I have had the exciting privilege of appearing on NBC’s “Arizona Midday” with my friend Chef Chuck of Chef Chuck’s Cucina.  Hosted by Destry Jetton (and, yes, she is as drop-dead gorgeous in person as she is on screen!), Arizona Midday features a cooking segment nearly every week.  In our last appearance, we made Spaghetti a la Carbonara and some really amazing, simple stuffed artichokes.  I’ll be on again on September 16th, so I hope you’ll tune in if you’re local.

A few weeks ago we had company for dinner and, in my usual way, I spent most of the day making dessert and about 20 minutes making dinner.  To be honest, I can’t even remember what we had for dinner, now that I think of it.  But the dessert, a lemon chiffon tart, left an impression.  I just love a sweet, pretty ending to a meal, don’t you?  This tart is the perfect dessert with dinner on a warm evening; the filling is light and lemony (a lemon curd lightened by whipped cream) and the topping features fresh, ripe blueberries in all their summertime glory.  No glaze, no sugar.  Just the sweetest berries the season has to offer.

And the best part?  You could use any type of berry, really … blackberries, raspberries and strawberries would all be equally delicious.  Choose whatever’s fresh and ripe at the market.

Make the tart dough:

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and salt until well-blended. Add the egg and mix on low speed until fully incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the flour all at once and mix on low speed just until fully incorporated.

On a lightly floured smooth surface, divide the dough into two equal parts and shape each into a disk about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours to let the dough rest, or overnight. (Alternatively, you can make the dough well in advance and freeze for up to three weeks. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.)

Prepare the tart shell:

Roll one of the chilled disks to 1/8 inch thick, or until it is about 11.5 inches in diameter, lifting and turning the dough a quarter turn after every few rolls to prevent sticking. (Reserve the second disk for a future use.) Trim any uneven edges and carefully lift and transfer the dough to a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, patching any holes or tears with scraps of dough. Trim the edges again until they are level with the top of the pan and smooth between your forefinger and thumb. Place the prepared pastry shell in the freezer for 15 minutes until it is firm.

Preheat the oven to 325. Remove the tart shell from the freezer and, using a pastry brush, brush the pastry with an egg wash (one egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water). Prick the bottom of the shell with the tines of a fork and place in the preheated oven. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until the shell is golden brown. Let cool completely.

Make the lemon cream:

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp lemon juice
3 whole large eggs
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cool but not cold
1 cup heavy whipping cream, very cold

Topping:

1 pint fresh blueberries

Bring two inches of water to simmer in a medium saucepan. Whisk together the lemon juice, whole eggs, egg yolk, sugar and salt in a stainless steel bowl that will fit snugly atop the saucepan over (but not touching) the simmering water. Whisk the egg mixture continuously over the simmering water until thickened and registers 180F on a thermometer (about 10-12 minutes). (Do not stop whisking, as the eggs will curdle.)

Allow to cool slightly (140F) and whisk in the butter in four batches, whisking thoroughly after each addition. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Whisk the heavy cream in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Whisk 1/4 cup of the whipped cream into the prepared lemon cream, then gently fold the lemon cream mixture into the whipped cream.

Quickly pour the cream mixture into the prepared tart shells and smooth with an offset spatula. Decorate the top with fresh blueberries or other whole berries, washed and dried completely.

The weather is still wintry here in San Francisco… I ran to the Golden Gate Bridge along Crissy Field this morning and nearly blew away in an icy breeze!  So I’ve been pretending that it’s summertime in my kitchen, beckoning warmer temps by doing lots of grilling and pie baking.  On Sunday night, we grilled halibut with vegetables and and I baked this peach custard pie with peaches from our farmer’s market.  The recipe is adapted from the June issue of Martha Stewart Living, but my version uses less sugar (the peaches are plenty sweet, even this early in the season) and a touch of almond extract, which imparts a subtle, rich flavor to the custard.  I also mixed some of the peach juices into the custard, so every last bite is perfectly peachy.

We’re off to Yosemite this weekend, where it really will be warm and sunny (yay!).  We’ll explore the waterfalls, do a little hiking and treat ourselves to a nice dinner at the famous dining room at the Awahnee Hotel.  I haven’t been there since I was about nine years old, when I visited the park with my family, so I’m looking forward to it.  Photos to follow, I promise.

Crust:

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2-4 tablespoons ice water

Filling:

4 medium ripe but firm peaches
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
½ stick unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract

Make the crust:

Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined.  Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds.  Drizzle 2 tablespoons ice water evenly over mixture and pulse just until it barely holds together when pinched between two fingers.  If additional water is needed, add it cautiously, 1 teaspoon at a time.  (Mixture should not become too wet or sticky.)

Shape dough into a disk, cover in plastic wrap, and allow to rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour.  Allow to sit at room temperature at least 15 minutes before you are ready to proceed.

Preheat oven to 375F.  Roll dough to 1/8-inch thick circle on a lightly floured surface.  Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate and trim crust to a 1-inch overhang using kitchen shears or a sharp knife.  Fold edges under, and press to seal using the tines of a fork.  Prick bottom of crust 6-8 times with a fork.  Freeze prepared crust for 15 minutes.

Line crust with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on all sides.  Fill completely with dried beans or rice.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and remove beans and parchment.  Bake crust until bottom is lightly golden, about 11 minutes more.  Let cool.

Make the filling:

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.  Prepare an ice water bath and keep near stovetop.  Cut a small X into the bottom of each peach (opposite the stem end.) Carefully drop peaches into boiling water and boil for one minute.  Use a slotted spoon to transfer to ice water bath.  After 1 minute, remove peaches from ice water and pat dry.  Peel and pit peaches and slice into 16 wedges each.  Place in a colander suspended over a bowl to catch the juices.

Whisk together eggs, sugar, butter, flour, and salt.  Whisk in the peach juices.  Arrange the drained peach wedges in overlapping circular pattern in cooled pre-baked pie shell.  Pour filling over peaches.

Bake for 45 minutes.  (Tent crust with foil ring after 15 minutes to prevent over-browning.)  Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool for at least one hour before serving.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyKzc-bc6HA

Hello network execs… would you like to put me on the air?  Feel free to call me any time!  xoxox

I’ve lived in the Bay Area my whole life but I’ve never actually lived in San Francisco.  I grew up in the suburbs, in the small town of Orinda just 15 miles east of the city skyline and have lived in various parts of the East Bay for much of the past 10 years.  I’ve always spent a lot of time in the city for dinners and parties and girls’ nights out, but I just never felt the urge to live there.  What can I say?  I’m sort of a suburban girl.  I’ve always liked coming home to my little neighborhood, where I could tend to my garden and watch my neighbors’ kids play in their front yards.

But earlier this year I met someone special.  I started tweeting things like “we” are doing this, and “we” are doing that.  And “we” are cooking dinner.  Or, even better, “he” is cooking dinner.  Which he does!  He roasts the tenderest matzoh-stuffed chicken, makes the most beautiful salads and sets a lovely table.  Oh – and did I mention the wine collection?  He has racks and racks of fabulous wine… it’s his passion.  If ever a girl were wined and dined, it was I.

So things have been going well, as you can imagine, and effective exactly this week… we’re living together.  And for the first time in her life, this Bay Area native is a resident of the city of San Francisco.

We’re living in a 1930’s building in the Marina (that’s our neighborhood, pictured above), which has lovely wood floors and big windows and arched doorways.  There’s no garden, but we do have a large deck and since I’d been doing a lot of container gardening anyway (since my previous landlord had filled in my old garden patch), I’m quite content.  We have herbs in pots and a couple of tomatoes that, we’re told, are cultivated specifically to withstand the city’s cool, damp climate.

It will be a few months before we have our first tomato, I’m sure.  San Francisco doesn’t get warm until the fall, so I’ll be lucky to harvest anything before August or September if the fog doesn’t get to the plants first.  So in honor of my move to San Francisco, I’m doing something with a slightly more immediate gratification value: I’m making sourdough.  I’m making the starter, to be exact, which entails making a wet, yeasty dough and leaving it on the kitchen counter to bubble and ferment for a couple of weeks.

My guy crinkled up his nose a little bit last night when I showed him what I had done.  But I told him that if making sourdough starter isn’t  an effective way to put your scent on a new place, I don’t know what is.

Sourdough Starter

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup rye flour
2 cups potato water (water that potatoes have been boiled in until soft.)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined.  Pour into a 2 quart mason jar and cover the jar with cheesecloth and place in a warm spot.  Every couple of days, stir the separated liquid back into the starter gently with a wooden spoon and allow to ferment until the desired sourness is achieved, about 4-10 days.  Store loosely covered in the refrigerator and use as called for in sourdough recipes.  Replace what you take with the equivalent 1 part water to 1 part flour.

It’s arugula season!  Actually it’s almost always arugula season here in California, since the peppery, aromatic green can be grown in milder pockets of the state nearly year-round.  You can even grow it at home in a pot or in your vegetable bed.  It likes the cooler temps of spring and early summer, but will do just fine under the shade of other plants later in the season. I just started some in a pot on my patio, and I’ll sow more seeds in about 20 days so I have a continuous crop.

Arugula, it turns out, was grown and eaten during Roman times.  It was served in a salad of romaine, chicory, mallow, and lavender and served with a “cheese sauce for lettuce,” according to the Cambridge World History of Food.  I’m guessing that means some sort of salad dressing.

My twist on the ancient Roman version is this salad of Arugula, grapes, and manchego.  I first published this recipe last spring, but I have a feeling I’m going to be making it quite a bit in the near future.  The farmers at my farmer’s market last weekend were all selling arugula, and I can’t help but buy it when I see it.  Because it’s peppery, it’s often paired with sweeter foods –  the classic combination is arugula with beets and goat cheese.  But I like this variation — the grapes are even sweeter than beets, and the earthy, rich manchego provides a nice balance.

Assemble the salad:
1/2 cup seedless black grapes
6 cups baby arugula
2 cups loosely packed cilantro
2 Asian pears
4 oz manchego cheese, thinly shaved
1/2 cup whole roasted marcona almonds
1 teaspoon sea salt

Rinse and dry the grapes before slicing them in half vertically. Combine with the arugula and cilantro in a medium salad bowl. Rinse and dry the pears, leaving the skin on. Slice them into quarters and then, using a vegetable peeler, shave them thinly into the salad. Shave the cheese over the pears, add the almonds, and sprinkle the salad with the sea salt.  Toss gently to combine.

Make the dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Whisk the vinegars into the olive oil in a small bowl, add the ground pepper. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and serve immediately.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlm78xqhiQs

People ask me all the time what I cook for myself during the week, and I often feel a little embarrassed to tell them the truth.  I make omelettes.  A lot.  Sometimes four or five nights out of seven, depending on what’s on my calendar.  Life’s been busy lately, and omelettes are the perfect one-pot meal.  I have my blog and my TV projects to attend to 24/7, but from 9-5 (actually 7-7, most days) I also have a day job.  I put on heels and go to an office Monday through Friday, where I oversee marketing and communications for an international software company based near San Francisco.  Someday when I have my own TV show I might quit (sorry, Boss), but for now I have to squeeze out a living in corporate America.

Why omelettes?  Because they’re flexible, easy to make, and perfectly balanced in nutrition.  Eggs offer whole protein and essential fatty acids, and you can fill an omelette with all kinds of vitamin-packed veggies and flavor-rich herbs and seasoning.  And despite what you may have heard, most people can have eggs three or four times a week without triggering cholesterol trouble.  To keep it light, use olive oil instead of butter and go easy on the cheese.

And eggs for dinner is just oh-so-very-European, isn’t it?

Here’s my latest video, a little how-to on the perfect omelette.  Good-quality eggs and a rich, creamy cheese are essential, but you can use whatever veggies you have on hand if you don’t have (or don’t like) mushrooms.  Diced bell peppers, zucchini, or broccoli all work just fine.

I’m honored to be featured as a guest poster this week at Steamy Kitchen, the award-winning blog of television host, professional recipe developer, and newspaper columnist Jaden Hair. She’s featuring my recipe for Meyer Lemon Clouds, pictured above. Hop on over to Steamy Kitchen for the full recipe!

Well, I’ve just wrapped up my travel diary on Bali. Wasn’t it fun? Even I’m enjoying going back and reading about all the adventures I had there with my little sister, Kate. It was a trip I’ll never forget, and I’m so glad we did it together.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any more exotic vacations planned for the foreseeable future, so I’m afraid we’re going to have to go back to basics here on the blog: food and cooking. But what a great time of year it is for those two things! Springtime is right around the corner, which means berries, stone fruit and other warm-weather treats. And longer days mean more time to spend in the kitchen and sitting around the table… the best kinds of therapy.

So I’m going to jump the gun here a little bit and post a recipe for a peach crostata. Peaches are already in the grocery stores, which is a little scary given that there’s still snow on the ground in much of the country. Indeed, they come from Chile, which means they have quite the journey from farm to fork…. not exactly seasonal or local. But I bought a few this week because I simply couldn’t resist an early taste of the warmer season. They were ridiculously expensive (I think they flew first class from Santiago) and a little mealy from the journey, but they were peachy nonetheless.

What to do with peaches that are too mealy to eat fresh and too expensive to throw away? Bake them into a crostata, a free-from pie baked flat on a cookie sheet. Crostata is hardly a recipe, really, and more of a strategy: you just roll out a round of pie dough (use your favorite recipe that yields enough dough for a nine-inch, single-crust pie), arrange the peaches in the middle, and fold the edges up and around the fruit. I used three medium peaches; first I removed the skins (dunk them in boiling water for 45 seconds… it will peel right off), then I sliced them and tossed them in a mixture of 1 teaspoon corn starch and about 1/3 cup sugar. I squeezed half of a lemon over the peach & sugar mixture, for a little zing, and then arranged the slices in concentric circles over a 12-inch round of pie dough placed right onto a cookie sheet, dotting the peaches with little bits of butter and folding the edges up in the last step to keep the peachy juices in while it baked. If you want, you can brush the crust with a little egg wash (one egg lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water) and sprinkle the egg wash with turbinado sugar.

That’s all. Like I said, it’s more of a strategy than a recipe, which is why I’ve written it in paragraph form. And it works with all kinds of fruit, fresh or frozen. You can use more or less sugar, depending upon how naturally sweet the fruit is, and more or less corn starch depending upon how juicy the fruit is.

Serve a crostata with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, while it’s still just a tad warm.

Now… aren’t you glad springtime’s almost here?

If this isn’t the most romantic looking cake, I don’t know what is. All those ruffles and sex appeal.  And that’s just the outside. Slice into it and you’ll find layers upon layers of chocolate genoise, fresh raspberries, and tangy vanilla creme fraiche.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

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Chocolate Ruffle Cake Assembly and Instructions:

1 eight-inch chocolate cake, baked and divided into three even layers (Genoise has a nice, light texture, but any chocolate cake will do. You can’t really go wrong, so just use your favorite recipe.)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) or other liqueur of your choice

2 cups creme fraiche (cold)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 pints fresh raspberries
1 pound good-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1-inch pieces.

Materials:

Pastry brush
One 6-inch cardboard round
One sheet of .005 Mylar (available at art supply stores.)
One 18-by-13-inch jelly roll pan, washed and dried. Do not use nonstick.

Make the simple syrup: Combine the sugar and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer, stirring just until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the liqueur, remove from the heat, and set aside.

Prepare the creme fraiche filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the creme fraiche, sugar, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until the creme fraiche is stiff.

Assemble the cake: Brush the bottom of the bottom layer of cake with simple syrup, using a pastry brush. Set the cake layer onto the cardboard round, syrup-side down. Brush the top of the same layer with more simple syrup, then spread about 1/2 cup of the whipped creme fraiche over the top. Arrange 8-10 raspberries over the layer, then push them down gently into the creme fraiche. Spread another 1/4 cup of whipped creme fraiche over the tops of the berries. Repeat with the remaining cake layers, filling, and raspberries, ending with a layer of creme fraiche over the top cake layer. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before proceeding.

Make the chocolate band: Trim a band of Mylar to the exact circumference and about 1/2 inch higher than the assembled cake. Melt 1/4 of the chocolate in a bowl suspended over an inch of simmering water (or in the microwave in 10-second intervals on high) until the chocolate is smooth and spreadable. It should feel warm to the touch, but not hot, so be sure to remove it from the heat just as soon as the last bit of chocolate is melted. Lay the Mylar strip flat on a piece of wax paper and then, working with an offset spatula in one hand and the bowl of melted chocolate in the other, pour and spread the chocolate over the Mylar band, covering it completely and spreading the chocolate all the way over the edges. The layer of melted chocolate should be about 1/8 of an inch thick. Allow it to stiffen ever so slightly while you remove the cake from the refrigerator. Slip your fingers under the band, grip it at either end, and then affix the band to the cake by pressing the chocolate-coated side against the cake all the way around. Transfer the cake to the refrigerator (leaving the Mylar strip intact) once again and refrigerate for another 30 minutes while you make the ruffles.

Make the ruffles: Melt the remaining chocolate in the same fashion (using a bowl suspended over an inch of simmering water or in the microwave) and pour it over the back of the jelly roll pan, spreading with an offset spatula to a thickness of about 1/16 inch thick. Transfer the jelly roll pan to the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the refrigerator and slowly bring the chocolate back to room temperature. (The room should be cool and dry, about 68F is ideal.) At the point where the chocolate is malleable but not too soft, fashion ruffles with an offset spatula. Holding the spatula by the handle with one hand and gripping the tip in the other, push the edge of the spatula against the pan, starting at one edge and moving the spatula in an arcing motion. Transfer finished ruffles to a chilled plate or pan, moving them to the refrigerator in batches so they hold their shape.

Create the ruffle top:Remove the cake from the refrigerator and carefully peel away the Mylar strip. You should have a glossy, solid band of chocolate encasing the entire cake. Arrange the ruffles in concentric circles over the top of the cake starting at the outside edge, setting them into the creme fraiche at a slight angle so they are sticking up and jutting out in all directions. Finish the cake with one perfect raspberry in the center of the ruffles.

Final step (and this is essential): Eat it with someone you love.