Summer Berry-Peach Tart

 

More fun with blackberries!

For the GNO brunch last weekend I promised to bring a fruit salad so went to the Farmer's Market that morning to gather some seasonal ingredients.  Made a mixture of blackberries, blueberries, peaches, fresh chopped mint and honey.  It came together really nicely, so nicely that I thought "you know, this would make a great pie filling too."  But instead of a pie, I decided to do a tart, with some finely chopped pecans (to give it a little crunch) and cinnamon crust...mmm mmm mmm!  Experimental cooking can be so much fun (especially when it turns out the way you crossed your fingers for).

Summer Berry-Peach Tart

crust
1-1/4 cup flour
3-4 tsp. ground cinnamon
6 tbsp. cold butter, cubed
1-1/2 to 2 tbsp. water
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
sugar to sprinkle

filling
1-1/2 cups whole blackberries
3/4 cup blueberries
1 medium peach, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp. fresh mint, finely chopped
1-1/2 tsp. honey
1 tsp. sugar
1/8 cup pecans, finely chopped

Mix together flour and cinnamon.  Add in pieces of butter and incorporate using a pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.  You can use your fingers, but I find the heat from my hands will start to melt the butter and make it less malleable.  Yes, I have hot hands in the kitchen.

 

Starting with 1 tbsp. of water (and adding more as needed in 1/2 tbsp. measurements), bring mixture together until it forms a soft dough ball. Will take some kneading so be patient.

Wrap the dough in plastic or wax paper and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

In the meantime mix together the fruit, mint, honey and sugar.  Set aside.

When the dough is ready, roll out and transfer to a lightly greased tart or springform pan.  If you use a springform pan make sure to press it up along the edges to form a short ridge to hold the filling.

Sprinkle the chopped pecans along the bottom and press into the dough.

Pour the fruit mixture into the tart pan and spread out evenly.  Fruit filling will be higher than the sides of tart pan when you pour it in, but not to worry, it will cook down.

Place the tart pan on a cookies sheet.  As an easy-to-clean-after precaution, I had put a sheet of foil down in case of fruit juice spillage.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Remove tart from oven and brush edges with egg yolk.  Sprinkle with sugar and bake another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool tart pan on a rack.

Once pan is cooled, remove tart and place on a serving dish.  Or cutting board if you're going to jump right in on that.

Serve with your favorite ice cream or a decorative dollop of whipped cream.

NOTES

I forgot to put my cinnamon in the flour to start with, but you can fold it into the dough after it's mixed, will just give it that marbled effect.

To get my pecans finely chopped, I just threw them in a food processor for about a minute.

For the mint, rinse and dry the leaves.  Then the easiest way to chop them is to chiffonade them -- roll them together into a long "tube" shape and then cut along the short end.  Will give you small "ribbons" of mint.

You could substitute other fresh berries in this dish, I just chose blackberries because I adore them and because all my fruits are currently in season.

Whatever fruit combo you use, you want to make sure they all have the same cooking time (for example, apples take longer to cook than berries so would not work with this unless partially cooked to begin with).

I served my torte with caramel honey frozen Greek yogurt. 

Not-a-Food Recipe: K2's Happy Hands Sugar Scrub

 

Every year my Girls Night Out (GNO) crew has a Summer Birthday Bash to celebrate all of our birthdays (three June babies, three July babies, no wonder we all get along so well).  And every year, I like to make homemade gifts, everyone gets the same thing only personalized to their individual tastes or personalities.

This year I decided to make sugar scrub.  There's a steak place down in Charleston we always go to for dessert when we're out and about in the market area and in their ladies room they always have a big bowl of sugar scrub.  Spoon a little out, rub it on your hands, rinse, pat dry...voila! baby soft skin.  It's WUNderful.

So I did a little research and found that you can make it yourself...and it's super easy!  The hardest part is tracking down essential oils, but once you have them it takes only minutes to throw a batch together.  Everyone seems to have their own variation on the recipe so I checked out a handful from here and there and came up with my own concoction formula.

K2's Happy Hands Sugar Scrub
Note -- this is NOT, repeat NOT an edible recipe, please don't eat it, no matter how tempting it is to try!

1-1/2 cups sugar (white, raw, and/or brown)
1/2 cup light olive oil
1/2 tsp. vitamin E oil
10-12 drops essential oil
1/2 tsp. dried herbs or spices (optional)

Measure, mix, moosh together, package prettily...annnnnnd done.

Recipe fills two (2) 10 oz. jam jars.

NOTES 

K2H2S2 has a shelf-life of 2 months, so make it and use it right away.

You can buy vitamin E in liquid form, in some places you may find a lanolin/vitamin E blend.  I had a bottle of vitamin E capsules at home that I popped open and squeezed the oil out of (4 capsules = 1/2 tsp.).  Vitamin E is available anywhere you can buy over the counter vitamins.

You can find essential oils at some drug stores, grocery stores or specialty food shops.  Depending on where you go and what scent you choose, be prepared to pay between $3-$25 per bottle.  I found my sweet almond oil at Rite Aid for $3.19, and my lime and tangerine oils at Whole Foods for $4.99 and $5.99, respectively.

Here are some sugar/scent variations I made following the recipe above.

Tango Lime = white sugar + 6 drops lime essential oil + 6 drops tangerine essential oil

Sweet Almond = raw sugar + sweet almond oil

Cinnamon Brown Sugar = brown sugar + cinnamon + 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

You can use extract in lieu of essential oil, but because its alcohol-based, the scent won't linger like it does with essential oils and it will not have the same softening effect that the essential oil does.  If you do try it, I would use it sparingly.

For packaging, I went to Michael's and found my screw lid jars, but you can find the same at Walmart.  In fact, Walmart has some Ball wide mouth half-pint (8 oz.) mason jars with screw on lids which are perfect packaging for the sugar scrub. I also found some plastic long-handled miniature spoons at Party City which are great for scooping out of the taller jars.  Or small coffee spoons would do the trick too.

Have fun experimenting!

Blackberry Marbled Pound Cake

 

The past couple of weekends I've been religiously making the early morning sojourn to the Farmer's Market to get first dibs on the blackberry stash.  Learned very early on that they go fast and furious and with a short season, need to get them while I can.

Outside of my normal blackberry addiction, I've been hoarding them because it's cordial-making time in the K2 kitchen.  After the requisite batches, I found myself with some extra berries and thought I'd try something new so here you go.

Blackberry Marbled Pound Cake

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup blackberry puree (approx. 1-1/2 cups full berries)

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth.  Add in vanilla and mix until blended.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated.

 

In a separate small dish, combine your dry ingredients and then stir into the creamed mixture until smooth.

In a blender or food process, puree the whole blackberries (only takes about 30 seconds).

Messy mix the pureed blackberries into the batter.  By "messy mix" I mean very loosely fold without fully blending the puree in so that it will have that marbled look.

Light grease the bottom of a loaf and carefully pour the batter into it.  Carefully as to retain the marbled effect while baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Set pan on a rack to cool.  Let sit in pan about 5-7 minutes, then loosen the sides and turn out of the pan to finish cooling.

NOTES

The blackberry puree will be as sweet as your berries are when you puree them.  If you need to sweeten them up a bit, just add a mere sprinkle of sugar to it. 

If you're not a huge blackberry fan (which is ridiculous, of course), you could always substitute another fruit puree.  Raspberries or even fresh peaches (which are currently in season) would work really well with this recipe too.

You can serve this will ice cream and top with fresh berries.  According to the Guinea Pig Parents, it also toasts up really well and, with a nice light smear of butter, is quite tasty.

Red Coleslaw

 

Since white coleslaw got its day in the sun, figured I couldn't let you go without adding a "red" slaw to your NC BBQ repertoire.

If you like things with a kicky tang, then this peppery slaw will be just the ticket.  Red slaw is also known in some circles as "barbeque slaw" and is oftentimes used as a condiment on hot dogs, burgers, or pork sandwiches.  Because of it's vinegar-base, its not unlike sauerkraut, but much less pungent and much more crunchy because it hasn't been fermented like kraut has.

Red Coleslaw

4 cups finely chopped green cabbage, raw
1/3 cup ketchup
6 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 dashes Tabasco sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper

In a medium size bowl whisk together ketchup, cider vinegar, sugar, pepper flakes, tabasco, salt and pepper.

Cut your cabbage very fine and add it to the mixture.

Mix together well.  Put in the fridge for at least 1 hour to allow flavors to blend.

Serve up with your favorite BBQ dish.

White Coleslaw

 

Did you know...the term "coleslaw" is the anglicanized version of the Dutch word "koolsla" which is short for "koolsalade" which literally means "cabbage salad"?  Both the word and the dish were brought to the U.S. by Dutch and German settlers.

Since the 18th century, coleslaw has been a popular side dish, usually served cold, consisting of raw chopped cabbage dressed with mayo or buttermilk or vinegar.  Oftentimes spices, or carrots or sometimes even fruit (like pineapple or apples) is added to the dish.

If you like a traditional slaw, here is a simple recipe to follow.  In the land of NC BBQ, it's known as "white" slaw.  It's a mayo-based salad with a crunchy refreshing taste that nicely offsets the tanginess of a heapin' helpin' of sauce-drenched drenched pulled pork.

White Coleslaw

3 cups finely chopped green cabbage, raw
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot, raw
1/2 cup  mayonnaise
4 tsp. white vinegar
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. salt

In a medium size bowl, blend together the mayo, vinegar, sugar, celery seed, pepper and salt.

Add in the chopped cabbage and chopped carrot.

Mix well and allow to sit for 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

NOTE

In the photo, we served up the white slaw with an Eastern-style (vinegar-based) pulled pork BBQ which is why it looks like nothing is on it meat.

BBQ Sauces

 

Happy 4th of July!!!

Hope everyone is having a day filled with family, friends, food and fun.  As promised, here are a couple of sauces for you to try.  We're doing pulled pork (thank you Mom!) and pulled chicken for our celebratory feast.

I've got an Eastern NC-influenced sauce and a Lexington-style sauce for you to try.  Enjoy.

Eastern NC BBQ Sauce

1 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tbsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt

Blend all ingredients together. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, stirring occasionally (to make sure sugar dissolves), to allow flavors to blend.

Serve up with pulled pork.

Lexington-style NC BBQ Sauce

1 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbsp. Worchestershire sauce
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
5-6 dashes Tabasco

Blend all ingredients together. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to allow flavors to blend.

For both sauces, you want to make sure the sauces are at room temperature, though you can heat them a little before serving (so that you are not putting cold sauce on hot pork).

Serve up with pulled pork.

"Quick"-n-Easy Pulled Pork

6 lb. bone-in pork butt

Place pork butt in a foil-lined pan, fat side up.  That way the drippings from the fat will cook into the meat keeping it moist.

Bake at 325 degrees for 6 hours.  Drop oven temperature to 300 degrees, continue to cook for 1 hour. 

Remove loin from oven.  Using a pair of forks, pull the meet from the bone and crisped fat.

Serve up with favorite sauce.

NC BBQ

Major Procrastination + Late Night Trip to Small Animal Emergency Room = Monday Post...that's what I call bad math.  Just a heads up, since I'm rolling "one day off" this week, you can expect the next post on the Fourth. (p.s. the cat is fine, having survived both the mystery symptoms and my overwhelming pleasure at getting to drive 30 minutes in the rain on a Sunday night)

Summertime in the South, the weather may be hot but it doesn't stop us from enjoying a cold beer and some outdoor eating.  With the Fourth coming up this week, I thought it would be a good time to talk about that Southern classic -- BBQ.

Now here in North Carolina, we take our BBQ very seriously.  I'll be the first to confess that I was a late convert to the joys of a "pulled" plate.  Growing up in the north, to me BBQ meant the torturously delicious smelling slow-roasted rack of ribs my mom used to make, smothered in a thick ketchup-y sauce that was worthy of a stack of napkins.  So you can imagine my surprise when I order BBQ in NC for the first time and someone put in front of me what at first glance appeared to be a plate fancy dog food.  But man-oh-man, I've been a Southern BBQ addict ever since that first bite.

Throughout the South, BBQ generally refers to pork that's been slow-cooked over coals and then served either chopped, sliced, or pulled and covered with sauce.  The Spanish explorers were the ones to introduce pigs to the Americas and the native Indians in turn taught them their slow-cooking process. A big shout out to both cultures for making American pork BBQ possible.

In the 19th century, especially in the rural South, pigs were a low maintenance, easily available food source.  Pigs could be released into the woods where they would forage for themselves and then easily brought down when food was needed.  Eventually, pigs were domesticated and kept on the farm to fatten up for feasting. 

Waste not, want not was a concept put to practice when it came time to slaughter time.  Every part of the pig was utilized and put to good use.  It was either eaten immediately or cured for later consumption.  All parts -- ears, organs, etc. -- were turned into something edible.  Though if you've ever been introduced to scrapple, I'm not sure "edible" is a word I would use personally.

Slaughter time became a great reason to gather everyone for a get-together and where the tradition of a "pig pickin'" started.  People would dig a big pit and put a whole pig in to roast, from which the slow-cooked tender meat would then get "picked" and served up with a sauce made by the person running the pit.  Add in some pot-lucked sides (or "fixins") and you had a good time on your hands.  The pig pits got some pretty good use and over time, BBQ joints sprouted up around many of these BBQ pits, many of which are still being run today.

In NC, I used to think we only had two styles of BBQ, but as it turns out, we have three.

On the eastern part of the state, pork is served chopped or sliced with a vinegar-based sauce, emphasis on the peppery. It's usually served with coleslaw and hush puppies.

On the western part of the state, pork is served chopped or pulled with a ketchup-based sauce and served with cornbread and sometimes a Brunswick stew (stew made with vegetables, wild game like rabbit, and chicken).

And in the middle of the state (west of Raleigh, but east of the mountains), it's a mix.  You get Lexington-style BBQ sauce which is a blend of vinegar and ketchup, and BBQ is served with cornbread or hush puppies, and red or white coleslaw (yes, we even have two types of slaw).

If you go to a BBQ place, you usually have the choice to order a "BBQ tray" which is pulled pork and coleslaw with a side of puppies or you can order a "BBQ plate" which is pulled pork on a bun, served with coleslaw and fries.  And the proper way to eat a pulled sandwich is with the coleslaw on the pork on the bun.  If you've never tried it before, do...it's a life-changer.

So there you go, NC BBQ 101.  Since I'm giving myself an extra day to pull something together this week, I'll see if I can scrounge up some good sauce recipes to share, and may a fixin' or two to go with.