Peach Galette

September 10, 2020September 10, 202046 Comments

The expression “life is a bowl of cherries” translates to life is wonderful or things are going very well. For the sake of simplicity, let’s change this slightly to “life is a bowl of peaches” so I have something to write about this week and can experience first hand how truly wonderful this new block editor is supposed to be.

This months recipe is a peach galette. Galette (from the Norman word gale, meaning “flat cake”) is a term used in French cuisine to designate various types of flat round or free-form crusty cakes, with a combination of sweet or savory fillings. A fruit galette is a French tart made with one flat piece of pastry that is wrapped around a fruit filling. Being free-form it’s easier than pie and for those of us not adept at making rich flaky pastry, a store bought pie shell is perfectly acceptable. The aim is to make it look rustic, like something you would serve under the shade of a tree in Provence.

Photo from Victoria Magazine July/Aug 2018

As my favorite vendor is no longer at the Farmer’s Market, I made the trip to their farm to pick up a box of peaches for making jam. I’d ordered ahead and specified over-ripe seconds as I had already sanitized the jars in the dishwasher that morning. As in years past, the seconds were a bargain at $10 for a big box of peaches.

Except….I’d already paid for them and the clerk had put them in the trunk of the car before I realized they were small, cold and nowhere near being ripe. Where were their usual big juicy peaches? I might have gone back in to inquire but the storefront was crowded and there was absolutely no attempt at social distancing. (How much effort would it take to mark the floor with tape and only let so many people inside, especially with the higher COVID numbers in some of these agri-food areas?) So I grumbled and left and five days later they were starting to spoil and get soft and spotty on the outside while the insides were still not quite ripe, but cut up they were, and two batches of freezer jam produced, with extra sugar to make up for the lack of juicy peachy flavor. It hasn’t exactly been a stellar year for most fruit here, with everything behind due to the cold late spring and snow in May.

After making the jam I still had 24 peaches left so a small peach crisp was created and then some peach trifle, both with good results and more sugar (but no pictures as I forgot before they were consumed), and then the “piece de resistance”, the famous French galette, and there were still a few left over for eating. It was the box that kept on giving…..even if it wasn’t a vintage year.

Now the head chef (moi) was not above borrowing a recipe from another source, said source being the Lifestyle section of the local paper, so here’s the recipe.

The filling called for 5 peaches cut in half, pit removed and sliced, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tbsp flour, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and ground ginger. I doubled the sugar but it still could have used more. I left out the ginger as it had expired in the last decade. I made this at my mother’s and her spice rack is suspect and her oven temperamental, but she enjoyed peeling the peaches as it reminded her of life on the farm and canning every summer.

The Tenderflake deep dish pie crust I bought, did not look any too deep to me, as by the time the fruit was piled in the middle,

there was not much pastry left for crimping the border.

The pastry is folded over the fruit, aiming as I mentioned, for the rustic, not too perfect look.

The finished product was not pretty, the filling having bled a bit around the edges, and gotten rather burnt in spots while trying to brown the pastry, having to be scraped off by a kitchen knife before any photo-ops ensued. Plus the lighting in her kitchen is not good at all, not flattering to anyone, least of all a French galette. It did however taste better with some French vanilla ice cream.

It was by no means a Michelin five star job, but the best I can say is I tried and the end result was certainly rustic. Maybe next time with apples? The same can be said for the block editor. It’s certainly doable – but do I want to do it? I think I’d rather stay with the classic.

(This is the first post I’ve drafted in block and I seem to be using a hybrid of block and classic, with things popping out at me and the draft itself shifting from right to left to center for no discernible reason. If it was closer to Halloween I’d swear it was haunted.)

Strawberries, Snakes and Jane Austen

June 28, 2019June 28, 201923 Comments

It’s strawberry season again, but this year seems to be a washout. Blame it on the rain and the lack of sunny days. The local berries are just coming in but they are so sour I’ve decided to wait a week hoping we’ll get some sunnier weather. The kitchen reno is still ongoing so I can’t bake a shortcake or make jam anyway.

For every one sweet one ripening in my little garden plot, there are two that make your mouth pucker. Maybe that’s why the birds are leaving them alone? And here I thought those plastic snakes I bought at the dollar store were working!

This was a tip from another blogger last summer, as plastic snakes are supposed to act as a deterrent to the birds. Walmart was out of snakes, so these are cheaper versions from Dollarama and the clerk told me they work so well they can’t keep them in stock. They look more like skinny worms to me – and neon pink and blue? Those birds must be color blind, but upon further research it appears birds have better visual acuity than humans and can see UV light and a wider range of colors. I suspect they must be waiting for sweeter fare too.

So I’ll leave you with a link to better days and last year’s blog, Strawberry Fields Forever, plus some Jane Austen.

A Victorian Tea

May 24, 2019May 24, 201920 Comments

Every May 24^th weekend one of our local museums hosts their annual Victorian Tea, complete with freshly baked scones, white tablecloths and fine china.

The May 24^th holiday weekend in Canada is called the Victoria Day weekend, because May 24 was Queen Victoria’s birthday. Older people may remember the schoolyard rhyme children chanted years ago – “the twenty-fourth of May / Is the Queen’s birthday; / If they don’t give us a holiday / We’ll all run away!” Now many people don’t even know who Queen Victoria was, unless you watch the PBS TV show Victoria, but she was Britain’s longest reining monarch, although Queen Elizabeth surpassed her in 2015. She became Queen at age 18 and reined over the British Empire for 63 years, from 1937 until her death in 1901, a period known as the Victorian era. She married her cousin Albert, had nine children and survived 20 different governments and 11 prime ministers. After her death, her birthday was made a federal holiday, which was eventually was moved to the Monday preceding May 24 because of the weekend. Queen Victoria most likely would have approved as weekends were an invention of the Victoria era. This May 24th marks the 200th anniversary of her birth in 1819.

Note: the Union Jack (Canada did not get it’s own Maple Leaf flag until 1965) and the old fashioned lilac bush (see Lilac Time).

The Victorian cottage is one of many buildings on the museum site, whose mandate is to display our past customs and heritage. Many have been moved to the site, including a one room schoolhouse, a small church and a log cabin from the days of the early settlers, but the cottage was part of the original grounds. It is a small one floor dwelling, built in 1893, which was used by a Detroit woman as a summer home until her death, when it was donated to the museum. She was known as the cookie lady, for her kindness in treating the neighborhood children to sugar cookies on the veranda when they were passing by.

It consists of a good sized dining room, living room and kitchen and two very small bedrooms.

The inside still looks as it did during the time she lived there, floral wallpaper, quilts and all.

The problem with the Victoria Day weekend is that the weather is usually guaranteed to be cold, rainy and miserable, which does not deter the campers, as it is considered the unofficial start to summer. It seldom fails, whereas the following weekend, the US Memorial Day is often quite nice. Still, not one to let a bit of rain (or even forty days of it like this spring), get in the way of a good tea spread, I decided to attend. The last time I was there, it was miraculously a warm and sunny day, with a pleasant breeze coming off the river, and we were able to take our tea outside on the veranda, as opposed to inside huddled beside the stove. It was such a fine day we lingered over a second cup.

Although the day started out warm and sunny, the forecast was rain by 3pm, (I’m quite serious about the forty days of rain), so we set out early and decided to tour the buildings first (my friend had never been there), as we could always sit inside later if it started to pour. On our walk about, I noticed a big patch of rhubarb growing beside the log cabin and took some pictures which I could have used in last week’s Rhubarb Lunar Cake blog. (It’s never too late to edit!)

There’s something so civilized about a tea party and the clink of china tea cups, shades of Downton Abbey. Each small table was laid with white tablecloths, cream and sugar sets, crystal butter dishes, jars of strawberry jam and a colorful mixture of china cups and plates.

The servers, young and old, were dressed in the costume of servants of the day, complete with frilly caps and white aprons. The wind was so strong, their aprons were billowing in the breeze and the tablecloths were threatening to blow away, so we decided to sit inside.

The only occupant of the veranda was a bird nesting high up in the rafters, most likely anticipating left over crumbs.

Even inside, with the veranda doors open, it was so windy that our vase of flowers blew over soaking the tablecloth, which they removed and replaced with one even more exquisitely embroidered. Our server, a charming young girl of about ten, inquired as to our choice of tea and scones – raisin, rhubarb, orange or apple cinnamon.

Such a difficult decision, but my choice is always the rhubarb – it was divine, light and fluffy, and I am still trying to get the recipe, a carefully guarded secret. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it before it was consumed!

They make up to 400 scones for the day, using the cottage’s own wood-fired stove. (Note the mirror at the top – I guess that was to check your appearance after slaving over a hot stove all day?) The cost of the tea was $7.50 with donations to the museum fund, ordinary admission being $5, a bargain for the price.

Exactly at 3 pm as predicted, the skies opened up and rained on our lovely tea party. Oh well, there’s always next year…I’m sure I’ll be back.

Postscript: Easy rhubarb scones, only for truly lazy cooks or those whose kitchens are about to be torn apart. Mix this, with this,

bake as directed, and you get this.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea in a china cup!

All That Jam

September 12, 20189 Comments

The farmer’s markets are full of peaches right now, a little past their prime which is perfect for jam-making. Last Saturday I bought a big box of peaches for $16 and made 3 batches of jam on Sunday as they had ripened so fast as to be almost spoiling – two of freezer jam and one the old-fashioned boiled on the stove way.

Unlike last year, where I experimented with different types of pectin, I just used the Bernardin No Sugar Needed brand as I don’t like jam to be too sweet, although I did add 2/3 of a cup of sugar as the package insert suggested. I like to be able to taste the peaches. Of course there is nothing so lovely as a big bowl of peaches peeled and sliced on their own, or mixed with some vanilla yogurt.

I woke up with a sore right shoulder (probably from carrying the box), so I recruited my mother to help peel the peaches, which she enjoyed very much as it reminded her of all the canning she did on the farm. My nostalgia for homemade jam was one of the memories which lead to the creation of the homeplace blog (see Out in The Country).

For more canning memories, you can check out last fall’s unpublished blogs, Jamfest and Lavender and Pears, (although it is not quite pear season yet).

Peach jam is best served in January during a blizzard while looking out the window at two feet of snow and dreaming of summer….

(200 words – almost makes up for the last weeks 4000)

Peaches for Sale

Strawberry Fields Forever

July 2, 2018June 28, 20198 Comments

Strawberry fields forever. It sounds like a strawberry lover’s dream, but fortunately the science of greenhouse genetics has come up with a new strain of strawberry plant which bears fruit for four months – June, July, August and September. Last year I planted two of these ever-bearing varieties which produced enough berries all summer to garnish a salad,

: Mandarin salad with raspberry vinaigrette

and provide the odd nibble, both for me and the birds.

I think the birds feasted, whereas I was more like Emma of Jane Austen fame, the pleasure was in the anticipation. (see literary postscript below)

Although the farmers markets are now full of gorgeous red berries, there is a certain satisfaction to be had in growing your own or in visiting a farm to pick your own fruit, plus it is certainly cheaper. The farm outside town sells quarts for $6 versus $2.50 to pick your own, a significant savings if you are buying enough to make jam or freeze.

I remember going strawberry picking when I was a teenager, (long past the age when helping out was fun), and then spending a couple of hours at the kitchen table hulling the stems before my mother would place them in freezer bags. We always had a long freezer at one end of the farmhouse kitchen, a freezer so vast and deep that if you tried to get to the bottom of it to find the last roast or bag of corn you might topple in. Every summer those berries would go in the freezer and the next summer they would get thrown away. I remember my mother making a strawberry shortcake in the winter exactly once and nobody liked it because the berries were soggy, but there is a vast difference between fresh and frozen soggy.

Our farmhouse strawberry shortcake was not like any of those anemic-looking store-bought cakes or biscuits garnished with a few berries. My mother would start with a golden cake mix, (never white), baked in a long glass pan, and then crush a big bowl of berries (leaving some whole) with a bit of water using a potato masher, adding sugar to taste.

When it was served you would cut your own size of cake, crumble it up, and then the bowl was passed around with a big spoon and you would ladle on a generous portion, certainly enough to make the cake soggy and wet with berries and juice. Whipped cream was optional. I still make my strawberry shortcake this way. Guests who were not used to this old-fashioned version might find it a bit odd but in retrospect it was more like a trifle.

I had a wonderful homemade strawberry trifle last week at a church dinner and nothing beats homemade, but if you want a quick alternative just layer the leftover cake and berries with store-bought vanilla pudding cups (instead of custard) and garnish with whipped cream (from a can but scratch would be divine). It makes a nice easy desert plus it gives me an excuse to use my Downton Abbey thrift shop crystal goblets.

Strawberry Trifle

I made a non-alcoholic and an alcoholic version, adding some brandy to the bottom layer of cake to make it soggy, and it was very good indeed.

Last summer I made strawberry freezer jam for the first time (as part of my Jamfest frenzy), and into the freezer it went, where it still resides and will soon be thrown out……it must be genetic!

I am trying to be more conscious of food wastage, as studies show we throw out a quarter of the food we buy, but a fresh strawberry is such a wonderful thing and the season so short I think we can be forgiven for being extravagant in our stock-piling. Is there really any comparison between a fresh picked berry and those berries the grocery stores pass off as the real thing the rest of the year – tart, tasteless and hard and pulpy inside to withstand shipping.

Still on the rare occasion I need jam for scones I can easily buy a good brand of strawberry-rhubarb jam from my friend’s shop.

I did however make a fresh stewed strawberry-rhubarb preserve this year,

equal cups of strawberries and rhubarb, with a tiny bit of water plus sugar to taste, cooked down to a soft texture on medium heat, which I keep in the fridge and mix with vanilla Greek yogurt, because with all the varieties of yogurt available why don’t they make a strawberry-rhubarb flavor.

Literary postscript: Jane Austen’s Emma wherein Mr. Knightley has issued an invitation to Donwell Abbey, “Come and eat my strawberries: they are ripening fast.”…..”Mrs. Elton, in all her apparatus of happiness, her large bonnet and her basket, was very ready to lead the way in gathering, accepting, or talking — strawberries, and only strawberries, could now be thought or spoken of. — “The best fruit in England — every body’s favourite — always wholesome. These the finest beds and finest sorts. — Delightful to gather for one’s self — the only way of really enjoying them. Morning decidedly the best time — never tired — every sort good — hautboy infinitely superior — no comparison — the others hardly eatable — hautboys very scarce — Chili preferred — white wood finest flavour of all — price of strawberries in London — abundance about Bristol — Maple Grove — cultivation — beds when to be renewed — gardeners thinking exactly different — no general rule — gardeners never to be put out of their way — delicious fruit — only too rich to be eaten much of — inferior to cherries — currants more refreshing — only objection to gathering strawberries the stooping — glaring sun — tired to death — could bear it no longer — must go and sit in the shade.”

My sentiments exactly. 34 C today or 40 with the Humidex….

Lavender and Pears

September 25, 2017September 12, 20181 Comment

Lavender & Pears – Aug 2017

There were pear trees on the homeplace and every year my father would make pear marmalade. At least he said he made it, but in reality I think he just collected the pears and helped my mother peel them. This was during the late seventies when I was away at school so there was no witness to this event but as in his later years when he used to vacuum the dog hair from the carpet and called himself a regular Molly Maid, I suspect it was a bit of an exaggeration. For a decade or so, my mother made peach jam, pear marmalade and three fruit marmalade. I remember taking jars of it to university in the fall and having it for breakfast in my dorm if I didn’t go down to the dining hall. I didn’t go home very often as it was too far away, but one year when I had been in hospital with a kidney stone they brought me a fresh supply – it was like a taste of summer in February, and much better than the store-bought stuff. I don’t know the difference between jam and marmalade and preserves, but it was all boiled down on the stove.

Pear Marmalade

I made it the old-fashioned way last year with two $4 baskets of pears and it was good, but having learned my lesson from the peach jamfest, I decided to stick to the freezer jam recipe from Certo Light – less work and still good flavour. Only it wasn’t good flavour. There wasn’t a recipe for pear jam on the package insert so I used the one for peaches. The pears were overripe, (I had gotten distracted by preparing for a tea party for the Group of Seven Art Ladies) so basically the whole mixture turned to mush. I added too much pectin, and not enough sugar, so it came out very gel-like. Basically, it was edible, but barely. I stuck in the freezer anyway, but it will probably end up being thrown out. I much preferred last years, but it was ore time consuming.

You can buy quite lovely jam at the farmer’s market for $5 a jar. The stand owner told me it is made from the juice and pectin, as they make it year round and you can’t get fresh fruit in the winter, but the taste is quite good. I buy the crabapple jelly, but there are all kinds of exotic flavours like gooseberry jam (we had an old gooseberry bush too, which would produce one or two berries a year), Saskatoon jam, red current jelly, plum jam etc. When I was at the museum craft sale last Sunday there were several tables selling homemade jams and jellies – hey let someone else do the work! I think that’s why my mother quit canning.

The lavender harvest is in…. sixteen small mesh (party store) bags. I placed them on the harvest tea table as party favours but they are quite lovely for lingerie drawers, or tucked under a pillow for sweet dreams.

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Song of The Day: A Partridge in a Pear Tree – click here for music link – Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters

Sorry, but it’s the only song I could come up – may I be forgiven for reminding people that it’s only 3 months until Christmas.

Jamfest

August 23, 2017September 12, 20183 Comments

Freezer Peach Jam

There was a jamfest in my kitchen last weekend in honor of August. I had bought a big box of canning peaches from the Saturday morning farmers market for $9 – they were seconds, overripe but perfect for canning – there must have been over fifty peaches in the box – the guy who owned the stand had to carry it to the car for me, but they needed something done with them stat. It was my first time making peach jam and after some google research I still couldn’t decide what recipe to use so I decided to make three small batches – two freezer jam and one the old-fashioned preserves way. For the first batch of freezer jam I used the Certo Light Pectin – 3+ cups of peaches, but I cut the pectin and sugar in half, ½ package pectin and approx.. 1 ½ cups of sugar – it was just right – made 4 little jars and one plastic container. The dollar store jars were cute but the lids were not the best – the grocery store was out of the standard jars. Freezer jam can be stored for 3 weeks in the fridge and for 8 months in the freezer. It was fairly runny so I’m not sure it set properly but then I had cut the amount of sugar in half and the directions warned against doing that….but it was still plenty sweet enough! I’m not sure why this recipe had you sprinkle the pectin and ¼ cup of sugar over the crushed fruit for 30 minutes stirring occasionally, whereas the Bernardin No Sugar recipe called for boiling the pectin with apple juice, but there is a chemical reason behind it according to one of the websites, for those who like a little chemistry with their canning. It has something to do with the ph and acid molecules but since I am retired from all that it didn’t stick in my brain.

The second freezer batch was Bernardin No Sugar Needed Pectin – and I followed the recipe on the box exactly this time, boiling the pectin in 1 ¾ cups unsweetened apple juice, then adding to 3 cups crushed peaches, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and 2/3 cup of sugar as recommended. It set thicker, and there was lots of nice peachy taste, but it could have used more sugar. Maybe the tart apple juice cancelled out some of the sweetness? Made 8 smallish plastic containers.

The third and largest batch which we made on Sunday (I put my mother to work helping to peel the peaches…she said she enjoyed it, it brought back old memories), was made the old-fashioned way with sterilized jars and boiling the fruit with sugar but no pectin…..8 cups of peaches and 2 cups of sugar. Last year I had made pear marmalade with 8 cups of pears and 3 cups of sugar and found it way too sweet, so I cut back on the sugar. But this batch, while it had plenty of peach flavour, could also have used more sugar. Made six 250ml jars. Many of those old fashioned recipes call for a 2:1 ratio of fruit to sugar, (the sugar acts as a preservative), including the Purity Cookbook, which I tend to use as my food bible as it is the reissued edition of the original Canadian classic my mother used when we were growing up. My mother’s copy is dog eared and stained, whereas mine is still in fairly pristine condition, which might give you an idea about how often I cook. Unlike the Pioneer Woman I will not be appearing on the Food Network anytime soon. That cookbook being old, originally published in 1917, uses the paraffin method of putting a bit of melted wax over the top to seal the jar, which I did, but it is no longer recommended according to my online search. Apparently it does not make a good seal and people do not like having to fish hydrocarbons out of their jam so I am not recommending it – do not try this at home. It is a wonder we all survived when our grandmothers knew nothing about organic molecules.

Unlike Goldilocks, none of the recipes were just right, but the best was the first – Certo Light…..now if I could only remember exactly how much sugar I added as I didn’t make any notes and just sweetened to taste…..a bad habit I picked up from my mother. It’s hard to get a recipe out of her because like many experienced cooks she doesn’t measure, and if she does give you a recipe it never quite turns out like hers. My mother used to store her canned goods on pantry shelves in the cellar, but I put mine in the freezer and fridge. I figure if there is a nuclear war and we are forced to use the basement as a bomb shelter, at least no one will die of scurvy.

Peach Preserves

Music for a Jam Session – Duke Ellington – C Jam Blues – click music link here

Peaches in a Blue Bowl – 2017

Postscript: Feb 2018 – the first batch Certo Light tasted good at the time but did not keep well and had to be discarded, it might have been the dollar store lids, and I reduced the sugar which they said not to do. The Bernardin No Sugar batch tasted wonderfully peachy even in Feburary.