Something Sweet: July 2005 Archives
I've been looking for a reason to use my new stick blender, so when some friends came over for lunch and cheap blueberries started showing up everywhere I decided to make a dessert soup. As a jumping off point I used Rachael Ray's recipe for blackberries in star anise syrup over lemon sorbet, but I did a lot different.
I boiled 1/4 cup sugar in 3/4 cup water with a couple pieces of broken star anise, then added a pint of blueberries and cooked for a little while longer, about a minute, until some of the blueberries had burst. Let that sit to cool, removed the star anise, then blended it all up with my immersion blender. It tasted really flat at this point and I didn't have any lemon juice so I drizzled in some balsamic vinegar and added a couple pinches of salt. Stuck it in the fridge until we were ready for it, then served it with a dollop of lemon sorbet.
I've been looking for a reason to use my new stick blender, so when some friends came over for lunch and cheap blueberries started showing up everywhere I decided to make a dessert soup. As a jumping off point I used Rachael Ray's recipe for blackberries in star anise syrup over lemon sorbet, but I did a lot different.
I boiled 1/4 cup sugar in 3/4 cup water with a couple pieces of broken star anise, then added a pint of blueberries and cooked for a little while longer, about a minute, until some of the blueberries had burst. Let that sit to cool, removed the star anise, then blended it all up with my immersion blender. It tasted really flat at this point and I didn't have any lemon juice so I drizzled in some balsamic vinegar and added a couple pinches of salt. Stuck it in the fridge until we were ready for it, then served it with a dollop of lemon sorbet.
My mom was not afraid to help Mother Nature along a bit in the fruit department: salted canteloupe slices, sugar on berries or stone fruit. Today as I sprinkled my somewhat-tart peach slices with a little bit of sugar and topped them with some ricotta I remembered the peach slices we used to eat as children, sprinkled with sugar and swimming in whole milk or cream. The milk would get sweet with the sugar and peach juices, somewhat similar to drinking the chocolate milk left after cocoa puffs, only much better. I've decided that it's because of my mom's tendancy to do this that I have a sweet tooth, something for which I'd like to seriously and without any irony whatsoever thank her. Why wish that one of my great pleasures in life be taken away?
My mom was not afraid to help Mother Nature along a bit in the fruit department: salted canteloupe slices, sugar on berries or stone fruit. Today as I sprinkled my somewhat-tart peach slices with a little bit of sugar and topped them with some ricotta I remembered the peach slices we used to eat as children, sprinkled with sugar and swimming in whole milk or cream. The milk would get sweet with the sugar and peach juices, somewhat similar to drinking the chocolate milk left after cocoa puffs, only much better. I've decided that it's because of my mom's tendancy to do this that I have a sweet tooth, something for which I'd like to seriously and without any irony whatsoever thank her. Why wish that one of my great pleasures in life be taken away?
