Perfectly Pretty Summer Plum Sorbet

Sometimes plums are sweet and sometimes they can be tart, but most of the plums I get tend to be a little of both. Occasionally they can even be bitter. Like that time I had to dump an entire pan of plum cobbler because some of the plums were so bitter that, even after mixing with sugar and baking with a nice sweet biscuit-y topping... the whole thing was inedible.

Faced with less than perfectly sweet fruits, sorbets are an easy way to control the sweet/tart balance and come out with something delicious in spite of their random ripeness. And I can think of no better way to celebrate the essential flavor of a lovely seasonal fruit than to feature it in a clean, direct, super-intense sorbet. Fresh and refreshing, it's nothing short of cool perfection on a warm summer evening.

Of course, I don't think making a sorbet from those horrid plums I had four years ago could have tamed their bitterness, but I would've realized the fact sooner (and saved a whole lot of effort, ingredients, and disappointment). And of course, tasting it as I went along would have also saved me from all that, but some lessons (cough) are best learned the hard way.

Pretty Plum (Sorta) Sorbet 
Start this a day or even two before you "need" it... and make sure your ice cream maker insert is pre-frozen. Though not traditional in a sorbet, adding milk will give it a creamier texture and increase the yield... which incidentally, is about 2 pints.

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 cup cane sugar
1 pound ripe plums (9-10), pitted and roughly chopped.
1 pinch of sea salt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp liqueur or spirit of choice (see Notes)
1 cup cold whole milk

Directions

1. Put sugar, water, plums, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. All the sugar should be dissolved and the fruit should be soft. Carefully pour into a wide-mouth quart mason jar. Let cool, then cap it and put it in the fridge overnight.
2. Next day, blend the cold plum mixture thoroughly with a stick blender, right in the jar. 
3. Add the lemon juice and liqueur and blend well. Then add the milk and give it another good blending.
4. Turn on your machine and add the plum mixture according to your machine directions. Churn until the texture is where you want it (mine took about 30 minutes, yours may take more or less time).
5. Transfer finished sorbet into freezer containers and store in freezer. Some say it's best to serve sorbets immediately, but I like the texture better the following day, especially if the weather is warm.
   

Notes: Depending on the intensity of your fruit, you may, or may not, taste the tiny bit of booze in the finished sorbet. Use something like vodka or white rum for less intrusion, or try one that has a flavor which is complementary to the fruit(s) you're using. I used Cointreau (orange liqueur) as I thought it would go well with plums (and I was right!). Whether you taste it in the end product or not, don't leave it out! It's there for a reason: it prevents the sorbet from freezing rock hard. And that really is what it looks like when it's finished! Leaving the skins on the plums gives it that amazing color.


My recipe is adapted from the following delicious sources...

• Sweet Plum Sorbet from Joy The Baker 
• Here's a twist on the JTB recipe above: Muscavado Blueberry Plum Sorbet from Simple Bites
• There's a lovely recipe in the Martha Stewart Living Cookbook for Plum Sorbet (page 425). Don't have that book? Here's a similar recipe á la Martha that's online: Plum Sorbet
• Mark Bittman's original big yellow book, "How To Cook Everything" has a bunch of great tips for making sorbets (pages 669-670).

Bonus Link! ('cuz summer ain't over yet, and neither is plum season!)...

• This recipe (spiked with cardamom and kirschwasser) from the folks at The Kitchn sounds like I need to make it next... Plum Sorbet with Lemon Verbena Cream

Blueberries: All's Fair In Love And War

Early June 2016

My Backyard    

Dear Jay, 

I know that no amount of sunflower seeds can take the place of a warm and juicy ripe blueberry bursting in your beak. On this we can agree. But while I respect your above-average avian intelligence, you are, for a few weeks out of every year, my adversary.

Sincerely yours,

Stephanie     

P.S. This is war.

Happy Kefir-versary!

And just what ever happened to that half-gallon of murky Concord grape juice that I threw in the freezer last month? Well, part of it went into making some kefir soda. It so happened that we were out of store-bought juice and there was all that leftover grape juice just sitting there.

I introduced it to my water kefir and SHAZAM! As you can see in the photo, water kefir loves raw organic unfiltered unpasteurized fruit juice! Duh, right? Of course it does! Fizzy bubble-rific-ness. Delicious, free (yea!), and full of all kinds of health and happiness. Hubs calls our kefir sodas Fizzy Lifting Drinks, after his favorite boyhood film.

It's been just over a year since I started these kefir grains. We still drink kefir soda every single day and the little darlings seem to be going strong with no signs of stopping... except that one time when I left Hubs in charge of them... but enough said on that. They bounced back and were none the worse for the ordeal.

We've all settled into a nice routine and they're pretty forgiving if I'm late a day here or there. I still make the kefir soda as cheaply as possible, and I only make as much as we can consume before the next batch is ready. It works out really well... nice and predictable!

My secret to making great budget kefir soda (from juice), is this: Use the best juice you can find for the best price you can find it at.* It sounds obvious, and it sounds easy... but it isn't if you're trying to do this on a squeaky-tight budget. I tried a lot of different brands from a lot of different stores and read a whole lot of labels...

Concord Grape Jelly (and the errors of my ways)

So.... I mentioned having a ton of grapes the other day. Well, it wasn't really a ton... it was 13 pounds. I exaggerated. I can't even say that it seemed like a ton of grapes. I've actually had hands-on experience with what an actual ton (or twenty) of grapes is like when Hubby and I help with the wine crush at our favorite winery each autumn.

Our harvest of Concord grapes was like a drop in the proverbial bucket (barrel?) compared to that. But since my backyard is a far cry from ever being called a vineyard and my kitchen is certainly no winery... those 13 lbs. still seemed like a whole awful lotta grapes.

Making the most of what we've been given
The vines came with the house, stealthily growing under the ivy on the back fence. And although we didn't plant them, pay them any attention, or even want them... there they were: fat, juicy, sweet, abundant, and free. They were a truly a gift to us, and I wasn't about to waste them.

How Smoothies Are Like Marinades (and how I am like Rocky Balboa)

tend to not use recipes when I make things like smoothies or marinades. I might use a recipe as a guide, but more often than not, I just don't bother. Instead, I use a formula... really it's almost more of a rhyme or mnemonic. Breaking the finished product down into it's basic elements makes for a super-flexible and creative approach. As a result, my smoothies and marinades all tend to be of the "everything-but-the-kitchen sink" variety: always tasty, occasionally spectacular. If I hit on a particular combination that knocks it out of the park... I write it down in a messy notebook (or on this blog) for the next time. Here's my approach to smoothie making...

Refreshingly Redundant: Watermelon Melon Water

For the second year in a row, we have had an unseasonably cold summer. The fog creeps in each evening with its damp chilly mists, thickly blanketing the whole valley and daring the sun to burn it off the next day before noon. Elsewhere there are chart-busting heatwaves... but not here... not in Brigadoon.

Because warm sunny days are so few and far between, when we are gifted with one, I try to make the most of it by doing something super summer-y. Something best experienced only in the summer. Like drinking aguas frescas and dancing in the craggy heathered foothills with Gene Kelly... before the mists return.

Watermelon agua fresca is one of my favorites. It's especially refreshing when sparked with peppermint and lime...

August Wish List and the Letter "S"...

Sun... Not too much. Just enough warmth to remind me that it's summer, but not so much that it makes me long for it to be over. If not for me, then for all our gorgeous green tomatoes just waiting to turn vibrant vitamin-packed shades of red, orange, and burgundy.

Sea... I want to go to the ocean. La Mer. I want to sit and stare at it, and listen to it, and breathe its air. Maybe I'll take a kite. Maybe I won't. I want to come home at the end of the day with that pleasant tiredness that I get just from spending the day near it.

Stone Fruit... Fresh, ripe, deeply scented. Perfumed, even. Fruit with pits. In season. Eaten out of hand. Baked, broiled, grilled. I want to over-indulge in stone-fruits. Eat them with every meal. Before they're gone for the year.*

These recipes are the stuff some of my summer dreams are made of...

Yes Virginia, You Can Improve On A Family Favorite

I was a week late in making these, and frankly almost didn't make them at all this year. But you know what? If I didn't make them, it would plague me all year. I may not feel it until next December, but it would be there in the back of my noggin, naggin' at me all subconscious-like the whole time. And who needs that? Not me. Been there, done that, didn't like it one bit. Traditions can anchor you. But in a good way. It doesn't mean that there isn't room for new traditions*, just don't throw out the old favorites while you're doing it. Another way to mix things up is to update an old family fav. Tweak with tradition just a bit. See where it takes you.

After last year's bake-a-thon, I stood up and said no to the the green dye** and stated that I would never make our favorite gaudy, gooey fruited, artificial color-laden fruitcake cookies the same way ever again. Only about three people really care about these cookies enough to have expressed any concern over my statement so it's not like I was risking the wrath of thousands or anything. But still, these cookies have been made the same way in my family for as long as I can remember. We never changed a thing. Not ever. Well, aside from the type of booze to use, or whether to replace a pound of the candied pineapple with a pound of the candied citron or not.

Feeling The Heat: Sustenance for a Suddenly Sizzling Summer

Almost this entire summer, through last Saturday... 68-79°
Sunday... 85°
Monday...94°
Tuesday...111°

To think that just a few days ago we were still having hot porridge and pots of tea for breakfast (and we were laughing at the absurdity of me wearing Ugg boots in August). Clearly that's all over now. After two months of the mildest (or as some say, "coldest") summer on record, I was actually hoping for a little heat.*  I just didn't think that we'd get ALL of it at one time. Jimminy Crickets!

Even though our appetites are somewhat diminished from the excessive heat, we still do get a little hungry. Deliberately turning on an oven or stove and cooking hot food is the last thing on my mind though (which means it simply isn't going to happen).

Sipping On Sunshine

Monday morning was drizzly gray and I was a moody blue. I needed instant sunshine. I needed an influx of happiness. But how can you generate that from within a foggy funk? Fresh fruit (and a little alliteration) always perks me up. Maybe it was time to do something with the mangoes I got at the market the other day (2 for $1.00!). It's as good a starting point as any, and frankly, a lot better than some.

Tender Sweet Apricots

I always have some sort of dried fruit in my pantry. Always. Dried fruits keep practically forever and are endlessly versatile. One of my very favorite dried fruits is the dried apricot. Soft and sweet with a honeyed-tang. They are amazing in everything from oatmeal at breakfast to turkey stuffing at Thanksgiving. Dipped in dark chocolate, well then  they've dried and gone to heaven.*

In summer though, my thoughts always turn to fresh fruit, and the little fragrant fresh apricots often get overlooked as I bee-line to the berries, peaches, plums and melons. They even get overshadowed by their own genetic offshoots: pluots, apriums, etc. Whats next? Grapricots? Aprinanas? It's time I took another look at the subtle and classic blushing beauty that is the fresh apricot... 

 

These desserts all look so very tempting, my problem now is to pick one:

• A yummy Apricot Cake and Apricot Fold Over Pie both from Serious Eats
• Tea-Steamed Apricots & Blackberries on page 20 of Healthy Desserts  (Williams-Sonoma Collection, 1995 )
• This gorgeous Walnut Apricot Bread also over at Serious Eats uses one of my favorite flavor combinations
• Apricot Slice, a tasty looking thing that would be equally at home either for breakfast or dessert (I just love those). Found on page 23 of Best Of Baking (Wolter and Teubner, 1980) 
• The Martha Stewart Cookbook (1995) has Apricots Baked With Vanilla Sugar (pg 422) and two kinds of Apricot Tart on page 453 (one with Grand Marnier and the other with rum... yum!). 
• Also from Martha are two apricot-almond recipes: a Fresh Apricot Tart and a simple dish of Baked Apricots with Almond Topping..

* I really have to apologize for that cheesy awful joke.

Summer Thirst Quenchers

• A plethora of summer cocktail recipes found at the kitchn.com
• Juicy and bright: White-sangria recipes and links from the kitchn.com
• Supposedly refreshing? Definitely intriguing: Lemon barley water drink recipes at the kitchn.com
• Can you say agua fresca? Here's a recipe for agua de sandia from The Seattle Times/Food & Wine section.
• Links to a bunch of Tarragon-infused refreshers at The Kitchn
• An herb-flavored take on a classic... Basil Lemonade made with basil lemon syrup
  
• And finally, something to read while sipping a cool drink in the summer heat: La Vie en Rosé by Jamie Ivey