doesn’t require much effort.

Cooking the blueberries until they soften.

Trust me, you’ll be happy you made it. It’s great on pancakes and waffles, PB&J sandwiches, muffins, rolls, biscuits, what have you. I even added it to blueberry smoothie popsicles!

Cooked blueberries with sugar and pectin added.

Pi Day. Pie Day. I don’t think there’s a better time to post about this Shaker Lemon Pie that we enjoyed plain and with vanilla ice cream. The pie crust (which I made with a healthy sprinkle of vodka) and the Meyer lemon custard filling were a welcome deviation from our never-ending winter of rain, as it’s always been.

It’s still Meyer lemon season and while my friends in California have had more than enough of it than all their cooking, baking, canning & preserving capacities can use up, here in Vancouver we get them mostly in pre-packaged Dandy-brand bags that remind us it’s the “The Chefs preference for desserts, beverages, main dishes and more!” I treasure every fruit because it’s not local to us. As much as I lean towards supporting local, Meyer lemons are imported treats I give myself permission to enjoy as much as I can.

I’ve made anywhere from lemon curd, lemon rolls, margarita, and putting lemon zest and juice in everything, but this Shaker Lemon Pie is the most special thing I’ve made from it this season. It makes me want winter to stay if only for the Meyer lemons.

The crust is money: flavorful, flaky and leaves you wanting more.

The lemon curd-like custard filling uses up the whole lemon (minus the seeds) and pleases the use-everything Asian in me. This pie is said to have originated from the Shaker community of Ohio, and because their lemons came from far away, they wanted to make sure they didn’t waste any part of it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Armed with a good mandoline, this shaker lemon pie can be yours, easy peasy. If you don’t have one, a little patience and a sharp knife will pull you through.

What you’ll need for the crust: Foolproof Pie Dough (PDF) from a previous post

• 2 1/2 cups (or 12.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into 4 pieces
• 1/4 cup vodka, cold (no substitutes)
• 1/4 cup water, cold
• 1 teaspoon sugar (use for double crust pie)
• egg white of 1 large egg, beaten

And the simplest of recipes for filling:

• 2 Meyer lemons, very thinly sliced preferably with a mandoline, seeds removed (you can use regular lemons, but they will be tarter)
• 2 cups granulated white sugar
• pinch of salt
• egg wash from a small amount of beaten whole egg with a few drops of water

Preparation:

1. Mix the thinly slices of Meyer lemons with sugar in a small bowl. Let it sit at room temperature for at least 6 hours. Ideally you’d want to leave it for 24 hours. I did mine for 36 — heavenly.

2. Follow the instructions for the pie dough in the recipe. Preheat oven to 425°F and place a rimmed baking sheet inside. Oven rack should be in the lower third level.

3. Beat the eggs and sugar, combine with the macerated lemons. Pour into the pie plate with crust and place the other crust from the fridge on top. Flute the edges or seal with the tines of a fork. Brush the top with egg wash and don’t forget to cut vent holes with a sharp knife — whatever pattern you like.

4. Bake the pie on the rimmed baking sheet for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 375°F and bake for another 20-25 minutes (check at 20 minutes for doneness). The pie is ready when an inserted knife comes out clean.

It’s less tart and more custard-y after a day or two and it gets better after a day. Re-heat for a few minutes at 350°F.

Some of you might find the concept of eating avocado outside the constricts of a vegetable salad or a Mexican dip bizarre. On the contrary, when I moved to North America in the late ’90s, I had a mental gag when I discovered that my beloved avocado was made into anything other than a dessert — fresh spooned out of the skin, as an ice cream or a filling shake. Worse, it was sometimes being touted as something really fattening. Yikes.

This is my all-time favorite way of eating avocados: sprinkled with sugar and powdered milk (preferably Nido) and straight into my mouth. Creamy, dreamy dessert!

I'll eat you without dieter's remorse.

Have you tried this before? What other food do you eat differently than others do?

On a sweet avocado related note, I was more than thrilled to learn that avocado can be used as the chocolate fudge cake icing in a raw diet. It does taste so rich and good as a ganache!

Sorry Fuss-Free Friday was late. I have to admit that the day just crept up on me this afternoon. If you have other fuss-free recipes to share, please leave the link in the comments section. Thanks and enjoy your weekend!

It’s funny how when I get my writing mojo back, I can’t seem to lay off of it. [This is a Leo thing, right Tracy?] So here I am, burning the midnight New Moon oil with a lot of things swirling in my head. I still have two or more IFBC posts, but I’m giving it a break or you might think I’m utterly stuck waxing poetic about food blogging conferences and friends.

I’m sure you other food bloggers will agree that not everything we prepare in the kitchen makes it on our respective blogs. In my case, about half of what I cook and bake never gets featured here because they:

1. taste meh, bad, or just okay,
2. look gross,
3. accidentally fell on the floor or disintegrated before taking photos,
4. were not photographed,
5. were badly photographed,
6. inedible,
7. or most likely: lost in notation

I had this Filipino dish to have you try, called Tortang Talong (Filipino Eggplant Omelette), but it had a case of #7. It’s super simple, but my limited short-term memory didn’t retain the oven setting and time. It’s easy enough to search online on how others do it, but I just don’t include a method, technique, or other parts of a recipe if I didn’t test it myself. So this will have to wait until I buy more eggplants and oven-roast them again. On the other hand, more eggplant goodness for my belly.

Still on a Southeast Asian Motherland kick, I’ve been wanting to share the  Filipino Chicken Empanada recipe that I learned while observing relatives of relatives on the East Coast. BUT. Guess what? #7.

If this keeps going on, I don’t think I’d even get to my golden years!

Tonight I wasn’t particularly keen on cooking. I began reviewing a friend’s book draft (I’m not a professional, but she asked me to check it out…as a friend) after a 4-hour meeting the previous night, and now with 3 hours of sleep. Long story short, this Energizer bunny needs to rest. All my residual charge could muster up to do was boil, peel, and slice beets. And then I decided they need some other color, like pluots. And then I wanted something salty and creamy, there goes the feta.

A light drizzle of blood orange olive oil later…

Beets with pluot and feta cheese

…an excited first bite was superseded by great disappointment. That’ll be number 1 and 7.

However, all is not lost as I discovered that pluots and feta party together. I mean, Hi, let’s go on another date tomorrow! I’m feeling creamy feta-pluot in my next 24-hour future. What it would end up as, I’m not sure, but I’m getting them a room already. Hopefully it works out.

Have you put together something that seemed brilliant in your head and ended up in a pile of disappointment, beside newly delivered pizza? Or maybe, you have recipe testing fails to share? Do tell!

If you have other pluot-feta recipes, I’m yours. Oh, just remember I have 1/8 cup of butter left. That’s all I can use for now. It’s ghastly to have less than 4 sticks of butter available. That’s just not right.

Energizer bunny out.

Who doesn’t love tart? From savory to sweet, tarts are pretty little things that seem to make its way to everyone’s hearts. I, for one, have a lifelong love affair with tarts because I used to help my mom make personal size fruit tarts for the family, and for my grade school canteen that used to sell her stuff for dessert. It would always be a treat to finish one on the way to school on delivery days. She would set them with gelatin to make them all shiny and enticing, and to prevent the tops from getting watery in the humid tropical weather of Manila. The cream custard that holds the fruit up conjures up memories of childhood for me and my brother. We’ve been bugging our mom to make some of her fruit tarts, with no success. I even got her the small tart shells from Williams-Sonoma, but nope…she still hasn’t gotten around to them. Hah.

For now, all we could hang on to, is my humble tart with frangipane filling.

One evening a couple of weeks back, I was insane enough to arrange the blueberries right side up one by one. it was worth it for the photos, even if they weren’t perfectly aligned. Who wants perfection when you can have homemade? Or so, I tell myself!

And what is it about the scalloped edges of tarts that make me all warm and fuzzy inside?

Don’t get me wrong, I love eating fresh, sweet and local blueberries as is, but it’s always nice to have some good fruit go into something baked:

Making something out of Mother Earth’s bounty is one of the simplest joys the home kitchen can produce…especially summer fruits!

Hmm…and guess what? Something exciting is coming–we’re opening up an online shoppe of our favorite goodies soon! Tick-tock-tick-tock check out the countdown on the right block! More on this later. In the meantime, click that link and be signed up for some cool prizes! Thanks for your support!

  Get the recipe for this BLUEBERRY FRANGINPANE TART

Sorry guys, it’s just been such a hectic month for me, catching up with work and with friends, getting ready for one of my closest friend’s wedding last weekend, and Dan’s visit. Things are settling down after almost two months of craziness.

I found time this week to make this lemon curd tart. It’s summer and I need my blast of citrus-y goodness. We had such a good week of sun, but now it’s drizzling outside and a cool breeze is coming through the back patio windows. I have a cup of hot tea and a slice of lemon curd tart topped with sugared berries…I’ll say this Sunday is going well.

I’ve been meaning to make something from the Ottolenghi: The Cookbook since I bought it in May (in May!!!). It arrived a couple of days before my vacation and it just wasn’t going to happen then. Woe.

Deeba introduced me to this lovely cookbook when she gave me the recipe for these successful macarons and after that, I just kept thinking about getting it. It’s easy to get obsessed about these things, and Amazon.com is surely making a nice profit out of my compulsive Amazon Prime buying fingers. Ha!

The second recipe I’m testing from the book is for lemon curd. I used to think that making curd is tedious. It conjures up memories of my grandmother making “ube halaya” (purple yam jam dessert in the Philippines) that requires continuously standing/stirring in front of the stove for a good hour or so. I wouldn’t dream of it in the summer, especially with the 2nd floor of the house (where the kitchen is) feeling like a greenhouse. Nope, there’s no A/C here.

When I browsed Ottolenhi’s recipe for lemon curd, it seemed easier than the key lime curd recipe I used for my key lime meringue pie. After all, it didn’t need a double boiler setup, plus almost all the ingredients are already mixed together before heating. I thought I just had a free pass to a quick vacation!

Summer Quick Tip #1: Choose recipes that require less oven face time. Look for mix-all-in-one-go types.

When it comes to the crust, I like a good crust, but there was no way I was turning on the oven. I sought out my go-to graham cracker crust recipe (minus the lemon zest) to replace a sweet pastry crust.

Summer Quick Tip #2: Try a no-bake crust.

I couldn’t be happier with the results: less work for me, but the lemon curd tart still turned out irresistibly zesty and the graham crust was amazing with it. Those who don’t like it sour tarts beware, the lemon-y goodness could knock you out. :) Kind of. When you add whipping cream on top, it will be fine. For me, sugared blackberries complement it perfectly.

The first bite is god-awful. I wouldn’t want to share it with anyone! :-)

I’m kidding of course. It’s pretty damn good!

The lemon curd requires 6 hours at the very least to firm up, but it won’t stand up well until you leave it in the fridge overnight. If you want to serve it as fast as you could, do this little trick I do for anything that needs a quick setting:

Summer Quick Tip #3: Add gelatin to curd (or no-bake cheesecake) to serve it in under 30 minutes, instead of waiting for a long chilling time.

It might not be the most elegant solution, but it does work and will satisfy most dessert-loving guests. It will also keep the hostess (who forgot to prepare her tart the previous night) stress-free. If you have family like me who simply cannot wait for dessert to be served, gelatin is a godsend.

And with that, I bid you a good summer week! It’s going to be rainy here, but I’m welcoming this break from the heat. Yeah, yeah, welcome to the weather up here. :)

Get the recipe for this Lemon Curd Tart with No-Bake Graham Cracker Crust

“I love you more than rainbows.” – Ryan Bingham (best original song, Crazy Heart) When I heard that, I went “AWWW”. How cute was that speech at the Oscar’s?! [I'm a total sap!] I’m watching it as I type, can you tell?

This (raw) fudge cake might just be more lovable than those colorful arches.

Strawberry Ganache Fudge Cake: the indulgent-tasting cake that looks good and makes you feel good

The oh-so-decadent-looking ganache–would you believe me when I say it’s made of dates, agave syrup, avocado, and cacao powder? Grins. No, it’s not April Fool’s Day yet. This total eye candy is good for you!

In the beginning I wasn’t sure it would be as good as Elle said it would. It’s not that I don’t trust her, or Ani Phyo (the cookbook author). It’s just that the ingredient combination was a bit foreign to me. Really? Avocado?! I grew up eating avocados as dessert topped with powdered milk and sugar, so the sweet part I got. But…with chocolate? You’re kidding!

My apprehension disappeared as soon as I prepared and tasted it. Oh…my…god!

Raw ganache: the stuff of raw dessert heaven!

This chocolate frosting is UNreal in flavor. Wow. You wouldn’t think it has avocado in it. It is as good-no even better-than it looks.

Each cake layer is made of ground walnuts, cacao powder, medjool dates and salt. The major challenge for me when I made this was shaping the cake into 2 stackable layers. My smallest springform pan was 8 inches, and that produced a layer too thin to hold its shape. I ended up using a smaller-diameter fondue pot that I lined with aluminum foil tso I can easily pop out the layer once it’s compressed into a compact disc.

This is my low-tech solution to shaping the cake layers. It works.

I was eager to devour it after putting on the first layer of ganache, especially after tasting it with some leftover cake crumbs. I love eating tasting everything while making stuff.

First cake layer frosted with ganache

The original recipe called for fresh raspberries. I had strawberries at the time, so I sliced and macerated them in agave syrup for extra softness and moisture.

Mascerated sliced strawberries

After much fussing around with the frosting to make it look decent (I’m not good with icing at all), I had to wait 2 hours for the cake to firm up before cutting it.

A piece of chocolate heaven.

It was love at first bite. I know I say that about a lot of desserts, but wow, this was on its own level of chocolate goodness. If I was to make a list of 100 Things To Eat Before You Die, this will definitely make the cut. Ultra smooth and creamy ganache on two layers of nutty cakes and a soft layer of macerated strawberries in the middle – what could be better? It’s raw and it’s healthy for you, that’s what! This is pure indulgence without the guilt.

Don’t even entertain second thoughts, just make this now. This is pure indulgence without the guilt.

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Ok, I’d like to see a show of hands:

How many of you have procrastinated on something this week? Spill! :)

If you can only see me now, my hands and arms couldn’t be any higher! In August, my brain slows down, my discipline goes on vacation and I am stuck with a mid-summer love affair with someone called Procrastination or Cunctation. I call him CunkyPunky. (See? This is beginning to sound more fun than it really is.) I just have to accept that August is CunkyPunky time and I should just breathe and relax. Aside from procrastinating with CP, I’m also trying to balance bank accounts and to keep sane in the midst of paying even more taxes. I don’t even want to think about it, because aside from my already-planned trip to Blogher Food, there’s another event that I would love to attend: Foodbuzz in November. (I call it an injustice that they are both held in San Francisco! Woe is me, who lives across the north border.) Just when I need to “kick ass” in the making-money department, all CP wants to do is drag me to graze in the grass like spoiled cows living in a luscious Hawaiian ranch–that kind of downtime. I have to remind him that traveling involves money, which involves doing something.

Ayayay.

This super simple breakfast post was supposed to be up last week, but CP and I had a week-long rendezvous. I’m sorry. But I hope you’ll forgive me. It is very easy to do anyway:

Just cook berries in simple syrup of 1 sugar :1 water proportion, wait for it to thicken, then set it aside to cool down. Serve generously on top of your favorite yogurt.

In my case, it’s the Fage 2% greek yogurt. That’s it. No theatrics, just plain and simple food. I eat this for breakfast, as a dessert or as a snack. It’s a great way to save berries that might otherwise go bad this summer, especially if you happen to haul big boxes of them from the farmer’s market.

I’m still rallying to have Fage here in Vancouver. I have never seen it here. Hello– Fage?!?!?!

In case you were wondering– No, Fage isn’t a sponsor of this blog. I just happen to love it so much that I milk my parents, who cross the border several times a month, to bring me Fage. It’s that good.

It took me a week to fully recover from my home-cooked birthday party and the blogathon, but it was well worth it. A huge thanks for my family and friends who came to celebrate with my mom and I for our July birthdays, and for those who sponsored me for Blogathon 2009 for the benefit of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. The party actually looked like a Facebook meetup, really, with my different groups of friends finally meeting each other after sort-of knowing each other on my Facebook wall and photos. Funny how this social networking goes. We had a fun party and I’m so glad that everybody was enjoying themselves and the food. That’s all that matters to me.

This Verrry Raspberry Frozen Yogurt was one of the desserts I made and served at the party. It’s so absolutely refreshing! Try it with (sweet) fresh blueberries…Oh my! Cold heaven in a mouthful. If you like a little bit of tartness with fruit, here’s your wish! It’s just a tad tart because of the yogurt complementing the yogurt’s tartness. A lot of our guest liked this over the sweeter and creamier flavor I made.

And I know why: This is the Perfect “cure” for the heat wave!

If you’re in the Pacific Northwest like I am, you know how excruciatingly hot and painful to bear this week has been, especially if you don’t have A/C. So come on take out your ice cream maker if you haven’t already, and make this! Put yourself out of misery now.

This is easy to prepare for your ice cream/frozen yogurt maker:

Verrry Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3//4 cup water
• 350 grams fresh raspberries
• 500 grams 2% Fage Greek yogurt
• 1 cup cold milk

Preparation

1. Make a simple syrup by boiling water and sugar in a medium sized saucepan until all the sugar crystals are dissolved; no need to stir.

2. Add the raspberries and cook in medium heat until it starts to boil, then decrease to low-med heat. Stir with a heat resistant spatula, and occasionally pressing the berries against the bottom of the saucepan. You can mash it as fine or as chunky as you like. Cook until the mixture becomes thick, but not as thick as jam. Set aside to cool on a trivet first, then in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

3. In a medium sized bowl, pour all the (cold) ingredients and mix with a spatula first to avoid splattering, then with a hand mixer until well blended. You can add more fresh raspberries at this point if you like. Pour into prepared ice cream maker and mix until thick, about 30-35 minutes. You will notice that this does not thicken as fast as your usual creamy ice cream or frozen yogurt, but don’t worry.

Best if frozen at least 48 hours before consuming, but I won’t tell if you eat it right away!

I rarely make lists as posts, so consider this a treat.I didn’t even make one for Canada Day! Shame shame. Anyway, if you’re still looking for ideas for the weekend, here are some easy peasy suggestions, ye American neighbors.

• Summer Strawberry Fro-Yo or Honey Peach Fro-Yo will beat the heat, the ice cream craving and that stupid weight-loss diet. Eat with little guilt. Savor it.
• Baked Garlic Rhubarb Wings features the season’s rhubarb. Plus it’s baked! I have no doubt this will be a surprise hit at your party.
• If you do not care about having greasy, fatty wings (didn’t I just make it the most appetizing thing in the world?!), say hello to our Homestyle Buffalo Wild Wings. Yes, that B-W-W. I guarantee it’s that good.
• For something that looks a little fancier — and still healthy — try the Tuna-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.
• What about some Baked Potato Beet Salad?
• For a good dip for your chips or crispy breads, make this Spinach and Artichoke Dip. I can still remember how good it was. Mmm.

Here are recipes for dessert (or snack) that require a little more work, but you will get a lot of love from the people who will enjoy it:

• Bailey’s Cafe Mocha Cheesecake
• Caramel Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Glaze

Or if you want to bake something that’s easy and still be good, try these Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes or Honey-Cheese Corn Muffins.

Yes, it’s true, when you come to my party you won’t see the usual fares. :p

Happy Independence Day weekend, friends!