Hedonia

Mint julep poached peaches

Once again, I am guest-blogging over at Married ...with Dinner for another installment of their Drink of the Week feature. This time I am discussing a drink I absolutely adore, the mint julep.

As an ice-cold beverage, the julep is cool and refreshing, but the flavors lend themselves well to other preparations. By upping the ratio of simple syrup and mint to bourbon, it makes a wonderful poaching liquid for ripe fruit, and in particular that most southern of fruits, peaches. Since peaches are just now reaching their pinnacle of ripeness, this is a perfect, and perfectly seasonal, dessert.

I stole the idea from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer; I never actually bought the book, just watched her make this on the television show. I just intuited the recipe -- it isn't really all that complicated.

Do you dare to eat a [mint julep-poached] peach?

Almond-ricotta cupcakes with lemon royal icing

I was sort of strongarmed into the Cupcake Challenge co-hosted by Garrett of Vanilla Garlic and Cheryl (Chockylit) of Cupcake Bakeshop. "I expect you to participate," said Garrett. Far be it from me to back down from a challenge.

I have long enjoyed the cupcakey escapades of both bloggers. Many times have I been inspired to whip up some batter and snap to it. Yet, I must confess, I was a cupcake virgin. I had never baked a cupcake in my life.

So what does one do to pop one's cupcake cherry? Cherry vanilla? Cute, but taken. Plain old Duncan Hines-style vanilla with chocolate frosting? Too boring. No, after weighing the options and dreaming of yummy flavors, I decided I wanted to make almond cupcakes with a lemon frosting.

The Holy Trinity

You were warned. After Shuna's awesome pie-making class a couple of weeks ago, you knew, or should have known, that pies were coming. And come they did.

As we had an event to attend the Friday after Thanksgiving, we offered to make pies so we could flex our newfound muscles. Gotta put that training into action. Use it or lose it, right?

We're talking pie here, and we're talking Thanksgiving. There are three and only three flavors that resonate with holiday: Pumpkin (sorry, punkin), apple and pecan. The Holy Trinity. Could we have tried something more adventurous? Probably. Will we branch out and try new and exotic flavor combinations in the future? You better believe it. But we're aiming to please the masses here, so no curried sweet potato chiffon this time, even if that does sound rather good.

Easy as pie

I've always felt that anything worth doing is worth doing well. Pie crust certainly fits well within the category of things worth doing. I've never been much of a baker -- DPaul is the breadmaster in the house -- and not having the mastery of a good, simple pie dough has always felt like a gaping hole in my culinary repertory. So in order to learn how to do it well, DPaul and I both undertook tutelage from a bona fide pastry chef, in fact arguably the best of the bunch, the always fabulous Shuna Lydon.

If you are not yet a loyal and regular reader of her blog, eggbeater, you should be. Her stellar CV aside (she's worked with luminary chefs in some of the most esteemed kitchens in the Bay Area, such as French Laundry, Aziza and Citizen Cake), she is a fabulous writer, whimsical, intuitive and poetic. She takes gorgeous photographs. And she's just a plain old sweetheart.

Jumbled into the diminutive kitchen at Poulet in Berkeley, a dozen of us of varying degrees of bakeitude focused our five senses on the task at hand, producing a delectable all-butter pie crust. Shuna showed us the ropes on mixing our frozen butter and frozen flour in a frozen bowl, stopping along the way to allow us to touch the mixture and train our sensory memory to know when to stop. This is the stuff you cannot learn in a book, on TV or even (gasp!) the Internet.

City Bakery

When one trusted source refers you to a place when you're visiting New York, you put it on the list. When two do it, you make it an imperative. When it happens to be two blocks from your office, you go twice. Such was the case for City Bakery.

I was made aware of City Bakery by newfound friend (by way of David, with whom I just dined at Tía Pol) Thomas Locke Hobbes. A Bay Area native but longtime New York resident (and now transplant back to his hometown), Thomas advised that City Bakery produced the best chocolate chip cookies. Ever. And then the always engaging and informative Shuna commented that I simply must go there for the pretzel croissant. As far as I know they are not in cahoots with each other, or the bakery.

So. Pretzel croissant, eh?

Ho yeah. Explosively flaky on the surface and fluffy soft on the inside. Big time buttery yet never greasy or dense. And just salty enough to highlight the sweetness of the dough. This is a very dangerous thing indeed.

Where to buy ice cream: Mitchell's

As loyal readers know, I have a bit of an ice cream problem. It is, hands down, my favorite food, my greatest weakness and my guiltiest pleasure. I eat it very rarely as a result, in part out of deference to my arteries and in part to preserve the sense of joy I get when I do get to indulge in it. Although sacrifice, or for that matter self-restraint in general, is not my strong suit, I am capable of controlling myself under some circumstances.

But if I am to eat ice cream but once in a blue moon, it had better be the best I can get my grubby mitts on. As far as mainstream, store-bought fare goes, I am a devoted Häagen-Dazs fan, but I will consistently bypass even their heavenly Dulce de Leche for a scoop or ten of Mitchell's.

It is not to say that Mitchell's is the best ice cream in the world. In the grand scheme of ice creaminess, it's solidly good. But what makes Mitchell's exceptional, aside from the fact that it is one of the great tried-and-true San Francisco local treats, is their selection of tropical flavors. I have yet to work my way through the canon of exotic fruits using fresh fruit flown in from Thailand and the Philippines, like baby coconut, ube (purple yam) and jackfruit, but I do rather like the Thai tea. And I'm told they make, or used to make, durian flavor once a year -- and only once a year, as the neighbors complained so bitterly about the smell. So keep your eyes nose peeled for the next batch.

The line is always out the door, rain or shine, and it's little wonder. Mitchell's conspires with Drewes Bros. and Church Produce to form a trifecta of businesses that makes me wish I lived a little farther out into Baja Noe. Oh well ... at least I can select from a smaller selection of Mitchell's flavors at the newly opened Subs Inc on 24th and Castro.

Mitchell's Ice Cream
668 San Jose Ave (at Guerrero)

Dessert first: Stella Pastry & Cafe

My adorable cousin Theresa is in town from upstate New York, on a field trip with several students in her graphic design department. They had a few hours to spare yesterday afternoon, so I trekked her and her friend Alex around the city for a couple of hours, showing the sites and spouting the copious amounts of tedious trivia I have stored away for just such an occasion. (I am, after all, a tour guide.) They were interested in checking out, among other things, Coit Tower and North Beach, so I obliged.

I don't make it up to North Beach often, and only can name a handful of places I like. But one place that stands out always in my mind is the fabulous Stella Pastry & Cafe right on Columbus Ave. And so I could not take them into the heart of North Beach and not tempt them (and myself) with the promise of the best cannoli in San Francisco. I mean, just look at them! (Image stolen appropriated from Stella's site.)

Purtroppo, when we arrived we discovered that there was exactly one lonesome cannolo siciliano left on its half-sheet pan, just begging to be consumed. Being a nice guy (I am, dammit!) I let Theresa have it. They also did not have any cassatine, so I had a slice of pear tart, which was also heavenly. But it wasn't a cannolo. But hey, I can go back any time I like. I'm thinking maybe breakfast tomorrow.

Stella Pastry & Cafe
446 Columbus Ave

Blueberry clafoutis

Go ahead, say it out loud. You know you want to. Bloo-bare-ree-clah-foo-tee. Fun, no?

Ever since the berry gratin last week, I've had clafoutis on the brain. The inimitable Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini posted her recent contribution to NPR's Kitchen Window, a recipe for strawberry clafoutis. Clafoutis is of course traditionally made with cherry, but pretty much any sweet, ripe fruit will do; I look forward to trying this with peaches. Blueberries worked gorgeously though, elevating the almond flavor in the batter to a pleasantly warm, spicy note. And lemme tell ya: It's even better cold for breakfast the next morning (pictured). I'm a big fan of dessert for breakfast.

The clafoutis was the topper on a dinner party last night. (I served it with ice cream, but in retrospect perhaps I should have used Tofutti for maximum verbal whimsy factor?) I started off with a salad of my usual formula -- Boston lettuce, oil-cured olives, supremed blood oranges, quartered radishes, torn basil and lightly dressed with vinaigrette. The lettuce from this one vendor at Heart of the City Farmer's Market is just fabulous -- brilliant chartreuse, flecked with red and positively silky.

For the entree I did a redux on the involtini di pollo al porro e salvia, only this time I wrapped a stalk of asparagus in each involtino as well and dropped the leek wrapper. For a side, I boiled up some little creamer and fingerling potatoes, and tossed them in molten butter with fresh tarragon. The aroma that emanates when tarragon meets hot butter is like the breath of angels.

Unfortunately, my timing was all catty whompus last night. I had done tons of prep earlier in the day, trying to be on top of things. But by the time company arrived I was distracted and exhausted, and wasn't keeping my ducks in a row. But it all got cooked -- and eaten -- by and by.

Berry gratin

I know, I know -- I said we were trying to lose a few pounds. But then, the Chronicle food section had a whole thing on gratins, including a berry gratin, and I just had to make dessert. Had to! And anyway, I justify that this was yet another way to integrate more fresh fruit into our diet. It just happens to be fresh fruit smothered in zabaglione, that's all.

For my first zabaglione, it turned out moderately well, though I think I got a tad impatient and could have whipped both the whites and yolks a tad longer to get a richer texture. I also embellished on the Chron's recipe by macerating the berries a bit first, but make sure you drain them well if you do so.

The dish is good, but it really only spends about a minute or two under the broiler, so the berries remain quite raw. I guess I was expecting something more clafouti-like. Instead, you get a nice caramelized crispy top on a fluffy foam over sweet berries.

Overall satisfying and really not all that rich. We each ate the equivalent of 1/2 of an egg and less than a tablespoon of sugar, and the rest was just pure, fresh berries. As usual, recipe after the jump.

I scream, you scream...

Today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's, so be sure to swing by your local parlor and grab a lick. There must be quite a run on this, cuz their site is down this morning.

Growing up in upstate New York, not far from the Vermont border, we had a Ben & Jerry's ice cream parlor long before they went national. Being the rabid teenagers we were, our favorite pastime was to descend in a large group and order the Vermonster -- a huge punch bowl with one scoop of each flavor and a dollop of each topping. We would start out with spoons and end up with straws, sucking up the cool brown soup that resulted from the blending of dozens of flavors.

In the last decade or so, though, I think Ben & Jerry's has lost its way. They seem driven to incorporate as many and as bizarre ingredients as possible, overwhelming the ice cream itself. Personally, I like ice cream for ice cream's sake. I'll take Häagen Dazs Dulce de Leche or a good vanilla any day. I do love me some Mitchell's, and really want to hit them up for the once-annual durian creation. I'm also planning to check out La Copa Loca, on 22nd at Mission, when the weather turns warmer. I hear it's the best gelato in town.

Last year we bought a Cuisinart ice cream maker. At first we attempted only sorbets, as we assumed they would be easier than ice creams. Turns out that's not the way it works. If you don't get the balance of sugar just right, you end up with either a syrupy goo or giant popsicle. The fat in ice cream helps prevent overfreezing. We'll try it again as it warms up. Once we master that, I'll go all Iron Chef and start making ice cream out of foie gras or salmon roe or something.

If you prefer to go more old-school, but with new-school design, check out the Ice Cream Ball (pictured), available at L.L.Bean. Just add your ingredients, and rock salt and water in the chamber, and roll like a gerbil for ice cream in just 20 minutes, allegedly. I like the iMac v.2 colors -- maybe they should call it the iScream?

And for the vegans and lactose intolerant, there is hope: Tofutti Cuties are soy-based miniature ice cream cookies that, I swear, are better than the real thing. And at just 100 calories a pop, they make for a satisfying and diet-friendly dessert. Best of all, I've seen them cropping up in more and more stores.

Now if it would just warm up outside...