(y)our food choices™

What would we do without Martha Stewart? With all her knowledge and wisdom about all things domestic it’s only obvious that her website is a go-to when I’m searching for something wonderful to eat or create. While searching for her Blueberry Buckle recipe I came across a simple and easy, fail-proof Upside Down Cake, and while it uses blueberries, almost any fruit will do.

With a few nearly over-ripe peaches, I whipped up this cake in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I had a couple of glasses of wine before making the cake and in my relaxed state, I didn’t follow the recipe exactly. I mixed cold milk and an egg together then added the butter and sugar. According to Martha’s recipe the milk should be at room temperature and the butter and sugar should be mixed first, then egg, and then the milk. The wet mixture for my cake was lumpy with large bits of butter, not smooth the way I imagined it should have been. The result left crunchy butterscotch bits in the cake which, in my defense, were very complimentary to the peaches. It was a happy accident nonetheless and one that I might willingly make again. Whether you make it as Martha instructs, or screw it up, like I did, you can’t go wrong with this cake recipe. Serve this one with the Bulleit Bourbon and Peach Ice Cream for a double peach whammy!

Oops…it’s a Butterscotch Peach Upside Down Cake

4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus more for souffle dish
1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons light-brown sugar
1 1/2 cups diced peaches
3/4 cup cake flour–not self-rising
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk, cold
1 egg

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 1-quart, 5 1/2-inch-diameter souffle dish. Pour 2 tablespoons melted butter into the souffle dish. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons brown sugar over butter. Scatter 1 cup diced peaches over sugar. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In another medium bowl, whisk together the cold milk and egg, add the brown sugar and remaining 2 tablespoons butter, and whisk (the mixture will not be smooth). Add flour mixture; whisk no flour streaks are present (again, the mixture will not be smooth).

Pour half the batter into souffle dish. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup peaches over batter. Spread remaining batter over blueberries. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean of batter, about 45 minutes. Immediately unmold cake, inverting it onto a serving dish. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.

All the makings of gazpacho.

Two days in San Francisco – is that really all we can get out of you? You didn’t give us any time to prepare and enjoy the first truly summery soup and ice cream we made especially for your visit. Rude! It was all too brief, but I guess we’ll just have to enjoy our cold soup and accompanying creamy frozen concoction with our old reliable friend – Fog. It’s not that we don’t enjoy Fog, but all he does is hang around, sometimes letting a few rays of blue sky through, only to envelop the skies again in his moody grey cloak. Not that we’re complaining or anything like that. No, don’t worry about us. We’ll just sit in our little kitchen listening to the mood music on KFOG. Oh listen, it’s Annie Lenox singing “Here comes the rain…again,” while the rest of the country is dancing to Katy Perry’s “California Gurls.” Yeah, well, our CA gals are in sweatshirts, not bikinis, thank you very much! (Sorry for the outburst.)

Getting ready to blend

Summer, we know you said you’d be back soon, but you’re unreliable. You show up when you want and leave without saying good-bye. How can that be any good for us? We know you’ve hosted a pool party for the rest of the country, setting high temperature records everywhere while we have to stay in the cold comfort of San Francisco. Again, we’re not complaining. But really, Summer, couldn’t you have hung around at least one more night? Just long enough to enjoy dinner with its menu of gazpacho with grilled cheese sandwiches and bourbon peach ice cream? Is that really too much to ask? We could have drank all night and danced until the wee hours of morning, but no, you had to leave.

All along, the weather people have been telling us you’d be around at least a few weeks. And just when the bounty of this year’s tomato harvest is coming to us in our CSA box. We really thought this would last until at least the end of September, but now you’ve just upped and split on us again. That’s no way to live. So, Summer, if you’re out there: please come back for another visit. Even with all the complaining we do while you’re here, we really do enjoy you’re company at least for 3-4 days in a row. Oh, by the way Summer, since we miss your heat so much we’ve added a roasted jalapeño pepper to the gazpacho, a lingering zippy sensation to signify how we wished you had stayed around just a little longer.

XOXO

Jason and Steve

The finished product with grilled cheese.

Gazpacho Soup

2 sweet peppers

½ onion

½ cup of milk (or enough to cover the onion)

4 tomatoes

2 small cucumbers

3 garlic cloves

¼ – ½ cup olive oil

small handful of basil leaves

2 slices bread

2 tablespoons sherry vinegar (or more to taste)

Tabasco – to taste

salt & pepper – to taste

Roast and skin the peppers. Mince onion and soak in milk for about a half an hour. Peel tomato skins and rough chop. Peel cucumber and rough chop. Chop garlic into large pieces, add to sauté pan with olive oil and let sear for a few minutes, don’t brown, allow to cool. Tear the bread and soak in water for about half an hour.

Drain the milk from the onions, add onions to a blender. Squeeze the water from the bread and the bread to the blender. Add the tomatoes, cucumbers, chopped roasted peppers, basil, sherry vinegar, Tabasco, salt, pepper and olive oil to the blender. Puree until smooth. Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours, or overnight, before serving.

Bourbon Peach Ice Cream

2 cups cream

2 cups whole milk

2 cinnamon sticks

6 egg yolks

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

2 tablespoons reserved bourbon from peaches (or from the bottle)

½ – 1 cup chopped bourbon peaches (or fresh peaches)

Add the cream and milk to a medium saucepan with cinnamon sticks over medium heat to warm. Leave the milk on the back of the stove with the heat off for about 20-30 minutes. Reheat the milk and cream before continuing.

In a separate pan add the egg yolks, sugar and salt and whisk together. Slowly add the milk, about ¼ to ½ cup at a time to temper the egg yolks. After you have added about 2 cups milk pour the mixture back in the saucepan over medium low heat and cook until slightly thick. At this point you are making a light custard. You don’t want the custard to be too thick, nor do you want to scramble the eggs. Once the custard is made add the bourbon and allow to cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 4-6 hours or overnight. Add to your ice cream maker and process for 25-30 minutes, or according to your ice cream machine. Add the chopped bourbon peaches to the ice cream in the last 5 minutes.

Freezer for another two hours and enjoy on a hot summer day, or a cold winter one (like most July days in San Francisco).

Bourbon Peaches

We preserved some peaches in Bulliett bourbon by skinning, removing the pit, and cutting the peaches in half. Pouring enough bourbon over the peaches to cover. You can add some ginger pieces to the jar, if you wish. Refrigerate overnight or up to two months. Use the bourbon in cocktails, desert, ice cream, etc.