Plums II: caking harder

After I started my two batches of plum-infused liquor and gave a bunch of the non-liquor-drenched plums away, I still had about 80 plums left. That is, I had 80 left from that one broken branch. I haven't even started harvesting the REST of the tree.

This is one of those times when I really wish I liked jam more. Oh well.

Instead, I decided to bake a plum yogurt cake. I made this almost exactly as written, only substituting wheat flour for all-purpose.

Wheaty teacakes with lots of summer stone fruit are a pretty classic choice at our house. This time I crammed in as much fruit as I possibly could: 21 chopped plums in an 8x8 square. I actually threw a bunch of chopped plums into the cake pan before pouring in the batter, and then added even more plums to the top.

Notice the abundant plum juice all over the counter.

Plum yogurt cake

1 1/2 c wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1 c sugar
1/2 c plain yogurt
3 large eggs
1/2 t vanilla
1/2 c oil
and all the plums you can get your hands on.

Preheat your oven to 350F/175C; oil and flour your cake pan. I used an 8x8 square, but a loaf pan or round 8 or 9-inch pan should also work.

Traditional cake recipes want you to sift all your dry ingredients together in one bowl, mix or cream the wet ingredients in another, and then fold the dry into the wet. I usually go the other direction, so I mixed the sugar, yogurt, eggs and vanilla, stirred in the baking powder and salt, and then added the flour 1/2 c at a time. I added the oil last, per the linked recipe, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't add it to the initial wet mix.

Wash & chop your plums, leaving the skins on. Strew a layer of plum pieces in your prepared pan. Pour your batter evenly into the pan. Then add all the rest of your plums to the top of the batter. I recommend sinking them as much as possible, because poking the fruit down into the batter ensures many, many pockets of delicious plum goo. Just look!

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the top is golden brown. Test with a toothpick like you'd test any cake.

Cool on a rack in the pan for at least 15-20 minutes before removing. I left my cake in the pan, largely because we're out of parchment paper. Oh no! That's ok, though; it's still delicious cake.

Voila! Cake!

Each piece of plum added a burst of sour flavor from the skin, while the cake provided a medium-sweet backdrop. A not-too-sweet cake you can eat with coffee or for breakfast? Yes, please!

I think this cake is especially good with a whack of plain tart labneh--Middle Eastern strained yogurt--or Greek yogurt on top of each serving. Hey, there's already yogurt in the batter--why not put some more on top? If you are more into the sweet, you could always sift some powdered sugar over the finished cake instead.

Now all I need to do is find something to do with the 60 or so plums we still have chilling on the kitchen counter. I have a feeling more schnapps is in our future.

ETA: Hey, guess what? Noelle just made the same cake, minus plums! Hooray!

Plums: the boozening

So the other day I went outside to water the garden only to discover that a full branch of our plum tree had snapped under its burgeoning weight of almost-ripe fruit.

NOOOOOOOOOO

I immediately dragged a chair outside and started stripping all the plums off the dangling branch. When I was done, I came inside and counted them. 155.

What am I supposed to do with 155 plums?

Well, I immediately put twelve or fourteen of them in a quart jar and covered them with all the vodka in the house. One batch of plum schnapps done.

After a run to the store, I did it all again, except with bourbon. I decided to make a pint and taste it in a week or so, just in case I hate it. Experimentation for the win!

I already know ordinary vodka-based plum schnapps is great, so I wasn't worried about just going for the huge batch of that one. Actually, I probably should get another handle of vodka so I can start several more jars of it. Mental note.

Both schnapps and infused bourbon need awhile to steep, so complex flavors have a chance to develop.

Plum schnapps
Inspired by Danish Schnapps Recipes.

firm, ripe plums
vodka
a clean pin
a clean jar with a lid

Wash enough plums to fill up your jar of choice by about 2/3. Stab each individual plum all over with a pin, making sure to penetrate down to the pit. This will let the plum juice actually permeate your liquor.

Put all your plums in your jar. Pour in vodka to fill. Lid the jar and put it somewhere dark to age for 3-6 months. During the steeping period, shake the jar every few days, or whenever it occurs to you to do so.

After the 3 month mark, start tasting your schnapps. When the flavor is to your liking, strain out the plums and bottle the resulting schnapps. Keep in mind that you're going to have a young flavor at first, ok? The flavor will continue to develop as it ages.

Keep the finished schnapps in a dark cupboard and drink it at your leisure, either by itself (in which case, skål, yo) or in a cocktail of your choosing. I'm thinking it'll make a great vodka tonic, at the very least.

Plum-infused bourbon
Inspired by Boozed & Infused's prune bourbon & brandy.

firm, ripe plums
bourbon
a clean pin
a clean jar with a lid

Do the exact same thing as above, except using bourbon instead of vodka.

I'm not sure about infusion times for plums in bourbon. I don't think it will hurt to leave your plums in the bourbon for months, but I may want to pull mine out earlier. This is my first batch, so I'm not sure. However, tasting is always a good idea.

Hooray!

I mean, except for the broken branch. Otherwise, hooray.

Macaroni and lamb casserole with red wine tomato sauce

It's summer! It's hot! Let's talk about making hearty, rib-sticking casseroles, ok?

HA HA HA oh I'm actually serious. You can take the girl out of the midwest, I guess.

I work at home, so I frequently end up actually stopping work and cooking lunch in the middle of the day. While this is ok--breaks generally help with work--it can definitely become a major intrusion if I'm in the middle of something but realize I need to eat ASAP. So I decided it would be a good plan to freeze a batch of casseroles that I can just stick in the oven (or, better yet, the toaster oven) to cook while I work.

I decided on the ultimate heritagenous comfort food: macaroni casserole. When I was growing up, this consisted of browned ground beef and tomato sauce mixed with macaroni and mozzarella cheese and baked. This time, for a little more interest and a little less ground beef, I decided to go for ground lamb in a red wine sauce with fennel seed and oregano. A good deal all around.

I made about enough pasta to fill an ordinary 9x13 casserole dish, but split everything into three smaller dishes. If you want to have a larger freezer stash, or bake half and eat it now, feel free to make as much as you please.

Macaroni and lamb casserole with red wine tomato sauce

ground lamb
olive oil
onion & garlic
mushrooms, red pepper, whatever other veg you want
tomato puree/sauce/whatev
dry red wine of your choice
fennel seeds, oregano, basil, red pepper flake, salt, pepper
macaroni/chunky pasta of choice
mozzarella/other cheeses of choice

Game plan: Brown lamb. Make sauce. Cook pasta. Combine everything into a selection of casserole dishes. Bake or freeze according to your current priorities.

Ok! Start by heating up a wide & deep saute pan, adding a small slug of olive oil, and crumbling in half a pound (or more) of lamb. You could also use a deeper sauce pot, since you'll be cooking the sauce in this pan, but I like the wide pan for faster liquid evaporation. Season with some salt, pepper, and fennel seed, and stir to mix, breaking up any larger chunks of lamb as you go. Cook until browned, stirring frequently. Then drain off and discard most of the fat, leaving just enough to saute your vegetables, and remove the lamb to a plate.

Chop up an onion and a handful of garlic cloves and add them to your saute pan. Cook to soften while you chop up whatever other vegetables you want. I used mushrooms and red pepper, but hearty greens, summer squash, or eggplant would all work too. Add your veg to the pan in order of necessary cooking time, starting with those that take longer. Season with salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and some red pepper flake to taste; cook to soften. This is also a good time to put on the water for your pasta.

Next, add your tomato puree, stirring to mix & deglaze. Bring to a simmer before adding the cooked lamb and a glassful of red wine of your choice. You could also use dry vermouth (or no alcohol at all) if you don't want to deal with an open bottle of red wine. Stir well and bring back to a simmer. Reduce the heat and cook slowly for about ten minutes, or until the sauce reaches your preferred consistency.

Don't you just want to get in there and swim around? No? It's just me?

Ok. While your sauce is simmering, cook your pasta. Any chunky pasta should work here; I used a ridged macaroni. You can also shred or chop the cheese of your choice while you're waiting. I used mozzarella for ultimate heritagenousness, but various grating cheeses, provolone, or more highly flavored oozy-melting cheeses like fontina should all work. It just depends on your tastes.

When your pasta is done, drain it. Taste your sauce and correct any seasonings. Add your drained pasta to the sauce, stirring well.

Your pan should look like this, complete with unruly steam curling up into every picture.

Everything is cooked; now it's time to assemble. Add an even layer of the pasta and sauce to your casserole dish(es), filling it a bit less than halfway. Add a layer of the cheese of your choice. Cover with another layer of pasta and sauce. Finish with a second layer of cheese.

Now you can either bake your casserole or cover it and put it in the freezer for future application. I froze all of mine, personally.

When you want to bake, take your casserole out of the freezer and let defrost a bit while you preheat the oven to 350F/175C. If you're using Pyrex or other ovenproof glass, it's important to bring the glass up to room temperature before you put it in the oven. I usually run them under warm tap water if I don't have enough time to defrost them for real. This is not a big deal as long as your casserole dishes have lids. If you're using ordinary tins, it's fine to just put them straight into the oven.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until hot through and bubbling.

Hooray! Low-effort, hearty, & serious food!

Dry ice cocktails!

Guess what Veronica, Gus (to whom I am indebted for the above pic), Cookie and I did this Friday! If you said "made use of a huge block of dry ice in several over-the-top smoking cocktails," you win.

Dry ice keeps your drinks super-cold and makes a constant bubbling noise. It settles at the bottom of the glass, where the temperature contrast engenders a massive amount of frost and makes it painful to hold. We decided it was probably best to serve dry ice drinks in a hurricane glass, since the stem keeps the ice from sticking to the table and the upper curve of the glass makes for a non-freezing handhold. Check it out:

The entire business is SUPER ENTERTAINING.

We had Mai Tais and Zombies, each with a small chunk or two of dry ice in place of ordinary ice. I wasn't the one mixing these cocktails, so I'm just going to refer you guys to the recipe links. However, Cookie and I did make cinnamon-infused simple syrup for the Zombies, so I can tell you all about that!

Cinnamon-infused simple syrup

equal amounts sugar and water
(OR a premade batch of simple syrup)
cinnamon sticks

Make simple syrup by heating water and sugar together until the sugar dissolves. If you already have simple syrup, just heat it up; we used a finished cup. Add a couple roughly crushed cinnamon sticks and continue to heat gently for a few minutes. Then take the pan off the heat and let steep. The original Zombie recipe calls for a 2-hour infusion, but we ended up straining out our cinnamon a bit earlier.

If you are making Zombies, you mix this simple syrup with grapefruit juice to create "Donn's mix." All right then!

These were entertaining but also extremely alcoholic. You won't want to drink anything else after having a Zombie. However, they are definitely very good--and a much better solution to "what do we do with all this dry ice?" than chucking it out on the back porch to slowly melt.

Happy Monday!

Garden update: potato and green bean vinaigrette

I planted some fingerling potatoes this March. The tender vines and leaves ended up being a total magnet for small gnawing pests, but I managed to keep one plant alive. When that last vine started to die back, I figured it was a loss--until I pulled it up and found a bunch of tiny baby potatoes! Further scrabbling revealed an increasing number of tiny marble-like fingerlings. I ended up with a good handful. Hooray!

I didn't really have enough potatoes to eat by themselves, so I combined them with with a few farmer's market yukon golds and made them into one of my favorite summer salads: potato and green bean vinaigrette.

Potato and green bean vinaigrette

boiling potatoes
green beans
garlic
white wine vinegar
dijon mustard
olive oil
salt, pepper

Start by bringing a large pot of salted water to the boil.

Scrub your potatoes well, removing any eyes and peeling off any green skin or flesh. You can peel off all the skin if you prefer; I like to eat the skin, personally. Dice them into chunks roughly an inch square.

Put your potatoes in the pot of water, slap on the lid, bring the water back up to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for about 25 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through and tender.

While your potatoes are cooking, wash, top and tail, and chop your green beans into inch-long chunks.

Also, make your vinaigrette. Crush and finely mince a clove of garlic. Whisk with a couple teaspoons of white wine vinegar, a big spoonful of dijon mustard, and some salt and pepper. If you want to add chopped fresh herbs to this mix, feel free; fresh oregano is particularly good. Next, add olive oil to your dressing in a thin, gradual stream, whisking the entire time. The oil will emulsify with the vinegar and mustard mix to create a creamy dressing. Maybe 1/4 to 1/3 cup of olive oil should do it.

When your dressing looks good, taste and it correct any seasonings. Vinaigrette is really personal--some people love lots of garlic or mustard, or can't stand too much vinegar--so adjust it according to your tastes.

When your potatoes are tender, cook your green beans. You can do this in a couple ways. First, you can steam your beans in a basket that fits over your potato pot. This is a good option if you want to keep the beans separate, so you can shock them in cold water to set the color when they're finished cooking. Second, you can simply put all the beans into the boiling water with the potatoes. This is a good option if, like me, you don't want to bother washing two pans. In either case, cook your beans for about five minutes, or until done to your taste.

Drain your finished potatoes and beans well. Give your vinaigrette a final whisk and pour it over the hot vegetables. Gently fold to distribute the dressing before you taste and correct the seasonings. The hot potatoes and beans will soak up some of the liquids, so you may need to add an extra drizzle of olive oil if things look too dry.

This salad is good either hot or cold, and it's certainly filling. It can take an amazing amount of additions: cooked crumbled bacon, diced hard-boiled egg, scallions, radishes, practically any herb you desire, and dots of sriracha sauce or sambal oelek will all work well. You can mix up the dressing with different vinegars, buttermilk, or big spoonfuls of yogurt. You can eat it by itself, on top of a whack of salad greens, with a grilled cheese sandwich, or as a side at a barbecue. And, of course, the leftovers are excellent straight out of the fridge for a summer morning's breakfast.