Fig Custard Cake

 

Two years ago I ordered two fig trees from Baker Creek. They came as little sticks in dirt. I was not sure if they would grow here in Boston. As an experiment, I planted one in the yard and one in the greenhouse. Both have grown huge, and year 3....WE HAVE FIGS! They are so tasty! We inevitably end up eating the first few right off the tree because we are greedy. They are fantastic with some goat cheese. But the thing with figs is that you really need to eat them right away if you want to experience the magic, and once you pick them they need to be used. So on days when there are a lot of figs that ripen all at once we bake fun things.

This is our second crop of figs of 2024 coming in...I am waiting so patiently!!

This cake is made in a springform pan. It is a moist, dense cake punctuated by bursts of fig. We liked it a lot.

Yard garden haul for the day: figs for the cake, jalapenos, banana peppers, black cherry tomatoes and a chrysanthemum melon

Fig Custard Cake

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons melted butter, cooled

1 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 large eggs

1 egg yolk

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons dark rum

2 teaspoons vanilla

8 figs, halved

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8-inch springform pan.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. 

3. With a mixer, whip the eggs and sugar until they are light and frothy. With the mixer on low, combine the sour cream, butter, rum and vanilla until completely incorporated. Add the flour mixture a few tablespoons at a time with mixer on low until just incorporated. Do not over-mix.

4. Add the batter to the prepared pan and chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. 

5. Arrange the fig halves on top of the chilled batter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake 55-60 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

6. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from the pan and finish cooling on a cooling rack. 

Sweet & Spicy Zucchini Relish

 I kept the name of this recipe because most people will be familiar with zucchini as the main ingredient. We didn't grow traditional zucchini this year or use it in this relish, we grew trombonchino!! 

Meet trombonchino!

Trombonchino is an Italian zuchini variety that grows a super long seedless fruit with a smaller bulbus end that contains seeds. I love this variety. It grows prolificly on our garden trellises all summer and into the fall. I find it is heartier and less prone to diseases than the traditional zucchini. It is all the best parts of the zucchini without the tendancy to get hard skin and hard seeds in a day if you forget to pick it. If you leave them on the vine for a very long time, they can get brown skinned and hard like a butternut squash, but that takes a lot more waiting than we can handle. Like I already said, it is super prolific so we have come up with a TON of ways to prepare it. We love it grilled, it does great in veggie lasagna, sauces, stir fries, and bakes. Basically, any way that you would use zucchini, you can use trombonchino. That being said, it makes a great sweet and spicy relish. You can use zucchini...if you want, but a trombonchino is pretty much always better.

Sweet & Spicy Trombonchino Relish

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds trombonchino squash

3 purple onions

2 yellow bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

3 jalapeno peppers

3 tbsp salt

6 cups apple cider vinegar

3 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground mustard

1 sachets of pickling spice (1-2 tablespoons)

Directions:

1. Using a food processor or grater finely chop the zucchini, onions, and peppers. Mix them together in a larg bowl and toss with 3 tablsepoons of salt. Let the veggie mixture sit while you prepare the brine. 

2. In a large, heavy bottomed stock pot, combine the vinegar, sugar and spices. For the pickling spice, you want the falvor, but you don't want the seeds and bay leaf pieces in your relish. You can use a sachet bag, or a tea strainer to infuse the flavors. I have a mana-tea, which floated hapily in the brine to infuse our relish. 😄

3. Bring the brine to a boil, then add the veggies. Bring the whole mixture back up to a boil, then reduce and simmer for 45 minutes to cook the veggies. After 45 minutes, check the consistency. Continue to reduce until the relish has the solid/liquid ratio that you desire. 

One big quart for the refrigerator and a small jar that wasn't quite full. the small jar was eaten on the firsd day. 

4. At this point you can put your relish into cans and put them in the refrigerator to make refrigerator relish, or you can hot water process them. This relish processes for 15 minutes.  For more information on hot water bath canning check HERE. The recipe makes about 20 cups of relish.

Tofu Gnocchi

 

Recently we have been experimenting with adding more non-meat protien to our diet. I saw this recipe for tofu gnocchi, which uses tofu, chickpea flour & nutritional yeast, all great sources of protien, and thought we would try it. My expectations were low. I love gnocchi and I doubted that this recipe could replicate the texture of the original potato gnocchi. So I was SUPER surprised when these tofu gnocchi turned out fantastic!! The texture is spot on. They are tasty, and easier to make than boiling and ricing potatoes like the traditional version. (plus, way more protien)

We used the tofu gnocchi in a veggie pesto sauce with ricotta, and broied it to brown the ricotta. (also a great source of non-meat protien) You could use any of your favorite pasta sauces. The recipe makes a lot of gnocchi! We used about 2/3 of the recipe and froze the rest for later. Just a note...frozen gnocchi can be put directly into the pot of boiling water and cooked as normal.

This recipe was tried by my budding professional chef. Keep an eye out...you may see this recipe on the menu of a local restaurant soon!

Tofu Gnocchi

Ingredients:

330 gr firm tofu

170 gr chickpea flour

3 tbsp nutritional yeast

1 tbsp olive oil

pinch of salt

Directions:

1. In a blender or food processor fitted with the blade attachement, process the tofu until it forms a smooth paste. 

3. In a medium bowl, combine the tofu paste, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, olive oil and salt. Start incorporating  with a fork. When the dough is coming together, turn the dough out onto a floured surface andknead  gently until the dough comes together and is smooth.

4. Shape your gnocchi. Shaping gnicchi isn't hard, it just takes practice. It really helps to have someone show you and explain it step by step. Please check out this VIDEO with all the info you need.

5. While you are shaping your dough, bring a large stockpot of water to boil. Also, have your sauce prepared before you start cooking your gnocchi. You will want to put the cooked gnocchi directly into the pan of sauce. Cooked gnocchi will stick together into a large gluey mess if they don't go directly into a sauce. 

6. Cook your gnocchi. When your dough is shaped, and your water is boiling and your sauce is ready, gently drop a handful of gnocchi into biling water. You will know the gnocchi are cooked when they rise up to the surface. This usually only takes about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, remove cooked, floating gnocchi and place them in the awaiting sauce. Cook whatever gnocchi you need and freeze the rest. Enjoy!

Stuffed Mogogo Squash

 This year we grew something new...Mogogo squash!! Mogogo is a Guatamalan zucchini variety. It is best picked when it is the size of a softball. Similar to zucchini, mogogos have thin outer flesh when they are small, but get harder and have larger seeds the longer they stay on the vine. Mogogos are sweeter than zucchini and have a creamier texture. We love them grilled. We had a couple that got too big while we were away on vacation, so we stuffed them. Stuffing is always a good idea when squash get too big, you scoop out all the hard seeds, and the long cooking process softens the harder flesh and skin. Just like making soup, stuffed veggies can be a vehicle for eating pretty much anything you have in your kitchen. Below is a recipe that reflects what was in our kitchen, but you can taylor the method to the ingredients at your disposal.

One of our first mogogo squash (just the right size)

Stuffed Mogogo Squash

Ingredients:

2 Large mogogo squash

1lb ground turkey

1 cup rice cooked

1 lb spinach

2 tomatoes chopped

1 onion chopped

1 bell pepper chopped

3 garlic cloves chopped

2 tablespoons fresh oregono

1 small chili pepper diced

1 egg

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil

1 cup shredded mozzarella

Directions:

1. Cut the stem tops off of your squash and scoop out the seeds and soft flesh then put the prepared squash in a baking pan. Season the empty squash with salt & pepper. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, rice, spinach tomatoes, onion, pepper garlic oregono, chili & egg. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Stuff the two squash with the filling, drizzle with olive oil, cover with foil and put it in the oven. Bake for 60-70 minutes. After 60-70 minutes, check that the squash is thoroughly cooked by piercing it with a sharp knife. If it goes in like butter, your squash is done. 

4. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and return to the oven uncovered for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.