Monday, June 8, 2009

We eat on the floor


A light lunch served picnic-style. Ham chunks, homemade bread, radishes from the farm (perfect when dipped in butter, btw), a couple of cheeses, some salami (that moldy thing at the bottom of the plate). Yeah, that's dijon mustard. You got a problem with that?

Friday, June 5, 2009

Who wouldn't love a loquat?


As occasional urban foragers, we get the chance to play with some fun ingredients from time to time. One of the most successful of these was our discovery of a local loquat tree.

After a couple of days of munching on the often-overlooked plum/pear-like fruits, we came up with a plan for them: sorbet!

G went to go fetch loquats, and ended up w/ about 4 pounds total (the seeds are huge, so we expected a lot of loss).

After cleaning and seeding our free fruit, we simmered them in a simple syrup. We added lemon zest, lime (homegrown and from right down the street! thanks, guys), a touch of Cointreau, and a little bit of fresh mint.



Once the loquats were tender, a quick stick-blendering got us ready to go. Liquid was strained for skins:



Then into the ice-cream machine:



Though this picture doesn't do the final product much justice, the sorbet itself was a smash in the house and a frequent dessert for guests.