Today’s Breakfast: Blueberry Buckle
Blueberries are at their peak in the Northwest right now, and we’ve mainly been enjoying them unadulterated, but this, along with a cup of strong coffee, was the perfect breakfast for a sunday morning.
The recipe is from Pure Flavor, by Kurt Beecher Dammeier (of Beecher’s Cheese fame). Great cookbook for NW recipes.
TOPPING
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon grated lemon zest
pinch of table salt
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
BUCKLE
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoons table salt2 cups fresh blueberries
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan.
Topping: combine flour, sugar, lemon zest, and salt in a small bowl. Using a fork, cut the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, Set aside.Buckle: use a hand held mixer or a stand mixer with the flat beater attachment. Beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, scraping the bowl once or twice while mixing. Blend in the vanilla and lemon zest. Add the egg and mix on medium speed to combine, scraping the bowl once.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt
Add the milk and the flour mixture alternately to the butter mixture, beating until smooth on medium to low speed after each addition. Pour the batter in to the prepared pan, top with the blueberries, and sprinkle with the topping.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the buckle.
Ruby is normally a very tidy eater but her first ever cupcake was just too exciting!
I made fried chicken for the first time ever tonight, using Thomas Keller’s recipe from the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook. The keys to this recipe are an overnight soak in a lemony-herby brine, which adds a ton of flavor, and a dredging in buttermilk and seasoned flour for a crispy crust. It was a lot of work compared to heading down the street to Ezell’s, but it was definitely worth it. It was really delicious.
Get the recipe (scroll down)
Tried going to the mobile chowdown but the lines were crazy, so we ended up at the new Counter Burger in Ballard instead. I liked the original in Santa Monica, and I didn’t even know this was open, so i’m not complaining.
Here’s my order, burger photo to follow.
When we get a hankering for $5 footlongs, there are two Subway locations, equidistant from the office, to choose from. For lack of better names, we refer to them as the “stoner” subway, and the “tweaker” subway. I’m not saying that anyone is necessarily on drugs, but at the first location you get happy service and jokery, large portions, and are required to repeat your veggie choices at least twice, as they just can’t seem to remember. At the second location, you’d better know exactly what you want up front, because they’re are all business and will make your precise sandwich, to textbook specifications, and there’s no time to dilly-dally.
Guess which one my veggie delite (“everything except onions”) was from…
The Gourmet Cookbook, circa 1950.
Gourmet, 68, to Die
Wow, sad news. After nearly 70 years of publication, Gourmet magazine is shutting down. My mom has subscribed to Gourmet for as long as I can remember, and we always pick up a few copies a year. It’ll be missed.
Caffe Vita Public Brewing School
Last week I attended Caffe Vita’s Public Brewing School, and it was a fantastic learning experience. The class was led by Andy, Caffe Vita’s barista trainer, and Mason, who travels the world buying their green coffee beans. Mason started out the night by talking about the history of Vita’s green coffee bean buying program, and their current focus on Farm-Direct. It was really cool to hear about his trip to Guatamala, where he met with different farmers, and got a feel for the entire culture that revolves around the coffee harvest. We then took his find from that trip, the Guatamala Finca Nueva Viñas, through a tour of 5 different brewing preparations: pour-over, french press, Bialetti, syphon, and a slow-drip cold-extraction, to see the differences that each style of brewing imparted on the final product.
We learned lots of great tips and tricks, but what amazed me most was the range of flavors that came from the exact same beans. Typically, when I taste something different in a cup, I immediately assume it’s a different roast, so it was really eye-opening to have five completely different tastes back-to-back, all from the same bag of beans. At home I usually make a french press (my favorite method) or a bialetti, and Brian’s been experimenting with pour-overs and the Chemex at Tougo, but the syphon and the slow-drip were brand new experiences for me.
The syphon was effectively a vacuum pot, but this particular one was a flashy-showpiece, a japanese device that looked like chemistry lab glassware, and whose heat source was a halogen light beam, that made the room glow. With a very quick extraction (~30-45 seconds), this was the cleanest tasting coffee I’ve ever had. It reminded me more of black tea than coffee, and I could easily drink this all day.
The slow-drip cold-extraction (another japanese device, of which I didn’t catch a name), was the polar opposite. This thing brews coffee one room-temperature drop at a time, roughly 1 drop every 1.5 seconds, so it takes roughly 12 hours to make a pot. It again looked like it belonged in science lab: the machine was a few feet tall, with a little dial to adjust the drip rate. The coffee was unlike any I’d had before; it was sweet and syrupy, tasting like Kahlua without the alcohol. Unlike toddy, it didn’t taste over-extracted at all, it was really clean and pure. I couldn’t imagine drinking more than a small cup, or pouring it over some ice cream for dessert, but it was delicious.
If you’re into coffee at all, I highly recommend checking out this class next time it is offered. It reminded me of the first time I went to Napa Valley. I had drank plenty of wine before then, and I’ve drank coffee several times a day for probably 15 years, but they were both palate-changing experiences, that gave me a whole new appreciation for the nuances of each beverage. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still drink drip coffee from a gas station out of a styrofoam cup (just like I’ll still drink Carlo Rossi), but my horizon has shifted for sure.
Mobile Chowdown 2009
Saturday 10/10 11am-3pm, 1616 W. Bertona (Interbay)
Lots of Seattle food trucks, all in one place! Follow the individual trucks below, and @mobilechowdown for more info.
- Gert’s BBQ (@gertsbbq)
- Marination Mobile (@curb_cuisine)
- Maximus Minimus (@somepigseattle)
- Skillet (@skilletstfood)
- El Camion (@elcamionseattle)
- Parfait Ice Cream (@parfaiticecream)
- Kao Samai (@thaifoodtruck)
yum, fried to order mini donuts at the Ballard farmers market!
