Maine 2010

Block Island 2010

Wild Blueberry Buckle

After spending a week in Maine...what ingredient, other than lobster, would be better to spotlight than some wild Maine blueberries?
We had the opportunity to eat some fresh Maine lobsters. The blueberries came in the form of a blueberry cobbler made with some jam from Stonewall Kitchen...and my favorite pie on the planet from Pie in the Sky bakery.
On our last day, my Dad bought me a quart of blueberries from a farm stand. Once home, I pondered over what to do with them. I considered muffins, cobbler, a blueberry crisp, or a pie. But, while I was searching around, I saw this recipe for a buckle & decided this would be it.
A buckle is pretty much a coffee cake. It's similar to a crisp in that it has a streusel topping. But, unlike a cobbler, or crisp, the berries are mixed into a cake-like bottom. What makes it different from a typical coffee cake is the addition of fruit into the cake batter...lots of fruit. This particular recipe is about half cake, half berries, which keeps the end result super moist.

Begin by preheating an oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9" springform pan by greasing the sides & bottom with butter, then dusting it all over with flour. Tap out the excess flour & set the pan aside.
To make the topping, add 4 tablespoons unsalted butter {softened}, 6 tablespoons flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon and an 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg to a mixing bowl.

Vacation

I am signing off for a much needed getaway. We are heading to Block Island for 4 days & then up to Maine for a week. I hope to get lots of great pics & cook lots of great food...which, I will share upon our return!
Hope everyone is enjoying their last few weeks of summer!

Happy 60th Birthday....

to my Dad. Love you Pops!

Grilled Baba Ghanoush

As I have mentioned before, we started our first "real" vegetable garden this year. One of the crops we planted was eggplant. They are the small Japanese variety. I harvested them all at once, even though some of them were quite small, because I figured I would only have enough to make one dish with them...so, I might as well use them up.
I struggled over what to make, because honestly, I am not the hugest eggplant fan. But, I do love Baba Ghanoush, which is a Middle Eastern dip made from pureed eggplant. It's one of those foods that tastes infinitely better when made from scratch vs. store bought.
Because my eggplants were so small, I decided to try grilling them, vs. charring them over a gas range flame, which saved a lot of time. I also decided to try making a garlic paste to add to the puree, to help the flavors intensify a bit, which it did.