I made this tart tangy jam about two weeks ago. I didn’t use any recipe, mainly because I’m terrified to use the amount of sugar typically used in jams. Luckily, it came out good, really good actually. So good that I decided to write down this recipe to share with you. Preserving fruit isn’t that difficult and it’s a great way to prevent ripe fruit from ending up in the compost bucket.

Super Easy Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Ingredients

5 stalks of rhubarb, ends removed and chopped
4 pints ripe strawberries, hulled and cut in half
3 cups of sugar (a lot less than a typical jam, I like it tart)
Juice of one lemon

Special Tools

Good solid stainless steel well made pot!
Wooden spoon

Instructions

Any jam purist might not go this route but I like to make any preserved fruit as simple as possible. Two things that I’m doing different are that I’m not cooking the rhubarb and strawberry separately and there is no pectin in my recipe.

Throw everything in the pot, except 2 pints of strawberries, and bring to a quick boil. Stir the mixture while it starts to break down. Skim off the froth that rises to the top. Turn heat down to a simmer and cook (constantly scraping the bottom of the pot) until the mixture starts to thicken (approx 1/2 hour). Add the remaining berries and let cook for another 10 minutes; take off the heat. As it cools it will start to thicken more.

To serve
Serve on ice-cream, over cake or eat with a spoon! Good stuff!

We wanted to describe the taste sensation of this multi-layered, mascarpone stuffed crêpe cake but it was borderline x-rated.  How about you try the recipe and let us know in your words what you make of it! Any tart fruit filling will work for this recipe.  If you don’t have bing cherries, try blueberries, blackberries or a berry mix.  You just need the tart acidity to cut through the lusciousness of the mascarpone filled crêpes.

Mascarpone Crêpes Cake

Serves 10 people

Ingredients

For the Crêpes
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon melted butter

For the Cherries in Wine
2 pints fresh bing cherries (or 1 cup dried cherries)
1 vanilla bean
2 1/2 cups red wine
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter

For the Whipped Mascarpone
2 cups cream
1 cup mascarpone
1/4 cup sugar

To garnish
Shaved Valrhona dark chocolate

Special Equipment

Electric blender
Crêpe pans
Offset spatulas

Instructions

For the Crêpes
Combine all ingredients in an electric blender and process until smooth. Strain. Brush non stick pan with butter over medium heat. Ladle batter into pan to coat bottom and cook until set and underside is lightly browned. Flip the crêpe over and let the second side cook for 20 seconds. Slide crepe onto a plate. Repeat process with remaining batter, coating pan with butter as needed.

For the Cherries in Wine
Simmer the wine, sugar, and vanilla bean over low heat until reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Sauté the cherries in butter for 2 minutes and then add the wine reduction. Simmer for 2 minutes.

For the Whipped Mascarpone
Combine the cream, mascarpone and sugar. Whisk to form soft peaks.

Assembly
Layer 6-8 crêpes with the mascarpone cream. Spread the cream evenly, approximately 1/8”, one on top of another. Chill for half an hour before slicing into wedges. Top each wedge with the cherries in wine and finish with shaved chocolate.

To Serve
Top each wedge with the cherries in wine and finish with shaved chocolate.

HA! The thought…there are no such thing as spring tomatoes. Sure, some do hit the markets this time of year but most are mealy and underdeveloped. If you must have tomatoes out of season I recommend going down two different avenues. Either use good canned tomatoes or make some sweet slow roasted ones, the latter being my preference. Roasting basically puts the maturing in an accelerated process. The result is a sweet, tangy sun dried-like tomato. Try it out! They won’t let you down.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

Serves 8-10 people

Ingredients
10 roma or standard 5×6 tomatoes, cores removed and sliced in half
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh picked thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper

Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 250 f

For the Tomatoes
Place the tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut side up. Drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with some fresh thyme and season with salt and pepper. Cook in the 250 degree oven for 2 hours or until tomato seems slightly shriveled but not mushy.

To serve
This is the best part about these beauties. Serve on grilled bread, in pasta, on sandwiches or simply put in blender and serve as soup with grilled cheese on the side… yum!

Crispity crunch, salty-sweet, juicy, sassy.  In this dish, the bbq glazed duck rests atop homemade buckwheat udon noodles.  Udon are the thickest traditional Japanese noodles and are served in a variety of ways: cold, hot, dry and in soups.  Dashi is fundamental to Japanese flavor and forms the base of most Japanese soups. Itadakimasu!

Soba Noodles, Barbecue Duck, Dashi Broth

Serves 10 people

Ingredients

For the Soba Noodles
2 cups buckwheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup cold water
flour for dusting

For the Barbecue Duck
4 duck breasts
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Sherry
2 teaspoons mustard powder

For the Dashi Broth
12 cups water
Kombu (about 2 ounces)
2 cups bonito flakes
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Mirin
2 cups shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 cups sugar snap peas
1/2 carrot, julienne
1 cup green onions, chopped into 1/4 inch pieces

To Garnish
Chiffonade shiso, sesame oil

Instructions

For the Soba Noodles
Combine the dry ingredients on a clean, dry work surface. Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and the water. Mix together and knead by hand on the table for 12 minutes. Cover and let rest for 45 minutes. Roll out with a pasta machine or by hand. Cut into noodles and boil in salted water until done. Shock in ice bath.

For the Barbecue Duck
Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, vinegar, Sherry, and mustard in a saucepot and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes to create a thick glaze.

Score the skin of the duck breasts. Season generously with salt and pepper and cook over a low barbecue flame, skin side down. Brush and baste with the barbecue glaze every few minutes. When skin becomes crispy, check the center for doneness. Grill to desired doneness, rest for 5 minutes and slice into thin slices.

For the Dashi Broth
Place the kombu in a large stockpot and cover with cold water. Over medium low heat, simmer for 20 minutes. Remove kombu and add the bonito flakes. Return to heat. Once simmering, remove from heat and let steep for 5 minutes. Strain out the bonito flakes. Add the soy sauce, mirin , snap peas, shiitake mushrooms, and carrots. Simmer over low heat until mushrooms and snap peas are slightly cooked.

To Serve
Place noodles in bowl and top with slices of duck. Cover with the Dashi broth. Finish with drops of sesame oil and shiso leaves.

In Argentina and Peru alone, there are over 15 varieties of the Alfajores cookie. Sandwiched between the layers is thick and gooey Dulce de Leche that stings your lips. In this dessert, we combine the cookie with clouds of whipped bittersweet chocolate mousse. It’s sure to smolder the flames of any spicy South American meal.

Dark Chocolate Mousse with Alfajores Cookies

Ingredients

For Cookie Dough
1 cup 2 tablespoons corn starch
2 cups 2 oz flour
2 t salt
½ cup ground almonds
½ cup icing sugar
1 ½ pounds butter
lemon zest from 3 lemons
2 t vanilla extract
2 t water

For caramel
1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup cream
pinch salt

For Chocolate Mousse
10 oz 82% Valrhona dark chocolate
½ cup 2 tablespoons
3/4 C (9 ea) egg yolks
1 cup sugar
4 cup cream
2 oz honey

For garnish
Powdered sugar to dust the cookies
Fresh berries

Special Equipment
Large pastry bags
Bowl scrapper
Biscuit cutters
Rolling pin
Baking pans
Stainless steel sauce pot

Instructions

For Caramel
Be sure to prepare the caramel first, to allow time for it to set up. Cook the sugar in a stainless steel sauce pot with a little water. When it becomes caramel, slowly pour in the warm cream and whisk. Pour into a shallow pan and chill to set up.

For Chocolate Mousse
Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl above warm water (do not boil the water, keep it at a very low simmer). Whip the cream to medium peaks and set asid. Heat the egg yolks with the sugar and honey over a bain marie until doubled in volume. Fold the chocolate into the egg mixture and fold the cream into this. Scrape into pastry bags and chill.

For Cookie dough
Combine all dry ingredients by hand and cut in the butter. Mix in the water and vanilla and roll between parchment paper into ¼” thick sheets. Chill, then cut into small discs. Bake at 325 degrees and then chill again. When hot, the cookies are very fragile. When cool, remove from pan with a baby offset spatula and sandwich the caramel between two discs of cookie. Cover with powdered sugar.

To Serve
Pipe the mousse onto a chilled plate and stick an alfajores cookie standing sideways in the side of the mousse. Serve with fresh berries.