March 11, 2011

It's Food Friday!

I entered today's FAD in the Food52 Tart Contest this week. (No comments, please, Red Hots.)If you have a moment, wander by the Food52 site and get some other ideas from people who really know how to cook.

When I was little we would go for walks along a private drive that is now covered with many houses. I doubt if our bushes are still there. There was a red raspberry bush and a black raspberry bush. We learned to pick the sun-warmed berries without getting scratched by the rasping thorns or fearing the many bees. It was always hot, and the sweet berries were warm in our mouths and their juices dripped down our little chins. There is not a better taste than eating something you have picked yourself. That is why I like this recipe. It is basic and pure. My mother would argue about the inclusion of corn starch as being a little fancy. Eaten at room temperature these bring me back to Strawberry Hill, and the long warm summer walks we took. And as the winter is winding down we can finally look forward to languid summer days, and all the raspberries our little hearts desire.

Makes 12 tartlets

* 1 cup flour
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1/4 cup butter
* 1/2 cup fresh, washed raspberries
* 1 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
* 1/3 cup water
* 4 cups fresh, washed fat raspberries
* 1 cup heavy whipping cream
* 1 teaspoon good vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
* 1 tablespoon sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Combine the flour, 2 tablespoons of the sugar and the butter. Beat it in a food processor or by hand until crumbly. Press the dough into tart pans, forming that perfect crust that you master along about the tenth pan. Bake at until golden, about 15 – 18 minutes. Cool.
2. Raspberry sauce: 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup sugar, ½ cup raspberries (mashed). Bring to a boil over medium heat. Mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons water, and add to the pan. Blend together and cool.
3. Don’t do this too far ahead of time, or your perfect little tart crusts may get soggy. Pour the raspberry sauce into the tart shells. This will be the glue for your berries.
4. Arrange the raspberries in pleasing mounds in the tartlets.
5. Whip the cream until peaks form. Add vanilla, 1 tablespoon of sugar and the lemon peel.
6. Pile whipped cream on top of your artful berry mounds and distribute spoons. Ah, summer.

Charles is really keen to bake these. The Duchy has beautiful raspberries, and it would be nice for Charles to contribute something organic and homemade to the wedding reception. Camilla is rolling her eyes, but she has been doing that a lot lately.

"I doubt whether the world holds for anyone a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice cream."
~Heywood Broun