Black Mission Fig Crème Brûlée

The idea for this dish came to me the last time I was in Florida visiting my parents. My mom picked up these delicious black mission figs from the farmer’s market. When I go home, I completely resort back to childhood, opening and closing the fridge, perusing for snacks each time I pass the kitchen. This time, I kept intermittently pulling the figs out of the fridge, cutting them in half, sprinkling each half (generously…) with brown sugar, and torching them for a brûlée’d snack of sorts. Sweet, subtle, with a satisfying caramelized crunch from the brown sugar. And with whipped cream? Heavenly.

Fig trees grow throughout the Mediterranean, Middle East, and even South Asia, figuring prominently in the dishes of those regions. My mom reminded me the other night that it was such a treat – going over to a “favorite” aunt’s house when she was a girl, plucking ripe figs from the tree in her yard, and eating them fresh on the spot. Figs perish easily, and their flavor quickly declines off the tree. I can only imagine at this point the intensity of flavor of a freshly picked fig.

The creamy, sweet, crunchy, caramelized taste of my torched figs is more elegantly recreated here in crème brûlée form. I cook down the figs, puree them, and infuse the cream with the puree to form the base of the custard. I use a combo of sugar and honey to sweeten it and include a vanilla bean for depth. Is there anything more satisfying than a cleanly scraped vanilla bean?

Ok. Maybe the crack-crack-crack of the sugar layer over the luscious, creamy custard…

If I was serving this at a party, I would garnish with fanned out, thin slices of fig. I inhaled it too quickly here to show you that…Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields 6 5-inch oval ramekins

5 or 6 fresh mission figs, stemmed and cut into a medium dice

¼ cup water

2 cups heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

¼ tsp salt

5 egg yolks

1/4 cup + 1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp honey

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 325° F.

In a saucepan, heat figs, water, and 1 tbsp sugar over medium-low heat. Cook for about 5 minutes until figs break down and liquid dries up.

Transfer cooked figs to a blender. Purée, using a little of the heavy cream if necessary. Transfer mixture to a medium saucepan, adding the rest of the heavy cream, vanilla bean, and salt. Bring mixture up to a boil on medium heat. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep 15 minutes.

In a medium bowl or stand mixer, whisk egg yolks, 1/4 cup sugar, and honey until well blended and light yellow in color. It should look very creamy at this point.

Strain cream mixture through a fine sieve and add it in small amounts to the yolks, whisking after each addition. You want to slowly bring up the temperature of the yolks (not scramble). Transfer custard to a measuring cup or something that pours easily.

Place paper towels in two different baking dishes and divide ramekins between the two. Carefully, pour the custard ¾ of the way up into the ramekins. Then, add water to the baking dishes so that it comes about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. I bake these in a water bath, and the paper towels help the ramekins from sliding around and also help reduce the risk of splash as you pour the water into the dishes.

Bake at 325° F for 35 minutes. It should still jiggle slightly. Remove from water bath and let cool at room temperature for 10 minutes. Cover in plastic wrap (don’t let it touch the surface), and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours in order to set the custard.

Coat the top of the custard in each ramekin with a layer of sugar. Turn over to remove excess. Carefully, using a torch, brûlée the sugar, working in circles evenly over the ramekins.

Note: if you use larger or deeper ramekins, the cooking time will inevitably be longer. The key things are the water bath and also that it still jiggles when it comes out. You want smooth, creamy custard, not overcooked and curd-like.

A Luscious Dessert called Om Ali

A little while ago, I read an article that highlighted the culinary resurgence of Beirut, and I could not help but think of this dish and my visit a few years ago. I was there at a point when the city was built up and beautiful. Cultural, cosmopolitan. I remember the architecture as stunning, and I endlessly wandered the streets, dipping in and out of little shops. The shopping was amazing, and the outdoor café scene buzzing – rivaling the Da Silvano, Bar Pitti, 10 Downing trifecta…In any case, the article has me excited that chefs like Joel Robuchon and Yannick Alléno are considering opening up restaurants there.

When I went, it was for a wedding of two close friends of mine. The wedding was a total bash, a multi-day affair with dinners and drinks and parties each night. At one of the dinners, I had this dessert, Om Ali, and it has been literally stuck in my head ever since. The dish is pretty much a form of bread pudding, but instead of using bread, the Lebanese use filo or puff pastry.

Seriously, a layered puff pastry bread pudding? How ridiculously delicious does that just sound… In between the pastry layers are various nuts, fruits, and coconut, all in a custard base. I love to eat it warm with a scoop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream. The dish is sooo good that this is what happens when you leave it out to cool and your significant other comes home hungry!

Om Ali is not exclusively Lebanese. It’s also found in Egyptian and other Middle Eastern cuisines. In my version, I use orange blossom water, which is a common ingredient in Middle Eastern desserts. It has a beautiful, perfume-y quality that is distinct – once you have it, you’ll always be able to recognize it. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields 1 9”x13” baking dish

1 puff pastry sheet

½ cup sliced almonds

½ cup pistachios, chopped or crushed

½ cup sultanas

1 cup frozen, grated unsweetened coconut*

½ tsp lemon zest

2 ½ cups milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup sugar

2 tbsps orange blossom water

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp cinnamon

pinch salt

2 eggs

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 375° F.

Bake the puff pastry on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet for 15 to 20 minutes until golden and cooked through. Set aside to cool.

Turn oven temperature up to 400° F.

Chop pistachios into smaller pieces or place in a plastic bag and crush with a mallet. Toast pistachios and sliced almonds in a sauté pan over medium-low heat until fragrant. Remove from heat and combine with coconut, sultanas and lemon zest in a separate bowl.

Heat milk and cream in a saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar, orange blossom water, vanilla, cinnamon and salt, and stir to dissolve. Beat eggs in a large bowl. Add the milk mixture slowly and in increments to temper the eggs, stirring constantly. You want to slowly bring the eggs up to temperature; adding the milk too fast will scramble them.

Grease a 9” x 13” baking dish. Rip puff pastry into pieces and create a single layer in the baking dish. Add half of the pistachio and almond mixture to create a layer. Cover with the milk mixture. Repeat entire process to create a second layer of each.

Bake at 400° F for 23-25 minutes until the top browns and the dessert has set. Serve warm by itself or with a lovely scoop of ice cream.

* I like the texture of real coconut for this dish, so I use fresh grated or fresh frozen grated coconut here. If you like the dried version or if that’s what you have on hand, go with it.

Peaches w/ Cardamom Streusel & Honey-Vanilla Cream

I headed up to Ellsworth Hill Orchard in Litchfield, Connecticut this last week to do some summer fruit picking and came across these beautiful, juicy Flaming Fury peaches.

The farm was scenic and serene and loaded with peaches, blueberries and several plum varieties. I got completely carried away out in the orchard and was a bit obsessed with finding the perfect peach (to my husband’s dismay in the insanely sweaty heat). All I could think about was pairing sweet peaches with cardamom for a super easy summer dessert.

Cardamom is a really aromatic spice from the ginger family with camphorous notes and the ability to translate equally well in both sweet and savoury dishes. It’s used in everything from Danish pastries to Indian curries to Middle Eastern coffee. Like ginger, it can be pretty overpowering, so I tend to use it sparingly in cooking. My mom and I actually throw the bruised pods into our mugs of green tea to bump up the flavor.

There are green, white and brown varieties of the spice, and, here, I use the green ones. I remove the seeds from the pods and manually grind them with a mortar and pestle. But ground cardamom is fine to use as well.

Baking the peaches really brings out the sweetness, and cardamom, in place of traditional cinnamon, creates a delicious, crunchy streusel to layer on top. It does not get any easier than mixing a few ingredients in a bowl, spooning the crumbly mixture on top of halved peaches, and throwing it all in the oven. I serve this dish with whipped honey-vanilla cream, which balances out the residual tartness in the peaches. A lovely way to indulge in summer’s fruit. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields 4 to 6 servings

Baked Peaches:

½ cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

3/4 tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp salt

3 tbsps butter, room temperature (but not completely soft) and cut into pieces

4 peaches

Cream:

1 cup heavy cream

3 tbsps honey

½ vanilla bean, scraped OR 1 ½ tsps of vanilla extract

Procedure

Preheat oven to 400° F.

In a bowl, mix together brown sugar, flour, cardamom and salt. Cut in butter using your fingers or a pastry scraper until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Halve peaches on the vertical, remove pits, and scrape off any rough bits. I do this at the last second, so that the peaches don’t turn brown. Also, I leave the skin on as a preference – you can remove the skin if you like.

Arrange peaches in a buttered baking dish. Top with streusel topping and bake for 25 minutes. Remove and let cool briefly.

Whip the heavy cream by hand or by using a hand or stand mixture. Before it is fully whipped, add in the vanilla and honey, so that it becomes evenly distributed (but not over whipped!).

Serve peaches warm with a side of the honey-vanilla cream.

Sugar Plum Sherbet with Star Anise

My tongue just twisted writing the title to this! The unbearable heat in NYC has lead me to more inventive ways of cooling down. What could be better than a homemade, refreshing fruit drink made with seasonal ingredients and interesting flavors?

Sherbet in America has come to take on a sorbet-like connotation, but the origins are really in the word “sharbah”, which is Arabic for “a drink”. Sherbet (or sharbat as we called it growing up) is a soft drink of sorts made from fruits, flower petals, and/or herbs. These are often extracted with sugar and lime juice to form a syrup, which is then diluted with water, milk, or evaporated milk and served over ice. Falooda, a South Asian sherbet, has always been a favorite of mine; it’s intoxicatingly flavored with rose syrup – will have to make it soon. Hibiscus, screw pine (amazing and unique), and saffron are other flavors often used in sherbets.

Turkey, India, Afghanistan – to name a few – all have their versions of sherbet. I’ve been researching Turkish food more as I’m planning a trip there for later this year (seriously canNOT wait), and I came across a recipe for sour cherry sherbet. That was the inception of this recipe. In the greenmarket, I stumbled upon these luscious, burstingly-ripe sugar plums and thought these one-up a sour cherry any day.

I also personally love the combination of plum with vanilla, and the star anise creates a beautiful perfume to the drink. The plum-tartness is balanced out well by the creaminess of the evaporated milk, and the result is actually quite delicate, more fruity than creamy. The milk can be left out of the recipe for those who don’t tolerate it well or simply want to watch calories – it’s delicious as a simple fruit drink over ice. I mixed a little sugar and cinnamon to create a rim on a martini glass and served it that way – lovely. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Yields approximately 9 to 10 cups

8 cups water

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ¾ lbs sugar plums (1 carton)

½ vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

2 star anise pods

1 can evaporated milk

Ground cinnamon and sugar (for glass rim, optional)

Procedure

This is super easy.

In a medium pot, heat water on high. Add sugar and stir to dissolve.

Add whole plums, vanilla, and star anise. Bring up to a boil and lower to a simmer. Simmer, partially covered for 15 minutes. Uncover, and simmer for another 5 minutes. Throughout the simmering process, you want to mash the plums with a spoon – they come apart really easily.

Strain through a cheesecloth- lined mesh strainer. Pick up the ends of the cheesecloth and twist to squeeze all of the juice out of the plums. You may need to let it cool a bit before doing this. Discard the solids.

Let juice cool for a few hours in the fridge. Add evaporated milk. Serve over ice or in a cinnamon sugar-lined martini glass.

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