Apple season!

We had had a tough weekend. My son, for some inexplicable reason, woke up every night (Fri, Sat, Sun) at 3:45, leaving us all tired and cranky during daylight hours. He's awfully cute, so it's not so bad, but we are really hoping for a full night's sleep tonight. When we have tough weekends it always makes me want to treat myself. Top on the wish list is a drive up north to apple country, to pick some apples and have fun with my camera. I love apples and it's this time of year that apples are in their full splendor. It make a world of difference to have an apple straight (or not long from) the tree versus cold storage.

 

There are always interesting local varieties in the farmer's market and picking an apple is often like selecting a bottle of wine: crisp, honey undertones, firm flesh, tart ... Did you see my last piece in Sweet Paul Magazine? I wrote a story on apples. This was before apples were actually in season and now it's truly the right time to take advantage. My favorite recipe in the piece is for apple butter. Have a look and give it a try.

 

Apple butter

(makes 3 cups)

4 pounds all-purpose or saucing apples peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 cups apple cider

1.5 cups granulated sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 vanilla bean, scraped

1 Tbs cinnamon

¼ tsp allspice

Combine apples and cider in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until apples are tender.

Stir in sugar, lemon juice vanilla, cinnamon and allspice. Return to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer gently for about 35 minutes. or until mixture is very thick.

Seasonal specialty: fried zucchini blossoms

The farmer's marketing has had beautiful zucchini blossoms for several weeks now and every time I see them, I make a note to buy them but I am always hesitant to purchase them unless I know I'll have time to make them right away.  They are so beautiful (but fragile) and they deserve to be eaten right away while "just picked."  If they weren't quite so ephemeral, I'd put them in bud vases and decorate the dinner table with them. My favorite way to eat them is stuffed with some fresh mozzarella and basil and fried in a light batter.  It seems to bring out their flavor and still preserve their interesting form.  It's also quite a crowd-pleaser.

The recipe is quite simple.   Be sure to make them only moments before you plan to eat them: they are quite fragile and won't hold their shape long.

Fried zucchini blossoms

(for ~12 blossoms)

12 zucchini blossoms, pistils removed, stems trimmed, washed well and gently patted dry
2 cups whole milk
4 Tbs all-purpose flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
Generous pinch salt
Mozzarella (small amount)
4 basil leaves, torn into three pieces each
Canola or olive oil for frying

Combine milk, flour and egg.  Heat oil in a medium saucepan until a droplet of water crackles vigorously when dropped in.  While oil is heating, place a small chunk of mozzarella and a piece of basil in each blossom.  Gently twist tops to seal as best you can.

Dredge blossoms in batter a few at a time.  Allow excess to drip off.  Fry a few at a time for several minutes until blossoms turn golden brown.  Cheese will melt on the inside.

Remove gently with a slotted spoon.  Drain on paper towels.

Serve immediately.

Artichoke salad and a shortcut

Eataly just opened in New York to a ton of PR and local excitement.  It is a massive indoor space filled with restaurants and a large, mostly Italian dry goods and gourmet items plus local produce, seafood and a local meat counter.  A foodie's dream come true.  One very interesting feature is a station dedicated to chopping and preparing vegetables to your specifications.  Initially I thought "who would ever be so lazy that they couldn't chop their own vegetables?" But then, I realized that there are some vegetables that are so onerous to prepare that I actually avoid buying them: artichokes!  Would they pare raw artichokes down the the hearts and shave them on a mandoline so I could make a fresh artichoke salad?  I optimistically picked out and weighed a dozen baby artichokes and presented them to the counter.  Sure enough, a short while later I had shaved raw artichokes floating in acidulated water, ready for assembly at home. 

At home, I sliced fennel thinly on a mandoline, tossed the fennel and the artichokes with some baby arugula and fennel fronds and drizzled it with some nice olive oil and red wine vinegar.  An "instant" salad that would have taken me quite some time without the leg up.  I was so excited I forgot to shave the 12-year aged Parmesan I had bought to go on top.  I can only imagine the other things I can concoct with freshly prepared artichokes!  I'm quite sure they didn't see this coming but they were game and I'll be going back.

Where am I? (and apple and crab salad)

Hi everyone!  I hope that you have been enjoying your summer!  I've had a great summer with lots of fun work on both the child and food photography fronts.  I will share some of what I've been working on soon.  Recently I've shot a couple more cookbooks and am in the midst of working on the photography for a single-subject cookbook on lobster.  I'm shooting environmental shots of lobstermen and the like now, and will do the plated dishes next spring when the author finishes the manuscript.  I've had some a amazing child/parent clients and some really lovely and touching images that have come out of those sessions.  I have a great slate of new work coming up that I'm very excited about.  If you are interested, I seem to be doing little updates more frequently on my Facebook site than my blog - please feel free to hop on over there.

My family and I just spent 2 weeks in Maine.  Both relaxing and enjoying the ocean and the wonderful, quaint towns but conveniently also making some progress on the lobster cookbook.  I had the opportunity to meet many lobstermen as a result (and eat many lobsters!).  My husband and I were both remarking that it's nice when I have an assignment when we are away because it forces is to interact more with the locals and discover more of the local culture.  This time, we certainly were able to do that, and it was wonderful.

So what's been up with this blog?  Well, I have been wanting to re-brand for some time.  I've felt for a while that Cookbook Catchall is a name that no longer really reflects what I'm writing about.  I want to include more of my child photography on this site and wanted a broader name.  I also wanted a new look and feel and a custom URL.  So all of that was accomplished easily enough but when I went to publish my blog, Blogger managed to throw out all of the comments prior to the change.  Years of comments from you that I truly value.  If I switch back to the Blogspot URL, I get them back.  Go back to the custom domain name, and they are gone.  I've looked up this issue and it seems it's a known bug with no fix.  I'm so frustrated and disillusioned that it's kept me from doing new updates!  Does anyone know anything about this?  Any ideas?  Should I just switch to Wordpress and start all over again?

I thought I'd share an outtake from the next issue of Sweet Paul which will be out during the first half of September.  I contributed an apple story, and the final recipes ended up being sweet.  This one, which is delish, is out so I'm sharing it here - enjoy.

Apple and crab salad
(serves 4 as a light side salad or appetizer)

1-2 granny smith apples, sliced 1/8 inch thick on a mandoline
1 lb lump crab meat
1 Tbs mayonaise
1 Tbs+ freshly squeezed lemon
1 Tbs chopped tarragon
1 Tbs chopped chive
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
Sea salt to taste

Drizzle some lemon juice on apple slices to prevent browning
Combine crab meat and seasonings.  Adjust seasonings to taste.
Arrange crab meat in layers between apple slices.  Serve immediately.

p.s.
I shot a bunch of long exposures of the clear Maine sky while we were there.  This was my favorite.  No photoshop here - this is straight out of the camera!