Peach-Blueberry Crisp

Living in Santa Barbara my appreciation of summer is a bit less then when I was living in rainy Seattle, chilly Estonia or temperamental Colorado. Days of rain, hours of darkness and late season snow storms help one appreciate the warming power of the sun and the smile educing wonder of a brilliant blue sky. It means long summer days and relaxed evenings enjoy the late setting sun. It is the season of BBQs and family reunions. Still even in a place where the effects of summer might be less extreme, summer still means fresh fruit and berries! A relatively cool spring here has meant that berries are lasting a bit later into the summer than they normally do that the farmers market. This is very good news, as it means I have a ton of options of trying to cure my enormous sweet tooth. I love sweets of all kinds and normally have some sort of dessert every night, even if it is just a few squares of chocolate. Rich and dense desserts and chocolate are wonderful, but sometimes something with a nice balance between tart and sweet is just what the soul needs. Enter the wonderful world of fruit and berry crisps.

There are so many types of crisps and cobblers that I think way to go is to see what fruit looks best (or what of your fruit you need to use up before it goes bad). Whip up the right dough add in some spices and top the final creation off with ice cream and you have yourself a wonderful treat to end a beautiful summer evening.
This week I picked up some local peaches, blueberries and blackberries. After a loaf of bread fell on my peaches and bruised them up a bit (kitchen chaos at its finest) my hand was forced and the peaches were destined for a crisp. Add in some blueberries and you have a good balance of flavors and something that is pretty simple to make, but will pass some time.

There are a lot of ways to put together a crisp as well as types of dishes you can bake them in, but since I am a big fan of the crisp part, I tend to put crisp on both the top and bottom of the baking dish and I used individual ramekins. As I will go into detail in a later post, I really don’t like measuring things, I tend to adjust as I go, and this includes my crisp mix.

So here is what you need to make two to three servings.
1 large or two medium sized peaches
½ carton of blueberries
Rolled oats
Flour
Brown sugar
Butter (around a ½ stick, cut into pieces)
Sugar
Cinnamon
Allspice
Nutmeg
Ground ginger
Salt
Cornstarch

Peel the peach(es) and slice into thin slices
Place the peaches in a medium sized mixing bowl
Add the blueberries
Add 1 tablespoon sugar
Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Add ½ teaspoon ginger
Add ½ to 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Mix all the ingredients together and set aside

Preheat oven to 325
In food processor add a handful of rolled oats (~3/4 cup)
Add ½ flour
Add 1/3 cup to ½ cup brown sugar
Add ½ teaspoon salt
Add ½ teaspoon nutmeg
Add ½ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pulse food processor to mix dry ingredients
Add about half of the cut butter
Blend in butter for about 1 minute
Check the mixture, it should stick together in approximately pea sized clumps.
If the mixture is still too dry add additional pieces of butter until mixture is moist.

Press some of the crisp mixture into the bottom of two single serving ramekins. Pour in the berry-peach mixture. Then cover the top of the mixture with the crisp dough (cover completely and gently press down if you want a thicker crisp layer.

Place ramekins in over and bake for 30 minutes. Check to see if top is browned and liquid is bubbling out the sides. If the top needs more time to brown keep in the oven a bit longer.

When the crisps have finished baking take them out of the oven and top with a couple scoops of ice cream. Vanilla is classic, but I find that dolce de leche is a great contrast to the peach blueberry filling.

Fried Squash Blossoms

Squash blossoms are not bursting with flavor; however, like so many other wonderful food ingredients the underlying savory and buttery flavors combined with a unique velvet-like texture make them a great item to dredge in flour and spices, stuff with cheese (if you so desire) and fry. Once you try one I will promise that you will burn your fingers and the roof of your mouth by eating a second before it has cooled enough, they are that good!
In terms of taking you away from work these fried blossoms of goodness take a bit of prep work, and if you don’t have anyone cleaning up for you, they dirty a bunch of dishes that will take a while to clean. The actual cooking is really quick and the process once you get the hang of it is pretty easy. If you are looking for something that really takes your mind away from your work these will do the trick as they are hands on all the way through and really don’t have much down time once you get started. The reward is a very unique dish that sounds impressive when you share it with others and tastes equally impressive.

To make the cooking process easy and as streamlined as process, preparation is key for this one. Normally I am a rather free spirit in the kitchen, doing things at the last minute, changing what I am doing mid process and generally disregarding any sort of organization (amazing how cooking styles can mirror life at time). However, when putting together an assembly line (which is basically what you are doing when building a frying station) it is best to stick to your plan.

So here is what you need to set up for cooking. These are in order from furthers away from your heat toward your burner.
One large bowl or piece of Tupperware filled with water and ice (for the squash blossoms)
Optional: One small plate to place sliced cheese for stuffing
One shallow bowl for your wet mix
One shallow bowl for your dry mix
One wok or deep frying pan for frying.
One plate lined in napkins on the other side of the stove to place the finished blossoms on to cool.
With a good station like this set it makes it easy to do your best to keep one hand “wet” and one hand “dry” which will limit the amount of sticky flour paste that will build up on your hands. While it is great in theory for those of us that that have one really dominate hand chances are all good intentions will go right out the window and instead you will have a roll of paper towels ready to continually clean off your hands.

Ingredients:
Squash Blossoms – these are highly seasonal so be sure to make this when the farmers market has them, or they are on the squash plants you have in your garden (should you be so lucky)
1-2 eggs
½ cup to 1 cup of all purpose flour

~ 2 teaspoons salt (since the flavor the salt is noticeable I try to use a high quality sea salt)
~ 1 teaspoon crack black pepper
~ 1 teaspoon ground ginger
~ ½ - 1 teaspoon paprika
~ ½ teaspoon ground sage
~1/4 – ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Basque shepherds cheese (Manchengo cheese or really any type of cheese that you enjoy, though personally I would stay away from cheddar and swisses for this dish)
Vegetable or canola oil for frying (the amount will depend on the pot/wok you are doing your frying in) Make sure you have enough to create a vat of hot oil deep enough to allow the blossoms to float while frying.
A quick note on spices: What I have listed is just a general mix that I have found particularly pleasing to me. However, playing around with both the amount and the type of spices that you put into this mix is really key to making this dish well. Everyone will have a different set of flavors that they think work. I use different amounts and spices if I am stuffing the squash blossoms with cheese or just frying them up without. Part of my general dislike for cook books is that people too often follow them without question. Trust in yourself to know the flavors that you like best. If they don’t work together, well than you have learned a lesson for next time.

Preparation (part 1):
Place your squash blossoms in the ice water. To this day every time I make this I wonder why the blossoms need to be cold, but for some reason they come out much better when they are really cold heading into the cooking process. I also remove the stamen (as well as the rest of the inner workings of the flowers). This isn’t necessary but they don’t taste quite as pleasant as the rest of the flower so I think it is worth the extra time.
Beat the egg with a few tablespoons of water to make the wet mix
Mix together the flour and spices to make the dry mix.
Cut your cheese into small strips, probably no more than an inch in length unless you have some really big squash blossoms.
Get your frying oil ready to heat.
Now that you have your assembly line all set to go you are ready to get frying.

Preparation (part 2)
While the oil is heating take your first squash blossom and gently squeeze off excess water.
If you are stuffing the blossoms with cheese place the cheese inside the petals and give them a small twist to create an enclosed space
Then dip the flower in the egg mixture.
Once it is well coated, hold the blossom above the bowl and allow excess egg to drip back into the bowl.
Then move the blossom into the flour mixture. Make sure that all sides are well coated.

Gently drop the blossom into the hot oil.
As this point you can start prepping a second blossom
Let the blossom cooking in the oil for around a minute. Then flip it over and let it cook for another minute.
Remove (with slotted or wired spoon to allow oil to drip) and place on paper towel covered plate to cool.

I normally have no more than three blossoms in the oil at any time. You don’t want your oil to cool down too much as you are cooking. If the oil is not hot enough than the flour mixture and the flower itself soaks up too much oil and you get a far less appetizing very oily bite. When done right the blossoms come out slightly crispy on the outside but it is still easy to tell that you are eating the petals of a flower.

Balsamic Green Beans

I like vegetables and pretty much always have, though as I have gotten older I appreciate them a bit more than I did as a kid. However, it was in my childhood that my parents first provided me with a profound wisdom on dealing with vegetables. Basically they demonstrated that there are three things that can help make vegetables more palatable (even for the pickiest of eaters): butter, garlic, and balsamic vinegar. While the first two may seem like common sense it is amazing how often we turn away from them in the name of health or not wanting to deal with the potency of garlic.
Once after buying green beans from the market I thought about how it might turn out to use all three at once. I was rather pleased with the result. So finally I am on to my first post that actually deals with the cooking aspect of this fine art of procrastination through cooking, and it might be the easiest I ever post.

Preparation is extremely easy and it only takes about 10 minutes from start to finish, depending on how fast of a garlic chopper you are.
What you need:
A handful of green beans (per person) with the ends trimmed.
A clove of garlic (per handful of beans) finally chopped.
Butter, about ½ - 1 a tablespoon per handful of beans.
Olive oil – just so you don’t have to use quite as much butter. If you want to ratchet up the flavor, just add more butter instead of the olive oil.
Balsamic vinegar- you only need a small amount. Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan (1 to 2 tablespoons)
Salt and Pepper to taste.


Put a small sauce pan on the stove over medium heat.
Put the butter in pan and once melted add the garlic.
Stir the garlic around in the butter for around 30 seconds (be sure that you don’t burn the garlic as it give is a bit of a bitter taste).
Add the olive oil and green beans.
Stir the green beans around until they are coated with butter and the garlic is mixed throughout (always keep an eye on the garlic, if it is all at the bottom of the pan it is going to burn on you. You probably only need to sauté this mixture for around another minute
Add salt and pepper
Add the balsamic vinegar.
Stirring occasionally let the balsamic simmer down and thicken. At the same time the green beans will finish cooking.

Once the balsamic vinegar has reduced to about half the original amount, pour out the green beans onto a plate and let the thickened liquid drizzle over the top.

I really like the sweet and slightly syrupy flavor of the balsamic vinegar in contrast to the bite of the garlic and the fresh pop of green beans that have not been overcooked. This is an easy side to cook up when waiting for other things to finish cooking and is ideal to prepare when waiting to let beef rest after being removed from the heat. What better way to resisted the temptation of slicing into your meat too soon, than by cooking a wonderful side that has a strong enough flavor to complement a good cut of steak.

Wasting time with multiple courses

While I try to cook every, as there are few better ways to spend an hour or two not doing work, once a week I will usually try to put together an actual meal rather than just a dish for dinner. If I am feeling fancy I will not only plan out multiple courses and sides, but I will think about presentation and how to plate the meal. Thinking about these issues does a couple of things. First, it is a good way to work on timing. It can be hard to make sure that all the components of a plated dish are ready at the same time and really the only way to improve timing in the kitchen is to keep trying. Sometimes I have had to deal with cold or over cooked vegetables; I say it is always better to mess up these rather than the protein. I can deal with slightly gray or chilled green beans or broccoli, but killing my meat brings tears to my eyes. Doing it when cooking for myself is bad enough, but doing it when trying to impress others is mortifying. I messed up few times and have thoroughly learned my lessons: 1) no one remembers the veggies, and 2) practice, practice, practice (aka, spent time not working in the name of perfection). Second, it is a way to work on flavor combinations as well as appearance combinations. Some of the dishes I have made come out almost monochromatic; this is not a good thing (as you will see in a later post). Visual appearance is an important part of the meal, and a good thing to tinker with.
The middle of the week is usually a great time for just such an adventure. There is still so much work to be done, books to be read and articles to summarize, yet so much of that has already taken place that the thought of reading another article about radical right wing parties in Europe or the influences on institutional design on party manifestos might be just too much to bare. Plus there are usually fewer people to impress with your food mid week. Thus, it is good practice for the weekend get-togethers.

Welcome mid-week reward! Welcome glorious time killer! Welcome guiltless satisfaction. Welcome the multi-dish dinner.

A trip to the farmer’s market (cooking related procrastination without the heat of the kitchen –title of previous post linked if possible) can and as a foodie I would argue should influence the final components of your dinner.

My trip resulted in the follow menu:
Fried Squash Blossoms – stuffed with a Basque Shepherds cheese:
intermediate time killer
Garlic Balsamic Green Beans: great for when you really don’t have any
time to waste but don’t want to sacrifice taste.
Bone in New York Steak
Peach-Blueberry Crisp: comes out looking pretty fancy, but is really
easy to make.

Individually each one of these dishes are suitable for beginners to intermediates of the wonderful world of procrastination through cooking, but put them together and in a flash a whole evening of not doing any work is before you and the result is more than enough to impress yourself or anyone you might be cooking for.

Cooking procrastination without the heat of the kitchen

I love being in the kitchen, I get pleasure from creating chaos though a collection of bowls and plates strewn across counter tops, piles of chopped vegetables cluttering up cutting boards, jars of spices set out waiting to add a layer of depth to a dish their potent aromas mixing with the steam from boiling pots of water on the stove. I love turning this storm of sights and smells into a calming reward of delicious flavors and the happy haze of the satisfaction of eating a fantastic meal. Yet, this is not the only way to avoid work by cooking. Seeking out the inspiration for a meal can be just as rewarding and waste just as much potential working time.

I can spend hours in a grocery store, seriously, hours. Put me in an “upscale market” and you may as well forget about getting anything else done. I will go up and down every else with careful eye. I will imagine of what I could do with an unlimited budget, I will soak up the savories and dream over the desserts. I am not sure if this is a procrastination skill as much as it is an inherited trait, but the result hours of enjoyment and few if any of those pesky thoughts about the work that I should be doing.
Other great inspirations for cooking are farmer’s markets. There is no substitute for fresh produce and farmer’s markets deliver some of the very best! Building a dinner based on what you can get here can help you create combinations of ingredients that you would not have though over, or easy standbys that are full of flavor (can you say caprese salad with purple Cherokee tomatoes).

My procrastination skills got a quick jump start when I was getting my Masters degree from the University of Washington. Besides being a great city, Seattle is home to Pike Place Market, the ultimate way to waste a day and spend far more money than you planned. From fresh fish to fresh roasted cashews, from jams and honey to eggplant and elephant garlic this market has it all. It is deserving of the tourist Mecca it has become, I never leave there empty handed and when I was living in Seattle it became such a problem (both to progress on my Masters and my wallet) that I had to force myself to settle on the small Sunday farmers market that was just up the street from my apartment. Yet at the same time the masses of people takes away from another great aspect of the farmers market; personalization and communication. Yet Pike Place remains the starting point for my love of wandering from stall to stall, seeing what they have and thinking “what could I make with that?” Later I learned to add “how long will it take to make that?” And “what can I do with that when I come back next week”? All of these questions helped me develop into the cooking procrastinator that I am today.

Here in Santa Barbara, I have the vendor where I buy my tomatoes every week, the one where I buy my strawberries and just recently I have added the one where I by my beef. Here you can have conversations about their products, the weather or various other topics ranging from sports to the economy, all while seeing what is at the peak of its freshness. As I walk around a farmers market I always think about what I can make, what mixes well and something new that I want to try. This past Thursday, I ended up with a beautiful cut of beef, delicious peaches, sweet blueberries and vibrant squash blossoms. From that came the inspiration for Friday dinner. Oh, and the people watching was pretty great too. Basically farmers markets are a heaven for procrastination and fresh food and play an integral role in my balance between being a productive PhD student and holding true to my procrastinating ways.

Cooking and Procrastination: a fine combination

Lets face it, everyone has the desire to put off what needs to be done and everyone has their own way of doing this. Some need to find some other pressing tasks to start, others just need the internet or one of their favorite shows on TV. While this desire to procrastinate is within everyone, some suppress it entirely, others given into reason, and some find a happy balance. But there are a select few that have taken procrastination and turned it into an art form. They leave others shaking their head in bewilderment over their logic for putting of things that must be finished (often times sooner rather than later). These select few always have an excuse on hand as to why they can’t get to work and will argue tooth and nail with those with a higher level of common sense when it comes to getting things done over the validity of their argument. I am one of those select few that can put things of time and time again. Somehow despite my propensity for procrastination I have found myself somewhere closer to completing than starting my PhD in political science. (Just a bit more evidence that procrastination isn’t inhibiting to progress in life). Still, as I have continued to progress I find fewer and fewer people around me with the same desire to procrastinate. Suddenly I find myself surrounded by motivated people who don’t fully tolerate my bullshit answers as to why I can’t get to work. Looks of disapproval and public shaming (though not common) have deeply challenged my dedication to procrastination.

But fear not fellow procrastinators, there is a way to overcome this intense challenge to our way of life. If I don’t start my work and my only excuse is that I was tired and needed to catch up on sleep, or my favorite team was actually being televised I better be prepared for a challenge, but if I am cooking and more specifically cooking for others suddenly people are less willing to call me out. And I will let you in on an additional secret, while procrastination of any for has its own type of satisfaction; procrastination that ends in a great meal is far superior to many of the other methods of procrastination available to us. The key is to use that time when we should be working to treat ourselves and on occasion others as well. And the best part is cooking is truly a magnificent form of procrastination. It is flexible in how long it will take you away from your work, if your deadline is barely visible on the horizon or if there is no deadline at all, you can spend a full day cooking. If you need to get to work as soon as possible, but just can bring yourself to get started there are little dishes that take less than an hour or dishes that take long but give you windows to theoretically start or continue your work. For some those windows will be effectively used and for others (I speak from experience) they will turn into additional moments of putting off work. Yet no matter the situation, the result is good food, more procrastination and yet there is also the benefit of feeling that you have accomplished something.

Now that I have procrastinated my way through the first two steps of my PhD program: finishing the necessary course work, and passing my qualifying exams; I need to restart my dissertation prospects writing and defense preparation. Truly this is a daunting task and one that is ripe with setbacks. I have already had two ideas completely rejected and third questioned so thoroughly that it left me numb to academics for a few days. But these moments are not moments of self-pity, instead in the moments of shock that come with partial to full rejection of ideas are perfect moments to say “even though I need to get this done, I just can’t work right now, so let’s cook!” And that is what I am going to do, I am going to share the art of procrastination through cooking. Some entries/recipes will be for junior procrastinators and/or cooks, these generally don’t take to look to finish and don’t take a ton of skill in the kitchen. Others will be for experts, those willing to spend a full day not doing their work and those willing to possible try no things in the kitchen. And in the end, if my friends are any indication, those around you will end up thanking you for fulfilling your need to procrastinate rather than try to get you to change your ways.