Fresh peach cake

In the great Finger Lakes re-cap of 2011, I forgot to mention the yummy peach salad I had at the Stonecat cafe. It featured local greens, goat cheese and tempura battered local peach slices. The fruit was encased in this light, crisp batter, but remained soft on the inside. It was a really interesting way of serving and tasting peaches -- one of my favourite summer fruits.

Which brings me to the recipe below for Ina Garten's fresh peach cake. I saw her make this on her program, and she make a big deal of sourcing the fruit from a local farm shop in the Hamptons, run by two college-aged girls with trust funds almost as big as their chests. I'm glad Ina's supporting her local economy, but a basket of peaches grown generally in Ontario is good enough for me.

A whole basket of peaches is a lot for one person, but I seem to go through them pretty quickly. I have them sliced on oatmeal in the morning, or mixed with yogurt. And then I freeze some too, to add to smoothies once summer's over. Practially the only thing I don't like about peaches are the inevitable fruit flies that accompany them. I think I've trapped and killed hundreds in my kitchen over the past few weeks (here's my secret method: put bits of fruit, or peelings or whatever, in a small dish and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Then poke several holes in the plastic and leave on your counter. The flies are able to get in the dish, but aren't smart enough to get out. Once you've got a flock going, nuke 'em in the microwave before they breed).

Ina's cake is a nice way to use of peaches. But like all cakes make with fresh fruit, it doesn't have a long shelf life. So you'll have to eat it quickly, or share with co-workers as I did. The texture's a bit like coffee cake, and the nuts are a nice addition to the sugary top. So go buy some peaches (from a stand in the Hamptons, or your local grocery store) and whip up this cake while summer's still around. And don't forget to peel your peaches before you put them in the cake, or else it'll be like eating a mouse! (or so says my mother)



Fresh peach cake
From the Barefoot Contessa How Easy is That?

1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 large, ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 1 cup of the sugar for 3 to 5 minutes on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, then the sour cream and vanilla, and mix until the batter is smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until combined. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and the cinnamon.

Spread half of the batter evenly in the pan. Top with half of the peaches, then sprinkle with two-thirds of the sugar mixture. Spread the remaining batter on top, arrange the remaining peaches on top, and sprinkle with the remaining sugar mixture and the pecans.

Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Gooseberry compote

I bought a box of gooseberries for the first time from the farmers market a couple of weeks ago. I've always been curious about these berries, but had never tasted one until a few weeks ago. They're kind of like a tiny, slightly tart grape, though they weren't as sour as I'd expected them to be. And they look quite pretty here, don't they?

Once I got them home, I had to decide what to do with them. I scoured my British cookbooks, since the fruit seems to be a favourite of cooks there. But since I didn't have enough for a pie or jam, I compromised and decided to make a compote, loosely adapted from the River Cottage Every Day cookbook that I borrowed from the library (highly recommended, by the way!).

The recipe itself is fairly simple: add the fruit, water and sugar to a pan and cook for about 10 minutes. Before I got to that stage though, I had to top and tail the berries. Holy hell was that an annoying task! It took me close to half an hour to take off the tiny stems and the little bits of brown at the bottom. I'm quite sure I would go nuts if I had to prepare an entire pie.

Anyway, after it was all cooked and cooled, I ended up with this -- basically a thick, jam-like concoction. I'd say I started with about a cup of fruit (or just over 280g, because I weighed them), and I added maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons of water, and maybe the same amount of sugar. The compote wasn't terribly sweet, but I liked it that way.

And yes, I realize it looks like a bowl of slightly seedy snot, but I turned it into a fool, by folding it in to whipped cream and crumbled up meringue. It only looked vaguely nasaly after that. :)

Fabulous Finger Lakes

I took a late July roadtrip to New York state's Finger Lakes region. I've been reading a lot lately about how that wine region is a real up and coming tourist destination. Considering it's only about a five-hour drive from Ottawa, it seemed like a doable trip to see for myself.

There are lots of wineries lining each side of Seneca lake (and others). After having lived in the Okanagan Valley for a few years, this area reminded me a lot of it, except not quite as desert-y (or as bible thumpy!).

I sampled a few wines during the trip, some distilled gin, and some locally-made "Champagne" in a cute single serve bottle (see above). Don't worry, I promptly alerted the French authorities about this misuse of this term as soon as I returned to Canada.

I stayed at a really nice hotel at the bottom of Seneca Lake in a small town called Watkins Glen. This was the sunset view from the harbour.

And the harbour, sans sunset.

And a view of the hotel itself. The room had a nice balcony that overlooked the water.

Lots of state parks in the area, and several waterfalls. This one has a name I'm sure, but I didn't bother writing it down.

The trip also included a jaunt to Ithaca, to see the Cornell University, and to Corning to see the glass museum, where they had a paperweight for sale for a measly $43,000 (I bought two). Foodwise, I enjoyed some very nice meals here and here. Maybe my next trip will be in the fall to see the leaves!