Last week, it was the beginning of September, I walked into Trader Joe’s and picked up, among other things, a container of black mission figs. In my opinion those are the most delicious figs you can get.
They were brought to California by Franciscan missionaries. With the establishment of the other missions the black mission fig was planted all along Southern and central California. I got introduced to the figs when I came to the US in September 2000 to work at one of the best restaurants in the US.
Black Mission Figs cut and marinating in cinnamon, sugar and olive oil
The Fig and Virginia ham salad was one of the favorites and I fell in love with this sweet fruit. I love it as a chef because it is very versatile as well. I can be served with salty meets on a charcuterie plate or with cheese, turned into a jelly, fig cake, roasted with honey served with ice cream as a dessert, served as a garnish with duck or other meats etc.
Griddled figs in a salad of Romaine lettuce, charred broccoli, goat cheese and crispy salami
After I picked them up at the store I tried to decide what to make with them. I came up with a few ideas and waited for the right time to make the food.
The first dish is a breakfast dish. We love yogurt in our family (full fat), and the sweetness of the figs works very well with the tart yogurt. I spooned some yogurt into a bowl, sprinkled it with toasted oats, cut some figs (and banana) on top and added chia seeds, desiccated coconut and honey for some more sweetness. It is just as good as another of our favorite yogurt dishes, the Birchermuesli.
Yogurt with figs, toasted oats, chia seeds, desiccated coconut and honey
In the Yogurt I used raw figs, but they can be roasted, baked or grilled as well. I have also stuffed figs with goat cheese, wrapped them in prosciutto and baked them, served with balsamic vinegar or a raspberry glaze they are delicious. Cheese lends itself very well for figs. Trader Joe’s has a nice selection of cheeses, triple creme like St Andre and my favorite Dlice de Bourgogne among others are great with figs. Paired with baked baguette and some of TJ’s red wine it makes a perfect lunch or dinner.
Crostini with brie cheese topped with roasted marinated figs, topped with balsamic glaze
I marinated the figs in cinnamon sugar and olive oil and cooked them on a hot griddle or cast iron pan. They can be served warm or chilled. Slice the cheese on warm baguette and place it in a hot oven for five minutes, top with the figs and drizzle with a berry glaze. This could be a nice little canape for a dinner party as well.
Figs are usually available at the end of summer, together with a load of vegetables and greens like butternut squash, beets, broccoli, broccoli rabe, carrots and more.
figs, goat cheese, beets, broccoli and crispy salami with a honey cider dressing
I had some roasted beets left from another day and charred some broccoli in a griddle pan. I also had some salami which I also cooked on the griddle until it was crispy. Now I had all the ingredients for a nice little salad. Just arrange everything nicely in a bowl and drizzle with your favorite drizzle or glaze, add some goat cheese, maybe toasted pine nuts, pumpkin or sunflower seeds, berries, dried cranberries etc.
Last year in August we arrived in Washington State. We were happily surprised to find an abundance of blackberries. The children loved them and went picking every day. All of the berries were eaten right away of course.
One day we decided to pick a lot and make a couple of desserts – apple and blackberry cobbler and peach and blackberry crumble.
Both of them are very easy to make and taste delicious with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream or even a creme anglaise. Apples are available year round but I love peaches when they are in season. Usually they get eaten before we can make anything with them.
The best apples for the dish are Tart apples like granny smith. Peal them cut out the core and slice them like you would for apple pie. Then cook them with sugar, preferably brown, until about half the juices released from the apples have cooked down. add a pinch of cinnamon, stir and add the washed blackberries – stir well but try not to break up the berries.
Take a deep cast iron pan or a pie dish, add the butter and place in the oven at 350F. When the butter is melted and the pan is hot add the batter. In the hot pan it will start cooking on the sides right away.
Spoon the apple and berry mixture over the batter, including any juices and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (optional). Place in the oven and cook 40 minutes or until the batter is cooked. When the dish is hot the cobbler will be very light so it may be hard to tell if it is cooked. just stick a bamboo stick or knive in the batter. It should come out clean when cooked.
Our tribe will not let the dish get cold. It will make it barely out of the oven before being attacked by the children. But it is good cold as well.
Ingredients
5 medium to large sized Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced 1 pint of blackberries 3/4 cup of brown sugar
4 oz of butter
for the batter 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup of milk 2 Teaspoons of baking powder
Tacos are one of the most fun ways of eating. You can put in them whatever you like and leave out what you don’t. Back in Germany I only knew tacos from fast food stores and was not very impressed. I never had the fortune of traveling to Mexico and eating them there from a street vendor.
When I came over to The US I was slowly introduced to new cuisines and one of them was Mexican. My wife made fajitas for our family and I loved them instantly. Still tacos for me was still seasoned ground beef, lettuce, tomato, sour cream cheese…..Oh and a crispy taco shell. It was okay but not that special.
Then I had to come up with ideas for a bar menu and started looking into other ingredients; blackened fish, grilled chicken, shrimp, avocado, mango or pineapple etc. I also started adding a chipotle sauce, very delicious as well, which was basically mayonnaise, sour cream, chipotle and lime juice. I was happy
then one day Matt, my sous chef at the club made a baja sauce for me and I loved it from the first bite. It was almost like the missing link and elevated the whole thing to a new level. It’s so easy to make and I cannot believe I have lived life without it for so long. Now we always have wit with our tacos.
Here’s the recipe:
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of mayonnaise
half a cup of lime /lemon juice
half a bunch of chopped cilantro
3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
hot sauce to taste
1 tablespoon sugar
Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and stir well, ready. You may have to add some water to get a sauce-like consistency. It’ll get a bit better if you let it sit for a moment so the flavors can mingle but it is ready pretty much right away.
One more thing; we pretty much have soft corn tortillas with our tacos exclusively. I feel they are just that much better. the rest of the ingredients are or can be: shredded white cabbage or iceberg, Pico de Gallo, avocado, mango or pineapple onion and cilantro. We usually cook chicken, fish or pork but also have had alligator. Blackening seasoning is our favorite spice.
Recently we ran out of taco shells but we had some rice left. This made a beautiful rice bowl as well.
One of my favorite side dishes in the summer is Caponata. Eggplant is one of the most versatile vegetables. Yet it is usually under used for its potential. It is relatively bland but will absorb a lot of flavors. The dish comes from Sicily and has some Arabic influences. It is served at room temperature and loses some of it’s color and a lot of flavor when refrigerated. It goes well with cous cous or quinoa, with grilled fish, seafood or chicken and is a mix between a vegetable dish and a salad. It can be made in advance and left at room temperature pretty much all day.
This recipe I picked up whilst working in England in my first head chef position at Jeremy’s Restaurant in Sussex. I was looking at an Italian cookbook when it popped out because of the vibrant colors. Besides eggplant it contains zucchini, cherry tomatoes, red onion, celery, peppers, basil, pine nuts, raisins and more. The Vinegar makes it shelf stable and gives it a delicious tang, I prefer sherry vinegar, white balsamic or a good white wine vinegar. There is a lot of cutting involved but the cooking is actually pretty straight forward. All ingredients are diced about 1.5 cm or half an inch and cooked separately. Eggplants are large vegetables so the recipe yields a decent amount of caponata.
2 medium Eggplants 3 medium zucchinis 3 yellow/red peppers 2 red onions 5 stalks of celery all diced
1 cup of green pitted olives .5 cups of raisins 1 pint cherry tomatoes cut in half .5 cup capers .5 cup toasted pine nuts .5 cup toasted almonds .5 cup sliced basil .75 cup white balsamic vinegar 3 Tblsp sugar (or more) depending on the viegar and your preference one cup good olive oil Salt, freshly ground black pepper
Heat up enough olive oil in a large pot and fry the vegetables separately. The eggplant needs to be cooked the longest, it should not be crunchy but be careful not to overcook it or it will be too mushy and fall apart. The other vegetables can and should still have some bite when they are removed from the oil.
Cooking the vegetables this way and the addition of the vinegar keeps them clean and vibrant. especially the eggplant often loses its color when cooked in different ways.
Drain all vegetables well on a kitchen towel or paper and place them in a large mixing bowl. When still hot add the vinegar. This will keep the colors vibrant and add the tangy bite Carefully fold the vinegar into the caponata and add the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. You wont need too much sugar because the sweet and sour is the dominant flavor. The nuts are best toasted in a heavy bottom pan with a little olive oil. Season them with salt and add the as the last ingredients so they stay crunchy.
You can add all kinds of spices to the dish but I like it as it is because there is a lot going on already. The vegetables, the nuts, the Salty olives and capers, the basil the sweetness of the raisins. But fennel – seeds or bulb, a bit of cumin and coriander, some hot pepper flakes may add another dimension.
Our travels along the West Coast took us through Oregon, both along the coast and the Cascade mountains.
Somewhere at a beach in Oregon
Most of the foraged mushrooms I ordered as a chef in Virginia and Pennsylvania came from Oregon, so I was excited to get to Oregon and go mushrooming.
I remember going mushroom-hunting with my parents in Germany. I learned quickly which ones were good to pick and to leave the ones I did not know. I enjoyed the flavor from a young age and learned to appreciate them even more as I entered my culinary career. I knew Porcini mushrooms and other boletes, parasol mushrooms and chanterelles as a child but morels, blewit mushrooms, lobster mushrooms, winter chanterelles, hen of the woods, chicken of the woods and others I got to know whilst working in the kitchen both in the UK and in the US. At the Inn at Little Washington we had foragers bring us mushrooms through the back door. Most of the mushrooms I bought from a purveyor came from Oregon, though.
As we arrived in Oregon I asked around and was surprised to hear that the season starts in September with the rainfalls. It had been dry the whole summer and we arrived at the end of August. So we had to wait for rain. Someone told me that clouds at night move over the coastal mountains and that the humidity could be enough for mushrooms to grow. So I set out with some of the children to see if we could find any. We had some success and found some chanterelles and lobster mushrooms. We had enough to make a delicious risotto.
Lobster mushrooms and chanterelles
A few days later there was a sprinkle of rain and we find a few more than the first time. Finally we had a full day of rain and I went with just Jojo and we found a lot of mushrooms. We found the most beautiful chanterelles but the majority were Lobster mushrooms.
Jojo and I found a lot of mushrooms after it rained all day the day before.
Lobster mushrooms are russula or milk cap mushrooms that have been compositionally altered by a parasitic mold. This may not sound very nice but they are actually delicious. They have a firm texture and a nutty, woodsy flavor and some say hints of seafood aroma. We had a blast and used the mushrooms as a side with meat, made omelettes and a tasty mushroom pasta. Coincidentally we found the perfect wine to go with the pasta to make it one of those memorable meals one always remembers.
the pasta dish was delicious.
The season was short for us as we had to leave for California but in the end we had our fill of mushrooms and I can look forward to go morel-hunting in spring again.
More mushrooms
A couple of things are important when cooking mushrooms; make sure you wash the mushrooms well before cooking and drain them well so they are dry.
Secondly, the pan should be thick so it holds the heat well. Get it smoking hot before adding the mushrooms.
Do not overfill the pan or it will cool down and the mushrooms release a lot of water and will steam rather than sear.
Butter herbs (thyme, Tarragon , rosemary) and garlic are perfect to finish the mushrooms at the end of cooking.
I love adding bacon bits to the mushrooms when I cook them as a side dish or for my omelet.
One of my first childhood food memories is when a friend invited our family and a large group of friends to visit at his country home to a wild boar which he cooked for hours over a fire on a spit. I loved everything about it, the fire, the company, many of my childhood friends came from some of the other families, the flavors etc.
When we bought our house in Pennsylvania I decided to buy a spit as well. We had a few parties cooking a hog with friends from church and from work.
Porchetta I cooked at the Accomac, a restaurant I worked at for over 7 years
We are getting on the road
I decided to bring the spit when we left for our trip through the United States. For the longest time I did not use it as a lot of the time we were not allowed to make open fires because of the drought. When we arrived in Idaho we boondocked on top of Mount Coeur d’Alene. It was one of the most beautiful spots we ever camped. As it happened we had to shop at Cosctco and we grabbed two chickens. We picked up fire wood which was lying all over the place and cut it up with a saw and Basti’s hatchet. Then one day I decided the time was right and started a fire in the afternoon. I put the chickens on the spit, put some seasoning on that friends gave us in Louisiana and started cooking.
I made a nice large fire to get lots of embers and little flame
A word on the seasoning
The seasoning was a mix of herbs and spices that came in a package. Normally I don’t like prepackaged spices but it came from a friend so we had to try it out.
I would use fresh harder herbs like rosemary, thyme and maybe tarragon, sliced lemon, fresh garlic, cayenne or any other pepper, olive oil etc to make my own rub or seasoning. Store bought mixes usually contain preservatives, stabilizers, anti caking agents etc. It does not take much to make your own and it will always taste better.
Cooking the chicken
It is always fun to cook anything over open flames. You can hang out by the fire with some friends, chat and maybe have a glass of wine or beer. You have to keep the food far enough from the heat or else it will burn outside and still be raw in the center. I had the chickens relatively far away from the flames and knocked the stakes further into the ground as time went by. After about two hours and a couple of cold brews the chicken was ready. It looked beautiful. Because it was cooked so slowly the muscles did not contract very much and the meat stayed very moist and tender. I would have maybe liked a little more color but everyone was ready to eat.
The chicken is close so we placed the potatoes in the embers
In Texas many of the State parks have grills for smoking meat. I picked up Mesquite wood but never got to use it because of burn bans. So I used some of that towards the end to get some extra flavor. I am not sure if that worked because there was not too much smoke flavor on the chickens but it tasted delicious anyway.
Because we already had a fire going we wrapped up potatoes and baked them in the embers.
Thge broccoli was cooked in the cast-iron pan simply with salt and pepper
The broccoli we just threw into a cast-iron pan that sat straight on the glowing wood. Andrea and I feel this is the best way to cook any brassica, whether it is cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower or broccoli, cooked hard with some color-even some black, seasoned with salt and pepper and maybe finished with some olive oil, delicious.
Ready for carving
This is by far my favorite kind of cooking. It is nice to do it with family but even nicer if you can have friends around sitting by the fire with a couple of drinks. I hope we can have this again very soon.
Recent Comments