Catch Up

I've been too busy to post what food I've been cooking because I moved to Missouri! But I have pictures of what I've been up to since May. So here are some of my adventures.

First, I want to give a huge (but delayed) congratulations to my very clever and very hard working husband for getting his PhD. WAY TO GO, NICK!!




Second, here is my haul from the first farmer's market of the year in Lafayette, IN. I got skinny asparagus and fat asparagus for different purposes. I picked up a couple bunches of baby kale, and very skinny little leeks. The picture shows the farmer's market variety next to standard grocery store leeks. I'm a sucker for miniatures. I also bought a pretty pink bunch of rhubarb, and some tarragon.


 








Third, I wanted to do some baking. I had some old, not so great looking strawberries and my local rhubarb. So I wanted to make some tiny galettes. This recipe originated in Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. Smitten Kitchen also tweaked this recipe to her liking. I think my recipe might be somewhere in the middle.

I used my farmer's market rhubarb, and leftover strawberries to make a kind of jam or compote.




The crust is a real hybrid with some of my favorite grains including organic, whole wheat pastry flour and stone ground organic corn meal, both of which were purchased at the farmer's market stand from City Foods. It's very convenient because you can make the whole crust right in the food processor.





The galettes can be made free form, or you can make them in a muffin tin.

Fruit compote
1 lb. of rhubarb
1/2 qt. strawberries (ugly ones are OK)
1/2 cup natural sugar (like sugar-in-the-raw)

Cut up fruit, put it in a pot over low flame.
Add sugar, mix it in.
Let it cook till it breaks down a bit, around 30 minutes.

Crust & Galettes
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup stone ground corn meal (it's got a more flour like consistency then regular corn meal)
1/4 cup sugar (I used the natural/in-the-raw kind)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 stick butter, cut into pieces and chilled
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp heavy cream

Put everything into food processor, and blend until it starts to stick into a ball.
Put out onto counter, and gather into a ball.
Divide into 10 parts. Either roll out into circles, or pat down in muffin tin cups.
Fill crusts with 3 Tbsps of compote.

At this point, you can freeze the tarts and bake them when you want them.

To bake
Preheat oven to 375 F
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, straight from the freezer.

Eat.