it's fig season!

A handful of years ago, after probably too many drinks in a Seattle bar, I had a realization: "Damn!  It's fig season!" I exclaimed, much to the amusement of my friends.  Never-mind the snickers at my enthusiastic blurting, I was making a mental note to get to the Farmer's Market the next morning.

Each summer since, at first sight of figs in the grocery or Farmer's Market, I often think "Damn! It's fig season!" -  accompanied by a little giggle.  Then I promptly buy up a basket or three and take them home for snacking, baking, or experimenting.

Fig milkshakes, fig appetizers, fig preserves, fig cake, fig salads... it is all delicious.  I think my fascination with figs stems from that fact that they are only seasonally available.  We live in a time when apples, tomatoes, brussels sprouts, and green beans can be found in the grocery year-round;  It is hard to remember what season each item of produce is at it's peak.  Figs, however, have amazingly remained seasonal (and more local) in the grocery.  With the limited window of availability, I must maximize my time with them when summer rolls around. 

While in high school I ate Fig Newtons like crazy.  I justified them as breakfast (they are fruit and cereal based, after all!), snacked on them before track practice, and ate them with vanilla ice cream for dessert (Have you ever had an ice cream sandwich made of Newtons?  No?  Do it.  Trust me.).  During this time, I was also very interested in baking and trying to reverse engineer products in the marketplace; surely my start as a food scientist.  Fig Newtons were one of the items I created, quite successfully.  However, I haven't made them since.

But when I was at the grocery the other day and spotted those awesome first figs, I was instantly inspired to make figgy newtons.  If you are like me, though, you have been eating your figs with your granola in the morning and with blue cheese at happy hour, so you don't have many left.   Not to worry, this recipe has a combination of fresh (if you can spare!) and dried figs leftover from the winter's ration.

Figgy Newtons

makes approximately 30 cookies 

Dough:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 tsp. salt

1 whole egg 

1 egg white 

1/2 tsp. vanilla 

21/2 cups oat flour

Cream together butter and sugar and salt.  

Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix until blended. 

Add oat flour and mix until combined.  

Form dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap.  

Place in the refrigerator 2 hours, or until chilled.  

If you are impatient, like me, put it in the freezer for 30 minutes or so.

Filling:

1 cup dried figs, quartered and stems removed

1 cup water 

zest and juice of half a lemon

1 cup fresh figs, quartered and stems removed

In a small sauce pan, combine the dried figs and water.  

Let simmer until figs are soft and water is gone.  Add more water if needed to further soften the figs.

Add fresh figs, lemon juice and zest.

Puree in a blender or use an immersion blender if you have one.  

Let chill before using. 

Assembly:

Dust your work surface with flour.

(I found it helpful to work on a piece of parchment for easy transfer to a sheet pan for chilling).

Roll dough out into a 1/4" thick rectangle, at least 9" wide.

Cut rectangle into strips that are about 3 inches wide.

Place fig paste down the center of the dough strips. 

Chill dough. 

Bring sides of dough up around fig paste and seal at the seam, pinching together any cracks.

Chill dough. 

Flip the strips over, seam side down, and cut into cookies about 11/2 - 2 inches in length. 

Place on parchment-lined baking sheet. 

Bake at 350'F for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned and doesn't give when touched.

Store airtight.

Tricks and Tips:

While they seem complicated, the figgy newtons are quite easy to make.

This dough is super soft.  It helps to work with lots of dusting flour and continually chilling the dough.

To help make these cookies easier on my tummy, I made the dough with all oat flour.  If you want to use wheat flour, substitute all purpose straight across.  Or use a combination of 1cup whole wheat flour, 11/2 cups all purpose flour.  I haven't tested this with wheat flour, so do so at your own risk.  The oat is really nutty and delicious, I promise! 

The filling is pretty thick and can be challenging to blend.  Don't be discouraged, though.  Just blend a bit, loosen the big pieces with a spoon and blend again.

However, if you find it really too tough to blend and you want to give up: don't!  Just add some more water until you are able to blend, then cook the paste until that water has evaporated and you have a thicker paste again.

I purposely made the filling without added sugar, but if you find you like your cookies a bit sweeter, add a couple of tablespoons of sugar, or to taste.

When cutting the strips into cookies, it helps to cut when the dough has just been chilled.

The cookies are best the next day, once they have been allowed to soften a bit.  But they are also really good straight out of the oven with a little vanilla ice cream!

mountain streams

Three weekends in a row have been spent in the mountains, a place my heart feels most at home.  Chirping birds and cool morning air greets us when we wake.  The smell of pine trees and dirt accompany us on our bike rides and trail runs or even on our trips to the market.  The local barista asks what we are up to with our day and is truly interested (and not at all surprised by our ambitious response).  The stars come out at dusk and sparkle in the black night sky all night long.  The next day, it all repeats.

I know that you are aware of how I feel about city life, with its traffic and lack of trees;   so it probably comes as no surprise to you that the mountains are so special to me.

How did I fall so deeply in love with the mountains?  I wasn't raised in them, per se, but they were always there (5 are visible from my parents' house, when they are "out," anyway).  In fact, my hometown was named for one of those nearby mountains, visible from nearly everywhere in town. 

My family tends to be more water-people, than mountain, though.  Each Wednesday, my parents raced their sailboat on the Columbia River, while my sister and I cheered from our grandparents' river-front deck.  We ventured across the bar and into Canada on "The Pixie" (a small wooden yacht/ fishing vessel my grandpa helped build) and learned to row a small aluminum dingy while out fishing and watching for bears in the sloughs.  Summers were spent picnicking on Sand Island and being pulled around the river in inner-tubes.  Being on the water was a way of life for us.

 

But really, mountains and rivers are not very different at all, especially when you consider the mountain rivers, streams, and lakes available to play among.   They both provide that sense of happiness and freedom, sweet aromas and sounds of nature, and a chance to truly play. 

However, my outdoor activities have evolved from inner-tubing to hiking, sailing to kayaking, fishing to, well, fishing (but now it is with a fly rod in a mountain stream as opposed to a trolling the river in an aluminum boat!)

With any luck, I will be back in the mountains again this weekend. 

goal of the century

When the new year began, I created a list of goals for 2013;  "A year of big ideas," I called it. This list is not long, but it contains things like "practice Spanish" (which I am not so good at remembering to do!) and "ride a century."  The century addition to the list seemed like a good idea at the time: a goal that was likely challenging, but attainable.  Besides, it is something I have always wanted to do.  The problem with ideas like this is that I find myself afraid to actually do it; one of those ideas that pop around in my head for years, but I have a hard time acting upon.

Why was I so scared?   Perhaps it is a little bit of the unknown:  I am not a 'real' cyclist and 100 miles seemed really daunting.  Maybe it was a bit of the known, too.  I had run marathons and suffered; I figured the century was cycling's version of a marathon, so therefore suffering was likely. 

Early this spring, friends were talking about this beautiful bike ride around Lake Tahoe that they were planning to do (America's Most Beautiful, in fact!) and suggested we join them.  I thought, "yeah, that'd be great" but hemmed and hawwed and was afraid to pull the trigger.   Then one day, my sweetheart sent a text saying "you are signed up for the ride in Tahoe!"

Alright!  I needed someone to do that for me; now I had myself committed.  I certainly couldn't waste his registration money and I wanted to minimize the suffering, so I set out to create a little training schedule.  Knowing next-to-nothing about training on a bike, I loosely modeled my schedule after my marathon training: trying to ride at least a couple of times a week while building up in mileage over the weeks.  Continuing to run and do yoga would certainly help round out the fitness, I hoped.

Able to more-or-less stick to my training plan, I learned about what to eat on long rides (NOT a Snickers bar!) and how to manage hours in the saddle.  The day of the ride arrived quickly and I was nervous about the altitude, the hills, and the adequacy of my training.  Luckily, all of those fears quickly dissolved as I pedaled along with the company of 6 friends (and 20,000 others!).  The miles passed quickly with the help of beautiful scenery, ample rest areas, and the energy of race-day enthusiasm.  Soon, I found myself at lunch with only 30 miles to go and feeling great (granted, I didn't push myself as hard as I would, had I been running)!  My sweetie and I finished the ride feeling like we could both do 20 more miles if we needed.  But I didn't really want to - I was looking forward to that post-ride beer!

Now, 3 days later, I am already finding myself excited for the next one.  Could I possibly turn into a cyclist?!  I'm not sure, but I am definitely adding a tick mark next to "ride a century" on that year-of-big-ideas list!

wedding mexication

My sweetie and I recently returned from celebrating two friends as they joined their lives (for better or for worse!) among the jungles and white sand beaches of Tulum, Mexico.  More than a wedding, more than a vacation,  it became known as the "Wedding Mexication."

A beautiful bride, handsome groom, heartfelt speeches and palpable love, it was surely a special wedding.  But add to it barefoot guests, mariachi serenading, bottomless margaritas, and flan as the wedding cake, it had a uniquely Mexican touch.

While the weekend was primarily about our friends, we extended the "weekend" to Tuesday, allowing a fair amount of time to create our own version of Mexication.  Beach vacations aren't typical for us, but we quickly found we could be tempted to change our ways!

We lounged on the beach with books and layers of sunscreen, far longer than I imagined two active people could.  The lounging was often interrupted by the draw of the turquoise surf to cool down and attempt body surfing (his skills FAR exceed mine!).  Renting bicycles, we were able to find our way to the Mayan ruins of Tulum and stumble upon public playas along the road.  But what we did best as vacationers, was find delectable food and drink.

It was pretty hard to go wrong, though.  Fresh pressed juices, hours-old seafood, and refreshing ceviche were all ubiquitous.  Even though we were indulging in vacation foods, most meals still felt light and relatively healthy.  The casual open-air dining added extra ambiance to the meals and made it feel truly vacation-y; it isn't often that we are able to dine comfortably out-of-doors in SF (especially after the sun has gone down!).  The tropical cocktails didn't hurt, either!

Our favorites:
Mateo's - "World Famous" fish tacos with freshly made tortillas.  A welcome lunch, alongside a cold Mexican beer, for hot and hungry bicyclists. 
Casa Banana - Here, we enjoyed fish and shrimp skewers in a break between rainstorms.
La Luna y Estrella - Ocean views and an over-hanging jungle canopy accompanied our delicious breakfast of huevos rancheros.
El Tabano - Upscale Mexican cuisine - we enjoyed tamarind meatballs and mole shrimp while watching the cooks in the open kitchen. 
Casa Violeta - Beach-side dining with seafood pizza and inspired ceviche. 
La Zebra - Order the 'Lina's feast' for a taco bar that gets an personal and delicious upgrade.
Hartwood - Fresh fish and meats prepared in the wood-fired oven alongside creative cocktails.   Their octopus and ribs were some of the best I've had.

toasted coconut ice cream

I've been on a coconut kick lately.  I don't know what it is, but I just can't get enough, in any shape or form.  Coconut in my granola, road-trip Mounds bars from the gas station, chocolate coconut ice cream. 

Recently, my sweetie surprised me with a pint of toasted coconut ice cream from the nearby grocery.  This grocery is amazing - beautiful and elusive produce, cheese, and wines.  They also make a lot of their own items, from marinades to cakes.  But their most special house-made items are their ice creams.  So special, they have a creamery across the street from the primary market, solely for ice cream.

San Franciscans love this ice cream.  In the rain, in the cold, in the dark, there will be a line of patient ice cream lovers wrapped all the way around the corner.  When it is hot and sunny (those 15 days a year!),  all of SF is getting their Bi-Rite ice cream to enjoy while lounging in nearby Delores Park.  (There is a secret, though: for soft serve and other delicious but limited selections, you can go to the window around the corner where there is virtually no line!)

Inspired by both coconut and this SF delicacy, I decided I needed to make my own version: not overwhelming coconut, but perfectly toasty and sweet.  And the best part? No line!

Toasted Coconut Ice Cream

inspired by Bi-Rite Creamery

2 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 cups 1% milk

3/4 cup sugar

4 large egg yolks

2 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut 

2 tsp. salt

Spread the coconut on a sheet pan and toast in a 325'F oven until brown and toasty, about 5 minutes.  Watch it closely, though, as it is easy to burn.

Combine 2 cups of the toasted coconut with milk, cream and salt and heat to just simmer.  Do not let the milk boil.  Turn off the heat and let sit for about 15 minutes to steep the coconut flavor. 

While the milk is steeping, combine the egg yolks and sugar in a small metal bowl.  Whisk together the eggs and sugar while holding the bowl over a steaming saucepan until fluffy and light in color,  creating a sabayon.

Remove sabayon from the heat.  

Strain the coconut from the milk.  Discard the coconut (so sad, I know!!).

Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg and sugar mixture, whisking all the while.  

Strain the base through a fine mesh strainer and chill the base for at least two hours.  Overnight is better.

Freeze in your ice cream freezer. 

When the ice cream is sufficiently frozen, move the ice cream to a freeze-safe container.

Mix in the remaining 1/2 cup toasted coconut (or save to sprinkle on top). 

Freeze to harden, 2-3 hours or overnight,  if you can wait that long!  I couldn't.

Tricks and Tips:
I used turbinado sugar for a deeper "brown" flavor that helps to accentuate the toasty notes.

You could add vanilla to your steeping milk if you like - it helps potentiate the sweetness and round the flavor a bit.  However,  I chose to keep this as coconutty as possible so I left it out this time.

When separating eggs, I put my egg whites in a mason jar to save for later.  They are great to have on hand for egg white scrambles, dutch babies or egg white cocktails like the Edith Day or Ramos Fizz.

By creating a sabayon, you are gently cooking the eggs without curdling them.  This is the basis of any custard, and the essential method for making a hollandaise.

Slowing adding the milk to the sabayon tempers the eggs and prevents them from cooking when the hot milk hits them.  But don't worry too much about it after you get the first 1/3 of your milk in, it will be more tolerant at this point.  Straining through the fine mesh helps to remove any accidentally cooked egg.

This ice cream is really, really good with some melted dark chocolate poured over top. 

pizza cheat

I have been grain-free for nearly three years now.*   I feel so much better when I don't eat grains at all and my gut thanks me tremendously, but sometimes I am willing to suffer a bit for the sake of a "worthwhile cheat."   While that list of cheats is short, it has really delicious pizza heading it up (in capital letters!).

*I should note that, while I have symptoms similar to celiac, I do not suffer from the disease.  My gut is intolerant to all grains, except oats for some strange but awesome reason.  Cheating causes no long-term damage to my gut as it would for someone with celiac.

As a college student, one of my many jobs was manning the wood-fired oven at a local bistro.  I mastered the skills of this oven, from cooking evenly blistered pizzas to maintaining the heat (if you can hold your hand in the middle of the oven for 5 seconds, its about 500F: perfect!),  even polishing the coppery facade  (the cut side of half a lemon dipped in salt will polish that copper to look like new!).

Since the days of working with that copper-clad oven, I longed to replicate those pizzas at home.  I struggled with soggy, flavorless crusts while fantasizing about owning a wood-fired oven one day.   Luckily, in the time since, I have learned the tricks; and with no need for a special pizza oven imported from Italy, a stack of firewood outside the back door, or even any fancy equipment!   With the help of a really hot oven, a pizza stone, and a good dough recipe, that seemingly unattainable wood-fired-style pizza can easily be made at home.  It's definitely worth it.  

Pizza Crust

adapted from Saveur Magazine

I recommend starting the dough 24-48 hours in advance for best texture and flavor.

Makes 4 large or 8 small pizzas.

7 cups "00" flour, preferably Caputo brand

2 tsp. active dry yeast

3/4 cup warm water (~85'F)

1 tbl. sugar

3 tbl. olive oil 

1 1/2 cups ice water

4 tsp. kosher salt

Combine yeast, sugar and water in a small bowl.  Let rest about 10 minutes or until foamy.  If it does not foam, throw out the mixture and start again.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and yeast mixture.

Add the olive oil and cold water and mix until well combined.

Knead with the dough hook for approximately 7 minutes, or until elastic.  If you are using a stand mixer, use your dough hook for this.  If doing it by hand, be prepared for a little workout!

Make a well in the dough and add the salt.  Mix it in by kneading for approximately 2 more minutes. 

Shape the dough into 4-8 balls and place on a lightly floured sheet pan.

Loosely cover the dough with plastic and refrigerate at least 24 hours.

Shaping and preparing the pizza:

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let come to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 500'F and place pizza stone in the oven to heat as well.

On an overturned sheet pan (or pizza peel, if you have one!) generously dust with flour and cornmeal.

Working with one dough ball at a time, dust it generously with flour and flatten to a disk.

To shape, hold the dough disk like a steering wheel, turning and stretching the dough as you work your way around and around the "wheel" until it is uniformly thin. 

Dust one side of the dough with flour and cornmeal and place that side down on the sheet pan/ pizza peel.

Slide your sheet pan around to ensure the pizza crust moves easily.

Brush with crust with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Top with crushed tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh whole basil leaves (or other toppings, as desired).

Slide the pizza onto the stone.  Starting at the back of the stone, let the pizza touch the stone and slide the sheet pan/ peel out from under the crust, letting it land on the stone.

Let bake until blistered and bubbly, about 5 minutes, turning halfway, as needed.

Remove the pizza and place on a serving dish.  

Slice and serve!  

Tricks and Tips:

Keep the stone in the oven the entire time - pretend like you can't remove it.

The dough is pretty resilient - stretch it to help make it thinner in spots that need help.  If you find you've created holes, simply repair them by pinching the dough together. 

Make sure you have plenty of space to work in your oven, above your stone.  I remove all of my racks and work in the lower third.  This helps prevent burned hands.  

While working on building your pizza and before you slide it into the oven, check to ensure it slides freely on the sheet pan or peel.  If it doesn't scrape it up with your spatula and get some flour/ cornmeal under it.  

A giant fish spatula or other large metal spatula works really well for turning and removing pizzas.

sweet inspiration

I receive a lot of magazines. Nearly every week, I have something new waiting on my stoop with awe-inspiring mountains or drool-inducing dishes popping from the covers, surrounded by sensational headlines: "Lost on Everest!" or "Epic Rib Feast."

Recently one of my magazines had a large feature on donuts.  It told of the history and development of the fried pastry (did you know that the hole is in the donut to help prevent an undercooked center?) and shared many images and recipes of donuts from around the world.

I've never been one for donuts so this article didn't really ignite any inspiration in me (I much preferred learning about the Red Cross "Donut Dollies" handing out hot donuts to troops during World War II for a taste of home).   But my sweetheart has a special fondness for donuts and has been fascinated with this magazine since the day it arrived.  HE was inspired.  Leafing through the pages, eyes and grin wide, he dog-eared a few recipes he wanted to try.  New England-Style Cider Donuts were the pick for his first homemade donut experience.  And they were pretty delicious, I must say.

New England Cider Donut

adapted from Savuer Magazine

2 -2½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. butter, softened

½ cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup apple cider
3/4 cup buttermilk
Canola oil, for forming and frying

Heat about 2 inches of canola oil in a cast iron skillet to 350F.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar.  

Add egg yolks, cider, buttermilk and vanilla. 

Mix together dry ingredients and add to the rest of the mixture. 

The dough will be rather sticky, but you want to be able to handle it a bit - add more flour as needed (picture below, for reference). 

Pour a little canola oil on your hands and rub it around.  

Pinch off a small ball of dough and form it into a disk, about 3 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick.  Using your thumb, form the donut hole in the center.

CAREFULLY slide the donut into the oil. 

Let it cook until golden brown and delicious, then flip it over.  

Remove the donut using a slotted spoon when both sides are nicely browned, about 3-4 minutes total.

Let donut drain on a wire rack or on paper towels until completely cool. 

Dust with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.

Tricks and Tips:

If you don't have a cast iron skillet, any saute pan will will do.  The cast iron maintains a more stable heat, but it isn't necessary.

Make sure your hands are good and oily for forming the donuts, otherwise you will have dough all over your fingers! 

Be VERY careful when placing your donuts in the oil and when flipping them over.  The oil is really hot and can burn you easily if splashed. 

Work with one donut at a time, until you get the hang of it.  It moves pretty quickly and it would be a shame to burn a donut!

A dash of nutmeg and a pinch of salt in the dusting sugar adds a nice little something.

These donuts are really great with coffee.  But I am sure you already knew that!