PawPaw Ice Cream
Well, here’s a recipe that’s been waiting patiently in the draft pool for awhile now. It’s a real winner though and deserves its moment in the spotlight, even if the season for pawpaws has come and gone back in the earlier days of autumn. Pawpaws? Is that a typo? Nope, that’s the featured local – and highly unique – ingredient in today’s post.
Pawpaws (Asimina triloba) are the largest edible fruit (a berry to be precise) native to North America. I foraged mine from a small grove in the woods that I happened to find thanks to the directions of a friend. This fruit grows on small trees that are native to the Northeast, though with the disappearance of our natural woodlands with development, there aren’t so many around anymore. The trees tend to spread about, forming groves with both mature trees and saplings, all of which are easily distinguished from the other trees in the woods by their enormous leaves that come in groups of threes (thus the “triloba” in its botanical name). My mom knows an old song from when she was a girl about going picking in the pawpaw patch so I think this fruit was much more popular back in the day when there were plenty of rural areas still sustaining large numbers of native trees.
Ironically, the pawpaw today is once again in vogue, being touted as the next big thing in local fruit production. A few passionate folks have even taken upon themselves the task of planting entire orchards of pawpaws. This is a rather selfless act as these trees take nearly 20 years to mature and bear enough fruit to make them a viable commercial venture. In other words, you’d best be young when you plant your pawpaw trees. All joking aside, pawpaw trees are beautiful in the home landscape and should be consider if you are looking to plant a native tree in your yard or even city parks.
The fruit is well worth the wait. It’s completely unexpected in its flavor and texture, both of which are quite tropical. The texture, when ripe, is nearly identical to that of a banana. The flavor is a good deal harder to pin down with an easy comparison. Some people claim they taste like mangos, others like pineapple, still others think pawpaws taste like any old ripe banana. I can only say that in my opinion, they are delicious, sweet and “tropical”, but not really tasting like any of those other fruits.
The oblong fat green fruit begins ripening in mid September and is best shaken off the tree a little under ripe and set on a kitchen counter to soften. If you let the fruit ripen on the tree, it’ll fall to the ground and be immediately gobbled up by any and all woodland critters who are smart enough to realize that pawpaws are a real delicacy. Once harvested, pawpaws should be left on the countertop to ripen for just a few days until they get brown and squishy. That’s right…brown and squishy! That’s when the sugars really develop and the softer texture makes it easier to push out the large seeds from the flesh. Be careful though, they have a very short “shelf life” (one of the reasons they aren’t more common) and can quickly go past their prime.
Now, I’m sure I’ve piqued your interest. I wish that I could tell you all right where to go to get some of this delicious fruit next September. Sadly, I can’t. There’s a slim chance you’ll find it at a farmers market. There’s an even better chance that if you have some woodland near you that hasn’t been disturbed in many years that you can forage a basketful for yourself. The demand is certainly increasing for them and I hope that, like the tasty ground cherry, they’ll show up more and more with the new interest in locally grown and unusual fruit.
So, should you get your hands on some pawpaws next year, I’d highly recommend using them in this luscious ice cream! In general though, you can treat pawpaws like bananas since there aren’t a lot of pawpaw specific recipes out there. Have you ever tasted a pawpaw? If so, what did you think it tasted like?
4 comments November 29, 2009
Deconstructed Pear Salad
It’s still four full days before Thanksgiving tables will be heaped full of food, and yet my trip to the grocery store just now was harrowing. The aisles were packed with manic masses desperately lunging for the last bag of prepared seasoned stuffing and can of pumpkin puree. All I wanted were some bagels for breakfast. Silly me. While I realize the core of our nation’s traditions for this holiday aren’t likely to undergo a serious shift any time soon, I wish that more folks focused on doing just want the pilgrims did: gathering locally grown food to the table and giving thanks for the harvest rather than gorging on supermarket spoils hard-won from the sucker next to them in line.
Farmers markets are still open this time of the year and have a cornucopia of items fit for any thankful feast. There are potatoes, yams, pumpkins, kales, mustards, collards, lettuces, spinach, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, garlic, carrots, beets, honey, local cheeses, eggs, meats, breads, nuts, pears, apples, and cranberries galore! No need to brave the supermarket hordes.
Today’s recipe is for a very simple to make salad that is certainly worthy of a place on your holiday table. Elegant in its “deconstructed” nature with individual servings featuring a whole pear half in a beautiful dish, this salad features the lovely pure flavors of local seasonal offerings. I used pears from my family’s ancient tree, honey from my own beehive, lettuce just picked from the container on my deck, and hunks of an amazing goat cheese from Shellbark Hollow Farm in Chester County, PA.
There is an incredible (and addictive) deliciousness to be found in the contrast between the sweet honey and pear and the salty herbed pecans and cheeses. No need to set foot inside a grocery store to make this salad (presuming you have a decent spice rack in your kitchen already) and there are several other recipes in the blog index that do the same.
Squash Apple Cheddar Tart
Butternut Squash and Green Bean Curry
Roasted Beets over Gingered Millet
Saffron Pan Seared Brussel Sprouts and Cauliflower
Carrot Cake
Creamy Cauliflower Garlic Soup
Cranberry Vanilla Coffee Cake with White Chocolate Ganache
Bittersweet & Nutty Greens
Mixed Fried Potatoes
Roasted Pumpkin & Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding
What locally grown ingredients will your Thanksgiving table feature this year?
11 comments November 22, 2009
Fall Fruit Compote
As diverse as I am with my cooking experiments, I’m rather ho-hum when it comes to my week day breakfast routine. I have the same non-fat vanilla yogurt every single morning before heading out for the day. You’d think a person would get sick of this after, oh let’s say six years, but I don’t. At least not the yogurt part. I have found myself lately a bit bored with the vanilla flavor, and yet, I really don’t like the fruit flavors available in the store, mostly because the fruit really is just a shadow of itself thanks to over-processing.
Lately, I’ve started eating my morning bowl of yogurt with a generous spoonful of this Fall Fruit Compote swirled in, which has been a real wake up to my tired old routine. The flavor is immense. In fact, it’s a bit too strong when eaten by the spoonful (not that I’ve tried that or anything…) but it’s just right with the yogurt. It would also be smashing with a stack of pancakes, stuffed into French toast, or, for those of you who don’t eat breakfast (for shame!), warmed up and spooned over a savory meat dish. Oh, and let’s not forget ice cream!
This compote, unlike the processed fruits in yogurts, is full of simple goodness, capitalizing on the scrumptious qualities of locally grown pears, apples, and cranberries coupled with the spice of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla bean, and star anise. There’s very little sugar per serving to boot. My last batch kept in the fridge for two weeks in a sealed container so that I could get that big spoonful for breakfast each day in my hurried and sometimes harried rush to get out the door.
So, tell me, what’s your breakfast routine? Am I the only one that sticks with the same thing for years on end?
Oh dear.
9 comments November 16, 2009
The Pioneer Woman Cooks & A Recipe
There are many benefits to being a food blogger. You meet a lot of awesome people for starters. You also occasionally get asked to review a cookbook that you’d already been anxious to get your hands on because it’s written by a fellow food blogger whose work you adore. Bou-YA!
I’ve been a fan of The Pioneer Woman blog just about since Ree Drummond started it in 2007 to document her zany life as the “accidental country girl” wife of a cattle rancher. When I heard tell she was working on a cookbook, I was thrilled to see yet another food blogger join the ranks of “real” (i.e., the kind that make money at it) food writers. I especially love Ree’s honest and sometimes unexpected viewpoint on life and food and how she ties it all together. Her photos of her ranch always take my breath away and make me dream of meeting my own steely-eyed cowboy and saddling up a mustang. Or something like that. It’s escapism at its best, folks. Trust me. Or, better yet, visit her blog and find out for yourself.
Now, to get back to business. I got her cookbook, appropriately titled The Pioneer Woman Cooks, the other day and I promptly sat down to read it from cover to cover. I’ve never seen a cookbook so stuffed full of photos. There are glorious photos of Ree’s ranch, family, and food. It’s evident that Ree, who shot all her own photos, has a serious artist’s eye for nature. In addition, each recipe has a photo for every single step!! That’s right, every single step! And there’s a parade of cute country sketches of butterflies and roosters and such across the pages. Cover to cover, it’s a stunner.
6 comments November 11, 2009
Rustic Pear Tart
Let the pear parade continue! Having two bushels of homegrown pears in the basement inspires both gratitude and creativity… and even a little panic that you won’t get them all used up before they pass their prime. It would break my heart to throw any into the compost bin; they’re just too delicious for such a sad fate.
So, instead, I’ve been beefing up the pear recipe selection here on SFTF substantially. Today’s offering is a ridiculously (almost shameful , really) easy recipe for a straightforward and juicy Rustic Pear Tart. It’s not a terribly novel use for the pears, but it is a fast one that let me whip up a warm dessert to share with a neighbor who had just brewed a pot of coffee. It was perfection. And did I mention easy?
Now, of course, you can certainly make this recipe harder if you’d like. I used a store-bought pie dough. Gasp! Oh, yes, even I take shortcuts sometimes. And, honestly, this tart isn’t worth fussing over homemade dough. It’s meant to just be a vehicle for the warm and flavorful pears, the real stars of the show. That being said, had I had a ball of frozen leftover pie dough in the freezer at the time, I would have most certainly pulled it out and used that instead. But, as it was, I had the stuff from the store and it fit the bill precisely.
11 comments November 8, 2009
