Sunday, January 30, 2011

Friday Night Menu, January 29,2011, Whole Crispy Chicken

This week my first idea was the dessert, it would be an Eton Mess. I have seen Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson make this and wondered about it, then just the other day The Barefoot Contessa did it too. I also didn't want to make something with a lot of leftovers, because we are trying to be on a diet around Friday Night's and Eton Mess would be good because you can make just enough for 2 portions without leftovers (no three layer cakes to try and eat up). I thought I would give a whole chicken with a crispy skin another try, I have trouble getting the skin very crispy, it's always good but the skin gives me trouble. I solved the problem!


Carrot Jam on Toasts and Chevre on Thin Crackers

I have been having good luck with Laura Calder's recipes (French Food at Home). The past few weeks I have made 4-5 recipes of hers and we are always pleasantly surprised. This time I tried the carrot jam and because there is quite a bit of sugar in it, I was worried it would be too sweet as an appetizer so I thought I'd put some good looking cheese and crackers along side. It was sweet but it actually went perfectly with the earthiness of the cheese, it complemented it nicely. The recipe makes me want to try other unique fruits and vegetables to make different jams. It's carrots cooked until very tender then mashed and then cooked again with sugar and lemon juice and zest. It's finished with Cognac and 10 almonds, chopped. You let it cool then chill it and it's good for a couple weeks.


Whole Crispy Skin Chicken

This was a good experiment to try, we loved this chicken! I saw someone doing this (I think it was on Martha Stewart's good food fast show). I saw it a couple months back and I wasn't really paying full attention but It appears remembered the key steps. I took the bird out of the butchers paper and dried it with a paper towel, I salted the outside of the bird pretty generously with kosher salt and sat it on a tray and put it in the frig (uncovered). About 6 hours later when I was about to cook it, I took it out of the frig and paper towel dried it again and also wiping off the excess salt (this step dries out the skin a bit so when it roasts there is no excess moisture making the skin soggy). I let the bird sit at room temperature for 30-45 minutes just so it wouldn't be stone cold when it goes into the oven. Using my fingers I separated the skin from the flesh all around the breast and onto the legs. I punctured the skin in several spots to allow the fat to escape from the skin to help it crisp up. I bashed a couple garlic cloves with a couple small branches of fresh rosemary, salt, pepper and 1/2 stick of softened butter in my mortar and pestle. I smeared the flavored butter UNDER the skin, on the breasts and legs, nothing on the outside of the skin. I put two lemon halves and two small halves of onion in the cavity. I tied the legs together and into a 350 oven for 50 minutes it went. I turned up the temperature to 450 and let it cook another 10 minutes. I took it out and let it sit for 15 minutes uncovered. When we cut into it, it made that crackling noise that you want to hear. The chicken meat itself was so moist and juicy, it had just the right amount of rosemary flavor, It was perfect.


Zucchini Flan

I thought I'd make zucchini but how can I make it more fancy and different? I thought of a flan, so went hunting for a savory flan recipe. Emeril makes an asparagus flan so I followed his basic recipe but tweaking it along the way. Basically you slowly cook chopped up zucchini and onion in butter until tender. Puree it in a processor and add that mixture to eggs, heavy cream, Parmigiana Reggiano, salt and pepper. It's poured into ramekins and baked in a hot water bath in the oven for about 30-45 minutes depending on the size of the ramekins you use. I am not sure but I think I actually made this recipe before (the asparagus flan), I will have to look at my records. It's a very interesting side dish, fancy, with a nice texture.


Chanterelle Risotto

As you may or may not know, mushrooms have become a new ingredient for me. I never liked them and recently thought I would give them another shot, now they seem to be growing on me (not in that way :)-). Chanterelle's are one I hadn't tried yet so I thought I'd do a Chanterelle Risotto. I love making risotto's, they are so satisfying and really simple to make, you just need to continuously stir with a wooden spoon for about 25 minutes, but with a glass of wine in your hand it's done in no time. First I cleaned off the mushrooms with a paper towel and tore them into bite sized pieces, then sauteed in butter until perfectly cooked. Remove them to a small plate and started the risotto in the same pan. When the rice is fully cooked add a pat of butter and a good handful of grated Parmigiana Reggiano. Then you use the wooden spoon to kind of "whip" the butter and cheese into the rice until the butter is melted in (The Italians call this something that begins with an M but I have no idea how to spell it) I guess it aerates it and adds a special something, and I think it does. I then folded in the cooked mushrooms and the heat of the rice warms the mushrooms through nicely as it sits a minute and I bring the other components together.


Eton Mess

This was really good and so simple (compared to some desserts I make). It's crushed meringue cookies layered with whipped cream and cooked berries of some kind. I was going to make it slightly more time consuming by making my own Meringue cookies but I had to go out in the morning and I didn't get back until 2:00 and it was too late for me to start the cookies with all the other things I had to prepare. So I stopped and bought some meringue cookies at Whole Foods. I followed Ina's recipe which is so simple for the berry part of this dish. It's raspberries cooked with sugar and lemon juice for about 10 minutes so they brake down and become a sauce, then add more raspberries and Chambourd liquor off the heat and just mix in. Chill it until ready to serve. The only other thing to do is whip some heavy cream with vanilla and sugar. When you serve it, you layer the berries and whipped cream and crushed cookies. You must put it in a fancy glass and eat it with long elegant spoons.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Saturday Night in Boston, January 22,2011

We have been wanting to do an overnight in Boston, and so yesterday morning we said..."should we go into Boston tonight?"... why not? Tony has been keeping track of restaurants we want to try in different cities, so he pulled up the Boston list and we decided on a section, South Boston. Of coarse we picked one of the coldest nights to walk around, but it was worth it.

Tony made reservations at Hamersley's Bistro. Gordon Hamersley was friends with Julia Child and Julia encouraged him to open his restaurant in Boston in 1986. We had reservations at 7:00, but there were many other restaurants to try in the same area on Tremont St. so we decided to "restaurant hop". The lady that owns No.9 Park, which we have been to, also owns these other two restaurants that we stumbled upon called The Butcher Shop and B&G Oysters. Both of these restaurants were tiny and right next door to each other. We went into B&G's first and Tony had a sample of 6 oysters (its not my thing), and a couple beers. I had a glass of red wine, I could have gotten something like Brussels sprouts sauteed in butter or a fancy salad or fries, but I thought I would save room in my stomach for more unique things elsewhere. Tony really enjoyed the oysters, he equated them to his favorite oyster place (The Mills Tavern).

We walked about 20 steps to The Butcher Shop and found our seat at the bar (our favorite seat). The funny thing about both of these restaurants owned by Chef Barbara Lynch was there is not a full bar, only wine and beer. I think the reason for that is that they are such small spaces they probably don't have enough room to put all the bottles (maybe!). So this time instead of glasses of wine, we shared a bottle of red. It worked out to be a good idea, we would have spent more if we each had 2 glasses. At The Butcher Shop we decided on the Antipasti platter and the Pate & Terrine platter. Let me say first, they bring out this great bread with some creamy delicious honey and butter. The Pates and Terrines are good but a little gamy for me, I loved all the cornishons and prune relish things that went along with that dish. The antipasto platter was good, they cure all there own salumis and prosciutto and it's very well done, the platter came with 2-3 big hunks of Parmesan Reggiano, which was quite generous we thought. Truth be told we could have called it a night, we were both very satisfied, but we still had reservations at Hamersley's Bisto.

We walked in to Hamersley's at 7:05 and was seated in the dining area. We originally thought we would get a couple small plates and share a dessert. No, we both had and entree , Tony got the Veal Osso Bucco and I got the Salmon, we got a side of roasted broccoli with gremolata and we shared the chocolate cake dessert with 2 cappuccinos. Surprisingly we weren't over stuffed, nothing was heavy and greasy and portions were not too big, so we had a great mix and felt very satisfied, we want to go back for more.

Friday Night, January 21,2011, Steak House


I came up with this menu by starting with the idea of dessert which was a creme brulee with fresh berries. I have had and made creme brulee many times but I loved the one I had at The Capital Grill about 7-8 years ago, I still remember it with the fresh berries, so it must have been good if I am still thinking about it. Creme Brulee is one of the easiest things to make with only 5 ingredients. I quickly decided that the rest of the menu should be a steak house menu. A good steak with creamed spinach and a mashed potato of some kind.


Fat Asparagus Spears Bathed in Orange Sauce


I had the rest of the menu figured out, but what shall I make for the appetizer? I watched my favorite show "French Food at Home" and the first thing she was making that day was this asparagus dish, she called it a starter, so I thought OK that sounds like a good starter for our meal too. It was very good. Cook the asparagus until it's perfectly done in boiling salted water and shock it in cold water to set the color. Make the sauce by reducing the juice of two oranges then adding it to orange zest, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, olive oil and minced shallots that are first soaked in a little white wine vinegar. Arrange the asparagus on a platter and pour the sauce down the center, top with a hard cooked egg yolk, crumbled and a few shavings of Parmigiana Reggiano. We loved the sauce, it would be good on just about anything.


NY Strip Steak with Smokey Blue Cheese Sauce


The steak is just grilled on the charcoal grill and Tony added a bit of pecan wood to flavor it. I bought this smokey blue cheese thinking I will combine it with some heavy cream in a small pot and just melt the two together, first reducing the cream then adding the cheese. It was good, but the cheese was disappointing because in our opinion there was no smokey flavor at all. So I asked Tony to put some pecan wood on to give it that smokiness that the cheese was supposed to do. It was very nice, perfectly flavored.


Parsnip and Potato Puree


I didn't want to make "just mashed potatoes" I wanted to do something different. I saw the parsnips in the store and said..."parsnip and potatoes, hummmm"... So I got them and early in the day I baked about 6 Yukon Gold potatoes while I did some cleaning. When the were done and cooled slightly I cut them in half and squeezed them through a potato ricer (an easy way to get the skins off and it also doesn't overwork the potato to keep them light and fluffy). I heated some milk and just combined them with salt then into the refrigerator (with the idea that later just before serving I will boil some parsnips and heat the potatoes and combine them and finish them together). So I boiled 3 chopped up parsnips in salted water until soft, mashed them, added the pre-cooked potatoes with some butter, more hot milk and seasoning and it was perfect. Easy because of doing the potatoes early, it came together in minutes. I also used my immersion blender to quickly puree it smooth, if I did it too long they would be gummy, so just enough. The parsnips are sweet so it was really different and good with the steak.


Creamed Spinach


Tony loves creamed spinach but it's something I never do, but I figured it's Friday Night Steak House, I gotta do it. You cook the spinach and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. In an empty skillet heat some heavy cream and reduce it with some freshly grated nutmeg, after about 5 minutes of reducing add the spinach and Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Cook it a few more minutes just until the right creaminess and it's done. Tony was very pleased with the taste. I was too.


Creme Brulee with Fresh Berries


I followed Ina Gardens recipe (Barefoot Contessa) it's on foodnetwork.com, she adds Grand Marnier Liqueur for flavor. It's just eggs, cream, sugar, vanilla and orange liqueur. It cooks in a hot water bath for 35 minutes and after coming to room temperature you chill it. When you serve it spoon some sugar over ( I used some vanilla sugar that I have; you just add spent vanilla pods to a jar and fill with sugar and the sugar takes on the vanilla flavor. I have had mine going for at least 10 years, just keep adding more sugar and spent vanilla beans). Torch the sugar and it caramelizes and after 20 seconds of cooling down it hardens and you crack it with your spoon and it's soooo goooood! I of course added some fresh berries to the tops after the sugar hardened. I macerated some blackberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries in some vanilla sugar and just left it on the counter for a few hours, covered with plastic wrap. When you do that it just makes them shiny and it creates it's own sweet, berry sauce.

Friday Night, January 14,2011, Linguini Carbonara


This weeks menu was pretty simple in a way. I was able to go shopping in the morning and even the book store for an hour or two, without feeling rushed. I usually get up and start preparing parts of the menu and before you know it Tony is home and it's time for our first cocktail. I had a plan that I should be home by 1:00 to start dessert and the rolls.


Crisp Radishes with Homemade Salted Butter


This sounds a little crazy (maybe) but I have seen this a few times, and never had it. They have this in France, it seems and we (Tony especially) love radishes. What you do is just put some cleaned radishes on a serving platter with butter and salt, and you dip the radish into the butter then into the salt and just eat it as is. I took this dish one step further by making my own butter. You always see in recipes that call for whipping cream, they say..."don't whip it too much because it will turn to butter"... well I whipped it too long on purpose. After beating in the Kitchen Aid with a whisk attachment for 10-15 minutes you slowly start to see it changing to butter, all of a sudden the fat separates from the buttermilk. You have to remove the buttermilk, and the way I did that was...I emptied the mixture onto a paper towel and then put that into a dishtowel. Over the sink, I squeezed it and twisted it and it was amazing how much liquid came out, but you open up the paper towel and you've got fresh butter. I put it back into the Kitchen Aid and used the paddle attachment to incorporate a couple pinches of Flore De Sal (French Sea Salt). It was a great appetizer, the crisp crunch of the radish and the salt is perfect with a cocktail and it feels healthy at the same time. The butter was good too!


Linguine Carbonara with Candied Apple Wood Smoked Bacon with Parker House Rolls


I wanted to make this recipe from my new Eric Ripert's cookbook sometime and I figured..."why not now"?... It's different from other Carbonaras that I have made. I have seen recipes with no cream, the creaminess comes from incorporating the eggs in quickly with some Parmesan cheese and using just the residual heat of the pasta to create the "cream sauce". Other recipes use some cream along with the Parmesan and eggs, but I haven't seen Creme Fraiche being used. He also uses apple wood smoked bacon, usually it's Panchetta. It was very good. Looking back now I should have added a splash of the pasta water, just to thin out the sauce a bit, but if I remember correctly, we both polished off our plates. I thought I needed something to add along with the pasta and I thought a thick slice of candied bacon would be nice. I have done this before but I never used a thick slice like this one. Heat the oven to 325-350 and place a couple slices of thick cut bacon on a cooling rack and then on a sheet pan. Sprinkle brown sugar over the bacon (maybe 1 Tbsp or so on each). Place the pan in the oven and check it now and then I think it took about 30-40 minutes in total for mine to cook. The result is a fantastically chewy and caramelized piece of MEAT! Really, it's only about 1/4 inch thick but with the Carbonara, I thought it was perfect as a meaty side dish. The Parker House Rolls I saw in one of my magazines a while ago and I thought of it for tonight's dinner, they were fantastic! It is a recipe by Tom Colicchio. It's in the November 2010 Saveur Magazine. Yummy!


Moist Chocolate Cake with Swiss Meringue Butter cream


I had a craving earlier in the week for a chocolate cake so I had to make a cake! Since Friday Nights are all about trying new recipes I looked for new chocolate cake recipes. This three layer Devil's Food cake by Martha Stewart looked perfect, and I thought I would try her Swiss Meringue Butter cream Frosting. I had never made the Swiss Meringue Butter cream and wondered about it. I thought it would be meringue-ey but it was more butter-ey. It was good but more fattening then I wanted. The cake raised up like crazy and the three layers equaled about a foot. It was good but it wasn't the chocolate cake I dreamed of earlier in the week. That's OK, live and learn!


Cafe


This time Tony stopped and got some Tuaca Liqueur, so I was able to make the same coffee from our fantastic trip to the Key's, and it was very good. I think I will have one right now...

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Friday Night January 7, 2011 Roast Pork

I had been wanting to roast a whole pork loin with some sort of stuffing so I figured there is no better time than a Friday night. I love cornbread stuffing but hardly ever make it, so I figured I would do a cornbread stuffing. What I usually see at Whole Foods in the meat case is the whole pork loin without the bone, so I figured that is what I will get. When I got to the store early on Friday morning they still hadn't stocked the pork roasts in the case so I asked for one and he asked me "do you want it with or without the bone?" Well I had to say with the bone, because I never see it like that anymore. So the pork would be slightly different than my original thought.


Fried Cheese atop Button Mushroom and Parsley Salad

I know mushroom and parsley salad, it sounds weird, but let me tell you it's fantastic! I never was a big mushroom person but I like them much more these days. When I saw Giada De Laurentiis do this on Food Network one day a couple years ago I thought, "I won't be making that any time soon"... But just a couple weeks ago my boss at work was talking food with me and he said they had this salad and he's not a big mushroom fan either and he raved about it. So of course I had to try it. Giada shaves Parmesan Reggiano on top which is good too (we had that for lunch today, Sunday) but while I was coming up with the menu for Friday I was looking though Laura Calder's book "French Food at Home" (also the name of her show on cookingchannel) and she has a dish called "Fried Cheese", which is Gruyere, Emmental or Comte cheese that is cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces and its dipped in egg then a combination of ground almonds and bread crumbs then browned in butter in a non stick pan. After a couple minutes they are done and she suggests serving it with a salad so that's when I thought of the mushroom and parsley salad. The mushrooms to me tasted like a very mild radish, but really the main taste is the lemon in the dressing, it's fresh and clean tasting and perfect with the cheese.


Corn Bread Stuffed Bone-in Pork Loin Roast with Spicy Caper, Port and Madeira Sauce

I could have figured out a corn bread stuffing but I just looked on line to see if there was a recipe that caught my eye, and there was one by Micheal Symon that everyone loved so I gave it a go. His is made with red bell pepper, onions, celery, garlic, corn, smoked ham, heavy cream, cilantro and parsley. I didn't do the corn or smoked ham, but I followed the rest of it and it really was good. I brined the pork for about 3 hours and hollowed out the middle of the pork (which killed me because it looked like it would be perfect to leave it as is), but I had a plan so I used a long skinny knife and my knife sharpener iron to stretch it a bit. I stuffed the corn bread stuffing in the center (after it was cooled down) and put it in the refrigerator until I was ready to cook it. About an hour before cooking I brought it to room temperature then seasoned with salt and pepper, then seared it in a hot pan for about 5 minutes then into the oven (set at 350) until it registered 155 degrees. I removed it from the oven and covered with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes while I finished cooking the vegetables and sauce. The sauce was reduced port and madeira wine with stock, shallots, thyme, bay leaves and it called for green peppercorns, but they were out of them at the store so I used capers instead with a bit of red chili flakes. Just before serving you swirl in some butter and as it melts it becomes glossy and slightly thicker.


Ginger Onion Swiss Chard

This was also in my new Laura Calder cookbook. When ever I make Swiss chard it's usually just with some garlic and I usually finish it with a splash of vinegar. So when I saw this with fresh ginger and lemon, I had to try it. Basically you soften the onions and garlic in oil then add the finely chopped chard stems and ginger, after they are softened you add the leaves of the chard and cook them until tender. Finish with lemon and season with salt and pepper. It was yummy.


Coconut Cakes with Caramel Sauce and Brown Butter Ice Cream

Again from Laura Calder, I came across this coconut cake recipe. They are baked in individual financiers pans (I don't know really what they are but she says they are shallow rectangular shaped). But she says if you don't have these pans you can use muffin tins. I happened to have 4 mini rectangular pans so I used those along with a muffin pan for the remaining batter. They are so easy to make, you combine melted butter with confectioners sugar, shredded coconut, flour, egg whites and vanilla. There are no machines or anything just a bowl and a whisk. You are done in about 5 minutes then they bake for a total of 15-20 minutes. I decided to make a caramel sauce to accompany the cakes and well...ice cream always makes things taste that much better. I remember a brown butter ice cream from my new "Avec Eric" cookbook. I decided the combination of the three of those would taste nice together...and I was right. Wow, this is really a great combination, I will be making this again and again. On our trip to the Key's a few weeks back I had a coffee with my dessert that has Tuaca and Brandy in it and I keep thinking ..."we need to do that, it was so good"... so we didn't have Tuaca or Wiskey (for the Irish coffee) but we had brandy so we had a splash of that. I topped it with sweetened and lightly whipped cream. It was good but I remember the one on the Key's being even better. We gotta get some more Tuaca...

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Friday Night December 31, 2010, Skirt Steak

Well I am back, it's been nice having a break from trying to come up with interesting menus (although I do love it) each week. Just simple cooking or just eating the food that Tony cooks was nice to do for a change. With all the chaos around November and December it's been fun but I am glad it's over! I got a new toy from Tony for Christmas called a "Whip-it". It's a foam dispenser where you can make your own creation using different flavors or just sweetened cream to make an easy whipped cream. Some of the recipes that are included with the Whip-it are basil foam, lobster bisque, white truffle foam, orange whip and quick tiramasu. All of the recipes have heavy cream in the mix and some include gelatin. I had to incorporate some foam into my first menu of the year....


Gruyere and Parmesan Cups with Tomato and Tarragon Foam

I made something called Frico, which is grated hard cheese that is piled on a baking sheet and cooked in the oven until it melts together and ends up creating a lacy look. I used Gruyere and Parmesan with some fresh thyme and ground black pepper in mine. Cook in a 400 degree oven for about 6-8 minutes until it's golden brown. Working quickly and using an offset spatula you remove them while they are still hot and use a form of some kind (I used a rolling pin) just to drape over the hot Frico, within seconds it forms to the shape of the rolling pin and hardens to a crisp. I figured I would use my new "Whip-it" and make a tarragon foam to fill into the frico cup. I didn't have a very strong feeling that this was going to be a winner, but I had to start somewhere. Using the same ideas from the whip-it recipe booklet, I created my tomato and tarragon foam. In the end I should have used more gelatin or cream. It was foamy for a second and it quickly liquefied, creating a soggy mess (if you waited more than 5 seconds to eat it). We still enjoyed the frico but in the end it's not the ideal vehicle for a foam.


Marinated Skirt Steak with Grape Mostarda

Another gift from Tony was a cookbook from Eric Ripert, called Avec Eric. I came across a recipe that interested me because I had some red grapes left over from Christmas I wanted to use up, the recipe was grape mostarda. It's cooked down balsamic vinegar and sugar with cracked yellow mustard seeds, a cinnamon stick, red grapes and mustard powder, delicious. The note with this sauce said it's usually served with rich meats*. In another cookbook by Thomas Keller called AD Hoc at Home I came across a recipe using skirt steak, it's marinated in woody herbs and olive oil for four hours or overnight and simply cooked in a hot skillet on the stove and finished in the oven. It is a fantastic cut of meat that I don't think I ever cooked in that manner before. I may have used it for beef fajitas because it's similar to flank steak and you would use one of those in a quick stir fry like that. It was so tender for cooking fairly quickly like I did. Tony said it was similar to a braised short rib in texture (which is fall apart tender).

*Eric Ripert is mainly known for seafood, his restaurant Le Bernardin in NYC is all seafood. I would love to go sometime but a little afraid I wouldn't love all the seafood ( I am still working on myself to like seafood more). He has only pre-fixed menus, which means they serve you about 6-8 courses that they decide on and it's like $200.00 per person or something outrageous like that. His restaurant has had four stars form The New York Times longer than anyone in history and three stars from Michelin which is really good for someone in the USA, I am pretty sure Michelin is usually only in the UK.


Slow baked Purple Potatoes

I wasn't sure how I would cook the potatoes, I thought maybe mashed?? Maybe baked whole?? As I was deciding "French Food at Home" was on TV in the back round. I heard her say..."coming up next I will show you how to make melted potatoes in stock"... So that's what I did. It was a show on slow cooking and this was potatoes thinly sliced and layered in a baking dish with slow cooked onions and fresh thyme. After layering the potatoes like a potato gratin you pour in some chicken stock to come up about 1/2 way up the sides and cover with aluminum foil. bake in the oven at 325-350 degrees for about 2-3 hours. Removing the foil towards the end to evaporate the liquid. They were very good.


Radish and Watercress Greens with White Balsamic Vinaigrette

I got some radish sprouts and some heirloom purple watercress at Whole Foods and decided with everything that was going on with the dish (the grape mostarda with it's sauce and rich meat) a spicy, fresh, clean "green salad" would be a nice complement. I made a simple white balsamic dressing with shallots, Dijon and honey.


Blackberry Tomato Crumble with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

This is where I went crazy. As I was flipping through my new Evec Eric book I came across this dessert. It is one created by the pastry chef at Le Bernardin restaurant. I thought it sounds crazy with the tomatoes but if they serve this at Le Bernardin, it has to be good. Also with all the sweets from the holiday's (cookies, pies, chocolate, creamy stuff...) I was ready to make something "not so normal". Basically you make a simple syrup with water and sugar, you add a cup of fresh basil and a couple sprigs of fresh tarragon and some lemon juice and zest. You macerate the blackberry's and grape tomatoes (that I removed the skins from) in this cooled down flavorful syrup for at least an hour. While it's macerating in the refrigerator you make the crumble by combining almond and regular flour with butter, 2 kinds of sugar and salt. After this mixture chills you bake it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes and let cool. When serving you spoon some of the macerated fruit into the bowls (tomato is a fruit too) and spoon some of the syrup over the top, you sprinkle some of the crumble over that and a scoop of homemade ice cream (which I followed the Le Bernadin way of making it) over that. Top with some grated lemon zest and fresh tarragon if desired (I left out the fresh tarragon garnish). It was interesting and different. I wasn't completely loving it the way I wanted to but Tony said he loved it. John and Lisa came over to ring in the new year and I gave them a sampling of the dessert, overall different and interesting were the words to describe this dish. The ice cream was fantastic!