Apricot Almond Galette

With beautiful apricots overflowing at the farmers' market, I couldn't help but load them into this late-spring pastry.  Apricots go surprisingly well with almond, and their tartness is complemented by the sweetness of the almond cream and a sprinkling of coarse sugar. 

Madeleines

Madeleines are alluring to me.  I love their dense yet spongy texture, lovely crisp edges and subtle citrus flavor.  I love that they are shaped like shells.  And their name is sweet, too.  I never made Madeleines before because I didn't  have a Madeleine pan and am resistant to purchasing cookware that has one and only one purpose.  Recently I scored a $3 Madeleine pan at a thrift store and quickly made an exception to the one-purpose rule and started hunting for a recipe to get started.

$3 Madeleine pan

I found recipes that sounded good on trusted foodblog faves: 101 Cookbooks and David Lebovitz.  I also poked around online to try to figure out what makes a Madeleine a Madeleine.  What makes them so special?  My understanding is that traditional Madeleine, which originated in the Lorraine region of northeastern France, uses a génoise cake batter.  I read Madeleine cakes in several places.  It seems that a Madeleine is a cake and not a cookie.  Ok with me.

Rustic Leek and Mushroom Galette

Galette refers to a rustic, free-form tart.  They can be any size, filled with savory or sweet fillings, and they look beautiful and... well, rustic.  They don't take as much effort as a pie -- there is no gentle pinching of crust edges.  A galette just gets folded up onto itself and popped in the oven.  I love them.

Prickly Pear Margaritas

While perusing the extensive produce section of a nearby Latino grocery store, I was impressed with the beautiful pyramid of magenta prickly pear cactus fruit.  I went home and googled prickly pear.  I discovered that this cactus, a true cactus, is the Opuntia, native to the Western hemisphere.  The paddles as well as the fruit are eaten (I see those sold as nopales).  I've seen the fruit and even had uncomfortable encounters with them in the wilds of coastal Georgia (of all places).  But what the heck do you do them?  I came up with lots of hits for jams, candies, lemonade and even pie.  And... bingo: margaritas!  Cinco de Mayo is a perfect excuse to make and consume tequila, and Prickly Pear Margaritas would make it a real celebration.

Chicken Tikka Masala

Continuing on my Indian food and memory kick, I made Bill's favorite Indian meal: Chicken Tikka Masala.  It is debated whether this is a true Indian dish.  If it is, it was invented within the last 50 years.  Some people believe (strongly) that it was invented in London or Glasgow.  A survey conducted in the U.K. concluded that chicken tikka masala is the country's most popular restaurant dish.  Whether it is authentic or not, it is a delicious marriage of fragrant Indian spices and tomatoes (still have some canned from last summer?) in a creamy sauce.    

Yogurt

I have a pile of cookbooks, journals, food magazines and recipe-related newspaper articles piled high on the coffee table right now.  With a day off I had a chance to go through them.  I didn't make it far.  For my birthday last month I got Pushpesh Pant's, India: The Cookbook.  I ended up reading this one cookbook my entire day off.  This is one incredible, 816 page encyclopedia of 1000 Indian recipes from all over the 1,269,219 square mile country.

I spent hours of pouring over everything from Kamala Phoolkopi (Cauliflower with Oranges) to Tulasi Sherbet (Sweet Basil Seed Sherbet) to Karipatta Chutney (Curry Leaf Chutney).  Inspired, I took a break and went down to my storage shed.  I rifled around for a while until I found a personal journal from the winter of 2001/02 that I spent in India.  I worked for a fabulous organization, Shikshantar, in Rajasthan.  Every day at lunch we would gather for a home cooked meal.  I took notes on the cooking procedures when I could: hand scratched notes of approximations as fragrant Indian spices, lentils, vegetables and herbs came together to form each delicious concoction.  Spicy stuffed baby eggplants, tamarind sauce, cilantro chutney, flattened rice snack, palak paneer (spinach and cheese), homemade yogurt, spiced tea.

A Shout Out for Hallah!

It's been raining for a week straight.  Every once in a while the sun comes out for 5 minutes.  The ground in the garden is totally saturated, with parts flooded.  The creek next to my office has become a river, with whole trees rolling by.  Land slides, mud slides, wind and fallen trees punctuate the news, with Big Sur (one of our favorite ocean-side destinations) blocked indefinitely because of collapsed highway.  I really needed a kitchen project to lighten the mood and the week.  Bread came to mind.

When I was in college I started a bread baking business, Eron's Incredible Breadables.  It was a bread CSA -- if you wanted bread, you paid for 4 loaves of bread (one each week for a month) in advance.  Then I'd make the bread and deliver it, often hot from the oven, around campus.

Sun and Rain bread is a recipe I learned at that time that remains dear to my heart.  It started as a recipe from Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible:  one golden-colored dough made with corn meal specked with orange zest braided together with a dough of buckwheat flour and baked.  The beautiful contrast of the sunny and gray doughs, as well as the different flavors make this an exceptional bread.  I've made Rain and Sun to celebrate the Jewish New Year, for birthdays... and just for kicks on rainy days when I need something metaphorical to remember that the rain and sun are all part of the yin and yang.  Today was one of those days.  And it was also Friday -- the day that Hallah is traditionally shared for the Sabbath.