Millions of peaches....

Do not like too much when summer is ending , but very happy with natures products, local produce , peaches, eggplants , zucchinis, ...tomatoes- tomatos...corn ....you name it.

I'm very lucky to live here in a country where on my way to work I can stop by and pick up fresh stuff daily. I found one of ohio's largest chill pepper growers, he has 250 varieties of hot peppers in his farm. Can not wait to spice things up a bit .

But these saturn peaches from sages farms in Chardon near my house, one of the best things I ever tasted ...so fresh...so juicy...so sweet !!

Couple food shots from private tasting last weekend !!

We started with bacon wrapped dates stuffed w smoked gouda over romesco and shot of local tomato and watermelon gazpacho.

MLT salad( mozz lettuce tomato) w fresh bacon, burrata, basil , EVOO, balsamic.

Local ricotta and corn ravioli, shaved domestic truffle, 1 hour egg !

Gently cooked wild Sockye salmon, over scallop carpachio, kafir lime curry coconut broth, red wine couscous - caper salad.

All American beef Duo, 48 hour root beer short rib and grilled sirloin , parsnip puree, green bean casserole, tat or tots, home made ketchup.

Cheese corse, red wine pouched apple, cherries , bisquit , chevre .

Caramel Esspreso creme brulle ...bruleed california fig !

Love to cook !

V

Pasta has been extruded !!!

For quite some time I was looking to purchase pasta extruder for Americano, but since I have no history with pasta extrusion, I though I would give a shot at home first, with just simple kitchen Aid setting. Very simple basic pasta dough ...oo flour room temp eggs...EVOO..couple drops of water...mix rest ...second experimental pumpurnickle dough...rye, whole wheat, hi gluten flours, coco, espresso, caraway ...mix... rest !!

Now is extrusion time ...how fun..I made bucatini, spaghetti, rigatoni and fussili simple , fast with no fuss. My 7 year old son was helping me....to make it and eat it . Making pasta with extruder was a lot of fun and very easy. Sipping glass of Italian Red and dropping dough balls in to extruder was no brainer. I thought pasta was very good .

I'm still going to play with different flours , flavors and hydration levels to make it more perfect, and I think before cold weather is going to hit us here in good old Cleveland, I will definitely will look into getting one of the machines like that for the restaurant. You know pasta is is one of those things , just like pizza...could be really really bad..or if its made right ...very satisfying and delicious. Technique , ingredients and know how matters, love to cook pasta on sundays !

V

Ice Cream Obsession !!!

I must say when it comes time to have something sweet, I would rather have some kind of good artisan cheese with port or Vin Santo...or after dinner Cocktail ..or even skip the dessert and do some type of cured meats with fruit mustard and bread... anyways... But once in a while I do make or have a dessert, but it has to be worth it. Has to be small , balanced and quality. Why would people want those big overloaded ...over floated cups or bowls full of crap and more reduced fat or calorie crap...and toped with bagged or cool whipped goodeness..with plastic cherry on top ..!!!

But lately I developed habit taking my kids to Jenie's ice cream chop in Chagrin Falls. I appreciate that place uses all natural local ohio ingredients, organic milk and cream and I don't have to be questioning whats in my Ice cream ?? Last week Jenie's Ice cream recipe base caught my eye in latest Saveour magazine.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Jenis-Ice-Cream-Base

Since I own three ice cream makers I could not resist not to try it. I really liked the idea of using cream cheese in it too. Also in a past I ve made only egg yolk based Ice creams, i goes you can call those frozen custards , right ?? gelato normally has higher egg yolk content , and less milk fat. And ICE CREAM...should not have any eggs in it...the name says it ..

so I churn one batch Jenies recepie ( i just do not use corn syrup in my cooking, so used honey instead ) based ice cream using local organic milk and cream, simply infused it with fresh, spare mint from my garden, chopped some bananas and chocolate chips...mint chic chip banana ice cream was really one of the kids favorite...only one complaint was that it was not green ..! Even it was good I had to do some adjustment for my ice cream maker about the texture... second flavor

was.... I started with Sugar caramel, 50/ 50 milk, crew, some cream cheese, thickened with corn starch, some chopped Velrohna chocolate , little espresso, pinch of salt, cayenne, cinnamon , dutch coco powder, vanilla bean....chill ....churn .....oh MY GOD ...not the best I ever made it...but the best I ever tasted...see. when I eat things like ice cream, not only flavor maters , but the texture as well. has to be creamy, temperature just right, silky smooth with balanced flavor and nice long finish..well thats ice cream my friends !!! And for jennies, only one com pain I have, that they do not churn their stuff in a house and getting delivered from columbus...because I do not like those ice crystals in my ice cream ...also maybe goat cheese and corn sounds good ...but does nit taste good in ice cream ..sorry ..I'm too traditional..