Brandywine

My first tomato not only of the year, but ever! This is the first time I've tried growing a fruit or vegetable since moving out of my parents house. I had a few bumps along the way, but she turned out okay.

We moved to California in March and as soon as we found our house I absolutely knew I had to try growing something on the back patio. On a trip to one of the local farmer's markets I found some great heirloom tomato starts. I picked up a Brandywine, a Pineapple, and a Black Krim. I was really hoping for a Green Zebra but they weren't ready yet. I carted them home, elated with my purchases. I bought great big terra cotta pots to put them in and some organic fertilizer to keep them happy and thought all was well and good.

Then I started hearing all the naysayers. Where we live on the California coast it's very foggy. Almost as foggy as San Francisco. (Nowhere is THAT foggy.) Everyone I talked to kept telling me that stuff just doesn't grow here, and especially not tomatoes. I persevered, thinking that they were all just Negative Nancy's.

My girls grew a lot over the months. Then I got hit by blight. The scourge of every tomato grower. Blight is a fungus that can completely annihilate your entire crop. It's bullshit is what it is. Husband nagged me into treating it with Copper Soap, although I was very reluctant to put anything on my plants I wouldn't be willing to eat myself. It helped a bit, but the plants required drastic trimming, especially the Brandywine.



They began to bear fruit a month or so ago and the Brandywine had the first ripe one. I was waiting to use it in a caprese salad, but when I checked on them today I saw it was splitting. Boo. I picked it and chopped off all the bad parts. I really ended up having to massacre the thing, it was pretty depressing. But, thankfully it was big enough to leave us several nice chunks for trying.

She might not have been that pretty, but she sure was tasty.

Yoghurt & Honey Panna Cotta - Numero Dos

I made my second attempt at Greek Yogurt and Honey Panna Cotta this afternoon. I've been attempting to convert a recipe I found over on A Spoonful of Sugar and have been having a minimal amount of success. Needless to say, my versions are about three billion times less photogenic than hers. Blah.

The first time I simply used 4 grams of powdered gelatin, equal in weight to the amount of leaf gelatin used by the pretty lady over there. Unfortunately, 4 grams of gelatin a solid panna cotta doth not make. I altered the recipe to use 5 grams and vowed to work on it again later.

Today I upped the ante to a whole packet of gelatin, 7 grams worth. I also separated the mixture into 4 ramekins instead of two, dropped all the sugar and increased the honey, and substituted skim milk for the heavy cream. It was decidedly different. Even though there was more honey in this version it was less detectable in the flavor profile. The amount of gelatin set it into an almost Jell-O type state, a little too solid in my opinion.

This recipe is going to take a lot more fiddling with, but if you're interested in a super low fat panna cotta recipe I'd highly recommend trying this out. Part tres to follow with, hopefully, the final creation.

P.S. I was going to poach my peaches in a white wine syrup like the original creator did, but after blanching the peaches to remove the skins I tasted one...no way was I going to cover up all that amazing organic, locally grown flavor with a syrup. I haven't had peaches that tasted that good in years. Possibly a decade. And I'm young. A decade is still a lot to me. Even Husband proclaimed their yumminess and he's a guy that I could spend 8 hours in the kitchen whipping up some amazing creation and he'd evaluate it with, 'Eh. Pretty good.' Booger.



Low Fat Yoghurt Panna Cotta

1/2 cup fat free milk
4 T honey
1 packet powdered gelatin
1 2/3 cup plain yoghurt

1. In a shallow bowl pour the gelatin over the milk. Meanwhile in a saucepan heat the honey over low. Let the milk and gelatin mixture set for about 5 minutes.

2. Add the milk to the honey and allow to warm to a point where everything is smooth and dissolved.

3. In a separate bowl combine the honey-milk mixture and the yoghurt, mixing until thoroughly combined. Pour into oiled ramekins, cover and chill overnight.

Kalamansi Curd

I've had the Kalamansi Tree for about a week now. I chose a tree at the market that had fruit already completely ripened with lots of fruit ready to ripen within the coming weeks. This has enabled me to keep myself pretty happily in citrus curd. This is a good thing, because ever since the Strawberry Tart I've developed an addiction to the stuff. I've always had a propensity for sour things. I'm assuming that's because of my natural dislike of most sweets.



Whatever the reason, kalamansi make some awesome curd. It takes about 15-20 fruit to equal the 100 ml of juice needed, but it's so incredibly worth it.



Kalamansi Curd
Makes about 8 oz.

4 egg yolks
125 g sugar (1/2 cup + 2 T)
100 ml kalamansi juice (3 oz/1/3 cup +2 T)
4 T butter, softened

1. In saucepan beat yolks and sugar until well combined. Add rest of ingredients and mix well over med-low heat.

2. Stir constantly over low heat until thickened, about 20 minutes. DO NOT allow to boil, this will curdle the mixture.

3. Pour into cool dish to stop cooking.