Gourmet Scientist - Fruits

Local Provence and Muscat Grapes

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 06:53:00 -0700

Look what arrived at our doorstep!! Our very kind neighbours who visited their friends in the countryside surprised us with some of their harvest!! What better than local grapes from one of the most established terroirs in viniculture. They reminded me somewhat of raisins before they're dried. Quite sweet, not too many seeds, and skin that is thick but not too thick. Very different from the muscat grapes of the market.

I actually didn't know that one could access "muscat" grapes, as I always thought that they were used specifically for making "muscat wine". I guess it's not a surprise though, as their sweetness would be coveted by the general public. My first encounter with muscat grapes was at Marks & Spencer, in England, several years back. They were absolutely wonderful: sweet and juicy with skins that gave way with a burst to the treasure that hid inside. Certainly completely contrary to the normal tart-ish green grapes. Instead, the muscat grapes combined the lightness of the green grapes with the sweetness of the black grapes, concentrated into little marbles of sweetness. Needless to say, I kept returning for more.

A couple months ago, they began to appear at the farmers' markets here in Provence, and I was again enticed by that light green, gold tint, and occasional splash of red and orange. It was even better as they were from Provence. And they certainly did not disappoint. Even my husband was enchanted!

Peaches and Nectarines of Provence

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:25:00 -0700

I some times miss the year-round availability of most fruits and vegetables in the U.S. supermarkets, but I've grown to appreciate eating seasonal produce. It's what makes shopping at the local farmers' markets so interesting. And it brings a different variety to life, understanding what seasonality means and savouring the foods when they are at their best. It can be frustrating as routines have to change every couple of months. My deepest memory is the golden apples. I'd found one stall that carried nothing else but goldens, and they were inexpensive and very delicious. The quality just kept improving, until one day, the apples turned greener and smaller. A few days later, the apples were no more. I weaned myself through the supermarket (which was quick as they were rather flavourless, not sweet enough, too crispy, and dry). But having said that, the markets still carry certain produce essential to cooking year-round, such as tomatoes, salad greens, cucumbers, carrots, beans, etc.

Peaches have come into season for several months now (about June to October here in Provence). It's impossible to miss as every market stall selling fruits carries them. Even the supermarkets reduced the wintry and spring fruits (e.g. apples, pears) to make space for the plums, peaches, and apricots. But it wasn't until last week that I finally gave into their alluring and pungent smell. Not a surprise as the fruit bowl sat right in the center of the kitchen. I would certainly have pounced on them (as well as the plums, mirabelles, and apricots) at the start of the season; but unfortunately, I can no longer tolerate them very well.

The peaches here are indeed marvelous. Wonderfully pungent and full of juice. Our favourite: the white peach. Light in both texture and flavour yet still very peachy. The French variety is very different from the famous white peaches from China, but they are wonderful in their own right, especially when ripe and slightly soft to the touch. They're not too different from the yellow variety, but the texture remains that much finer (the ones in Beijing tend to be quite crunchy) and sweeter. And the juice! Just dripping all over my fingers and palms!

The juiciest is probably the white nectarine, a recent addition to the market stalls. I don't recall having seen white nectarines before; so I bought a couple to try. It was so sweet and juicy that I had to clean splatter marks from my husband who was sitting across from me! Produce so good really warrants an occasional indulgence, for me at least!

Scones and Jam

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:13:00 -0700

I'd forgotten how easy it was to make jam (if you skipped the sterilization and canning process). No wonder it's the ideal option when you're overloaded with fruits during harvest season. As I'd made plans to bake scones with a friend in the afternoon, we needed some jam and clotted cream for the quintessential English cream tea. What better than fresh-baked homemade scones with homemade jam. (I don't think we'll go as far as homemade clotted cream... )

With blackberries still ripening (couldn't you have guessed??), my huge stash of gelatin (although pectin is preferable), and white sugar, I was set to go. Unfortunately, I was misled by the various recipes I'd seen online as my jam turned out WAY TOO SWEET! I should have started less and added to taste during the boiling process. I know, it's the essential quality of a good cook. But hey, it was early Saturday morning... Regardless, I was still happy that I made a jam from fresh hand-picked fruits that would soon accompany fresh self-made scones.

Next came the scones. After nearly 7 months, I remembered my friend's offer to show me how to make them. Armed with a BBC recipe, we added a few changes of our own (the recipe made no mention of a rising agent!). Unfortunately, it being Saturday, we weren't mentally there for the first batch for which we named "Rustic scones" (we were following the recipe too closely and forgot the vanilla extract, baking powder, and almonds/sultanas); it resembled shortbread in texture but not as buttery. The second batch came out much better. The texture seemed different--a little more doughy and not as crumbly--compared to commercial ones. It might be in the quantity of fat used--butter, vegetable oil, or egg (is that a surprise??). No wonder the fruit ones always tasted drier than the cheese ones; and it might be the reason why jam and clotted cream made them taste so much better (although I do prefer them without anything). But the dryness may also be from overworking the dough.

At least now that I know how easy they are to make, I can begin tweaking the recipe.

Healthifying Muffins--Part 2

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:02:00 -0700

So, I had some free time today and wanted to test my modifications in hopes of some success after so many failures. It seemed I was somewhat granted my wish...

I tried my best to minimize all possible sources of extraneous liquid. I drained and baked the mashed sweet potato, mashed the fresh blackberries through a strainer to squeeze out the water, strained the yogurt using paper towels (like a cheese cloth), and eliminated the vegetable oil. I also increased the baking powder. Lastly, I remembered to sprinkle some white sugar to help create a crispy crust.

There was definite improvement as the inside resembled the holey texture of a muffin; however, it still seemed a bit wet. The muffins still did not rise much; and the crust was crunchy, albeit a tad bit overboard.

After another round of investigation, I've gathered that the wholemeal flour may be contributing to the low rise as there's less gluten to help develop a stable puffed structure. I may indeed need baking soda since I have acidic ingredients that could be neutralized and help leaven the muffins some more. I may have actually overbaked the muffins, since I was so afraid of a soggy inside due to underbaking. I don't think I want to further reduce the liquid ratio as the muffin is showing potential for dryness; and frankly, I'm not sure how much more liquid I could eliminate.

One friend likes the muffins as is with the crunchy crust and soft inside. Another feels that the contrast is too drastic. A compromise may be difficult, but the ideal muffin texture in my mind is a thin hardened crust with an airy moist inside. My second attempt has neither a thin crust nor an airy inside. Maybe the third try will be it, but I'm definitely getting there as I'm running out of modification ideas...

Healthifying Muffins--Part 1

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 09:37:00 -0700

Ever since I bought the freshly ground wholemeal flour at Die Valken windmill in the Netherlands, I'd been intending to use it since the suggested best before date was October 2007. Ideas ranged from cinnamon buns to my mom's braided raisin bread to chinese scallion or dried pork sung buns; yet time was always against me. Finally, when a friend told me about her failed muffin attempts (which I gathered was from her complete elimination of butter), I toyed with the idea of healthifying muffins; and the bank holiday weekend offered the chance.

First off was the flour, which I knew I'd replace half with the wholemeal flour. Next was the butter. I'd already been researching various methods for replacing butter (see blog entry Fruit Sponge Cake), and I had seen some recipes for banana bread without butter. Applesauce + oil seemed a popular replacement as well as pureed vegetables or fruits. Unfortunately, the only applesauce that I could find was Bramley apple sauce which previous experience revealed it to be extremely tart and completely different from the American applesauce. I failed to locate any pureed or canned vegetables except tomatoes and potatoes. Lacking a blender, I decided to steam and mash my own sweet potatoes. Last was the fruit-flavored yogurt.

I used the Banana-Raspberry Bread recipe as a foundation; replaced half the flour with wholemeal, 1/4 of the sugar with brown sugar, milk with yogurt, and banana with steamed and mashed sweet potatoes; and used only baking powder (as I had no baking soda on hand).

Having never baked muffins before, this may have been too ambitious an attempt. Needless to say, it was a failed attempt. I'm pretty sure it was not overmixing as I'd been forewarned enough by all the "DO NOT OVERMIX"'s and "DO NOT OVERBAKE"'s I'd encountered. It seemed my batter may have been too wet, since the muffins did not rise and the insides were mushy as if undercooked. I was somewhat worried about the possibility, but I naively thought that quick breads could withstand higher moisture content. Wrong I certainly was! I didn't even realize how high my liquid ratio was; water seeped from the steamed sweet potatoes, yogurt, vegetable oil, fresh washed blackberries, and egg!

So, my next attempt will be to eliminate the vegetable oil, decrease the yogurt and strain it through a paper towel, and bake the steamed sweet potatoes to help reduce the moisture. Let's see where this will take us...

Fruit Sponge Cake

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 08:58:00 -0700

Prompted by the need for a thank you gift, I decided to bake a cake using the fresh-picked damsons and blackberries. I used the upside down cake and claufouti as an inspiration for placing the fruits at the base of the baking pan. For the cake itself, I used the Chinese Steamed Cake recipe as a foundation. I'm still quite impressed at the lack of butter or oil in the recipe, and it seemed a great starting point for creating a healthy tasty cake. So, I took the opportunity to make my first altercations.

One person had commented that the cake could be baked, although the texture was a bit too spongy and chewy; so I focused on adding more moisture as well as reducing the 6 eggs. Since I've encountered several cake recipes that used sour cream as a source of moisture and I myself have used fruit-flavored yogurt in my cheesecakes, I ventured to test the effects of fruit-flavored yogurt in the cake. I also thought adding a little oil could help with moisture. Thus, I eliminated 1 egg, replaced the water with yogurt and oil, and split the sugar between white and brown.

Thankfully, the cake didn't collapse; but the texture was not what I desired. It was quite a bit rubbery and the air bubbles weren't even. After searching through baking911.com, I learned a couple things. I think I may have overmixed when incorporating the flour. The sugar was not fully dissolved either, so I may try beating the yolks over heat to help with dissolving the sugar and increasing the volume. I'm beginning to wonder if I should switch to pastry flour to help with the tenderness, although I may try ground almonds to see its effects. Pureed squash seems like another good alternative, although it's usually a replacement for butter. Definitely lots of possibilities. Let's hope I can obtain the texture I have in my mind while keeping it healthy. )

I also learned the difference between a convection oven and the baking oven typically found in American homes where the heat is either from the bottom or top. I knew that the convection oven was the most ideal as the heat source came from both the top and bottom with a fan circulating the heat evenly. I was quite surprised to find it in typical English homes. Apparently, when using a convection oven, one should decrease the temperature and cooking time by about 10%. That would explain why the cakes I've baked so far tended to burn on top while the meats tended to be dry. I've not realized the needed drop in temperature. Eureka!

Madingley Harvest

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:53:00 -0700

After nearly a year, I finally decided to wander through the various gardens of John's accommodations on Madingley Road. Indeed, they are huge, luscious, worthy of envy, and probably part of the reason for the outrageous accommodation charges. I thought my house garden was big, but some of the ones across the road are even bigger!

I also did some harvesting. :-? From chatting with my bedder, I discovered that the houses around here seem to have either the green cooking apples or the ones that look like bramley/cox (greenish yellow and red). I knew the cooking apples were fairly tart, so I wanted to pick some of the bramley/cox ones. Unfortunately, the easier ones had already been picked, so I was left with climbing the tree if I really wanted some. A ladder would have been ideal; but that I did not have. Hence, I climbed my first apple tree today.

It was definitely fun, a little scary, challenging, and even thought-provoking. Now I understand why climbing was the easier part and descending the hard part. Minutes passed where I debated whether to continue--first, plotting a way up, and then, assessing if and how I would come down. It was rough, but I enjoyed it. And I got 10 apples out of it! Not a lot but the exact amount I had asked for.

Meanwhile, I picked a big handful of ripe blackberries. Got pricked by some of them, but the spikes won't stop me from returning for more later! Praise the Lord for blessing a "cityslicker" with such farm-like opportunities!

Damson Crumble

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 08:30:00 -0700

Who would have thought? Prior to this summer season, I have been living in a fruitful paradise without ever realizing it. In my house garden, we've discovered damson trees, a blackberry bush, and maybe even an apple tree. Who knows what other treasures there may be (besides the family of muntjacs...). Numerous damson trees stretch along the street outside the house. And, apparently, there's even a fig tree along a nearby street.

So tonight, 2 housemates and I decided to pick some of the damons and make a damson crumble. It was delicious and extremely juicy, albeit fairly tart. I think only one of the trees bear sweet damsons, while the others are tart. Regardless, picking our own damsons from our own garden and making a dessert out of it makes everything that much more tasty especially when the only "sweat" that we shed was harvesting the fruit from trees that we neither planted nor sowed. :-?

All that remains is for the blackberry bush to ripen and to see whether we do or do not have an apple tree...

Damson Tree

Plum Tree

Fruits from 3 trees

Freshly baked crumble