blackberry flaugnarde

Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.

-Seamus Heaney

I rarely dream. It's none too surprising, given that most of the time I can't seem to sleep long enough to dream.

[Insomnia is a cruel mistress, though one that has led to me bookmarking quite a number of recipes I hope to try in future, since clearly I have little else to do at 2am than skim through cookbooks when my mind refuses shut off.]

But sometimes when I do dream, they're recollections. Of course, I'll have the odd one where I'm a wolf sprinting through the Mines of Moria and end up at the Sultan's palace kickin' it with Aladdin [true story], but occasionally I'll wake up with flashes of memories playing before my eyes, with my mind trying desperately to reach out for them before they dissolve.

Walking along the beaches in Sicily. Sitting under the jasmine tree in my grandmother's front yard with a book in hand. Weaving in between the Douro Valley with the vineyards and river waltzing past. Having a conversation with an old friend, perched on armchairs in half-lit rooms with mugs of coffee and knit blankets, residual ache of nostalgia when I wake up.

During the academic year, I don't dream at all. I also sleep far less then than I manage now, so it's unsurprising. But here at the apartment, with nothing but the quiet sounds of cars driving in and out of the complex and peaceful hum of the ceiling fan at night, I've found myself dreaming more than usual. I don't mind it, but it only leads to endless musings.

[Though, since I'm back to working full-time, I welcome the musings. They break up the monotony of quality assurance checking and keep my mind away from pining for food.]

As of late, the musings have been of summertime. Aside from the heat, I adore summer. Italian countrysides, Portuguese rivers, Spanish beaches, Pakistani rooftops under summer stars. Farmer's Markets, peach-picking, sunbathing, napping. Long days, lazy mornings, afternoon rainstorms, warm nights.

It's rejuvenating in the best way imaginable.

With the start of August came the start of Ramadan, one of my favorite times of the year. Not that I particularly enjoy the fasting aspect of it [it's mainly the thirst that's uncomfortable], but then again, the point really isn't to enjoy it. Rather, it's incredibly spiritually energizing. I love it. I feel peaceful. Content. Like there's no reason to worry about trivialities.

But even aside from Ramadan, I love this time of year because summer's coming to an end. I'm sad to see the season go, of course, and definitely not in the right mindset at all to start reading David Hume and Spanish literature, but from a gastronomic perspective, it's beautiful.


Peaches in all their rosy hue lining the stalls at the Saturday market, bright summer squashes springing up like daisies, scarlet tomatoes glistening in the sunshine, berries waiting to be blended with yogurt and honey for smoothies, crisp apples beginning to make their appearances in orchards, the scents of oregano, parsley, and tarragon wafting through market aisles and carrying with them countless menus for summer dinners.

Quite suitably, I purchased some blackberries this weekend. Though, since they were purchased along with strawberries, blueberries, apples, and plums, and since I am, in fact, the only one making use of the fridge, I may have overestimated my ability to eat all of this fruit prior to their going-off. But I hate seeing seasonal produce go to waste cannot, in any right state of mind, allow seasonal produce to go to waste, and so I decided to bake. [Duh.]

Blackberry Flaugnarde 
A bakedbeen original

You'll need:

• 1 cup fresh blackberries
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp agave
• 1/3 cup almond flour 
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and butter and flour a 9-inch glass baking dish.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the eggs. Add in vanilla, salt, and agave and whisk until blended. Add in the flour and incorporate. Finally, add in the milk and heavy cream and mix thoroughly.

Pour about 1/2 cup of the egg mixture into the prepared dish. Place the blackberries evenly across the base of the dish. Pour the remaining filling slowly on top of the berries. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the custard is set. Let cool 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle confectioner's sugar over top the flaugnarde. Serve warm, with a dollop of sweetened cream or vanilla ice cream if desired.

Blackberry flaugnarde. A pretty, delicate, French dessert, on the cusp of being a flan. Flaugnardes are basically clafoutis, though clafoutis are exclusively made with cherries [hence the alternate name]. Semantics aside, flaugnardes are baked custards, eaten warm and absolutely brilliant on solitary summer evenings when berries are in season and there's little else to do besides watch episodes of No Reservations and Doctor Who. The dessert is divine, beautiful in its presentation and charming in its simplicity. I think a peach and cinnamon flaugnarde would be lovely, as well; perhaps something to try later this season.

I had to remind myself, constantly, not to nibble at it while it was in the process of being made, since there was still daylight out and I was still fasting. Definitely the biggest challenge of this Ramadan so far.

And I'm sure once this over, I'll be dreaming about it. Perhaps the nostalgia will have me baking it again quite soon.

As for the rest of the weekend, I'm thinking about paying a visit to the orchard nearby, pick up some more peaches and see if any apples have decided to pop in yet. And after that... perhaps a very long nap.

Yes. Definitely a very long nap.

In other news, earlier this week I discovered that the second season of Sherlock has been pushed back, from this autumn, to May 2012. This can only mean two things:

1. I am most certainly going to fail my spring finals, and
2. I may actually expire from broken heart before then.

Really, though, there are only so many reruns of a three-episode series I can watch before my heart pines for more. [Needless to say, this already happened after about the fourth rewatch, a few weeks ago.]

Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, what are you doing to me?!

classic chocolate eclairs

I love when friends want to bake. It's such a fun time, getting together with people, making messes, laughing at kitchen disasters, and taste-testing dessert. And I'm sure the fact that they get delicious food out of it has nothing to do with wanting to spend time with me. Nope, not at all.

Tonight, my boys [i.e. Raj, Hersh, Nathaniel] came over to bake eclairs. This whole bake date was actually all Hershil's idea, though he and I both compromised on the dessert of choice. Mainly because I've never made choux pastry before and thought it was about time to try, but also because Hershil had no idea what an eclair was.

OM. NOM.

Classic Chocolate Eclairs

For the choux pastry, you'll need:

• 1 cup water
• 1 stick butter
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs

For the pastry cream, you'll need:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6 egg yolks
• 4 tbsp flour
• 4 tbsp butter

For the chocolate glaze, you'll need:

• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 oz chocolate

To make filling: in a medium size saucepan over medium flame, heat milk. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and flour. When the milk is steaming, pour about 3/4 cup of hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. [This is done to temper the egg yolks so they do not cook once added to the milk.] Once combined, pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Continue whisking. Once milk mixture comes to a boil, whisk for about 2 minutes and then remove from heat. Add in butter and whisk until well blended. The filling should have thickened. Let filling cool to room temperature before pouring into a bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour. [Note: pastry filling can be made up to 2 days in advance if kept in the fridge in an airtight container.]

To make choux pastry: preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan over medium flame, heat water. Add the butter, sugar, and salt, and stir with a wooden spoon until butter has melted. Add flour all at once, and stir vigorously. The mixture will immediately start to thicken and pull away from the sides of the pan. Once blended, remove saucepan from heat and let cool for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add eggs, one at a time until each is fully incorporated into the pastry dough, stirring vigorously. Spoon pastry dough into a piping bag or plastic bag with a medium-sized hole cut in the corner [or a No. 10 or larger tip for the piping bag]. Pipe pastry dough in 1x4-inch strips, with about an inch space in between. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until tops are golden brown. Let cool to room temperature before filling.

To fill eclairs, cut through the pastry with a knife, along the middle [but do not cut pastries in half]. Spoon filling into a piping bag or plastic bag and pipe a generous amount of filling into each eclair.

To prepare chocolate glaze: in a microwave or over a stove-top, melt chocolate and butter. Let cool for 1-2 minutes before drizzling over filled eclairs. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Eclairs will keep well in the fridge for up 2-3 days.

So, I picked the boys up around 7. We swung by Kroger and picked up some milk and eggs, then headed over to the apartment. I didn't initially realize that eclairs would be as long a process as they are [the filling in particular], so we made the filling and played some Catch Phrase while it was chilling. We won't even go into how embarrassing of a game that was [long story short, I for the life of me could not remember the word for 'termite', though Nathaniel and I ended up winning. Twice. Even when he thought that a body part with the word 'blade' was 'nose' instead of 'shoulder'], but it passed the time well as the pastry cream was setting.

Then we made the choux pastry. Oh man, what an adventure. Basically, it didn't occur to me to let the dough cool before adding the eggs, and I added them immediately after removing the scalding hot dough from the heat. [Never mind the fact that I remembered the need to temper the eggs before adding them to the pastry cream.] Needless to say, my poor little eggs scrambled.

Initially, Raj and Nathaniel suggested that we could salvage the situation. Not so. Scrambled eggs + pastry dough = tastes like pastry dough with scrambled eggs. So we ended up having to throw out the dough completely and restarting from scratch with the choux pastry. But, hey, baking is always an experiment. Plus, I taught Nathaniel how to separate egg whites from yolks while Raj skimmed through some of my cookbooks and Hershil ordered us some Chinese take-out.

what we demolished while the choux pastry was baking

But the choux turned out perfectly the second time around, and after another round of Catch Phrase and chitchat, we filled the eclairs and covered them in chocolate.

Oh man. These were good. I was pleasantly surprised; choux pastry is pretty difficult, and I'm not a huge fan of most pastry creams, so I wasn't expecting these to be as tasty as they were. The boys helped me fill and glaze them, and I recall leaving them to finish up while I washed dishes. And when I caught up with them, half the plate was already demolished.

But hey, at least they liked 'em!

I sent all but three home with them to share with their dorm, because the last thing I need is to be munching on eclairs during the dead of night before the last day of class.

Though I'm thinking that after Thanksgiving feast [which is back on, by the way (YES!), as I was told by mom earlier today], I'll give the baking a bit of a break. I mean, this hobby is getting both expensive and bad for my health. For rulz.

But that also means that I get to experiment with more cooking! Six pounds of chicken breasts frozen in the freezer, here I come!

In other news, there are 6 egg whites in a bowl in my fridge right now.

Guess I'm going to be eating one epic omelette for breakfast tomorrow morning.