Plums galore!

There is so much lovely summer fruit to choose from these days. The other day I bought several pounds of plums and thought I should use them up before they got too soft. So I made this easy peasy plum tart from the Contessa herself. Her recipe called for a lot of plums, and I found I didn't have enough to get a tightly packed tart, so I added some apricots I had on hand.


Then I got my hands on some Italian prune plums, which the Contessa's recipe had called for, and I thought I should take a shot at clafouti.


Clafouti had always seemed something mysterious and unattainable for some reason. And then I read about it again recently at the LA TImes food blog. And after reading that plums are often used in clafouti, second only to cherries, I was sold. The Italian prune plums are really juicy and the flesh is a delicate green color, they reminded me of damsons that I had long long ago. IN fact they were so tasty, that by the time I got to making it the next day, I found my husband had scarfed down a pound or more. So I had to supplement the scarce fruit with strawberries.


I used this recipe from Orangette for the clafouti. It was really good, but I couldn't get my fussy 4-year-old to try any.

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Banoffi Pie

This has become a fast favourite with my entire family. Whenever we have overripe bananas (soemtimes we let them get overripe :P) it means either Banana Bread or Banoffi Pie. More often Banoffi Pie, because it a quick no-bake thing and is absolutely delicious, never mind the calories! I think I must have made it countless times ever since we chanced upon the recipe, tried it and loved it. Posting two quick pictures, a feast for your eyes!

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Delicious tomato tart

This tomato tart from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook has fast become one of my favorite things to bake. Tomatoes, garlic and basil --- one of the best combos in the world. But it really isn't something to make too often -- unless you're trying to put on weight, it is very, very buttery! I made this twice in Ramadan, it was perfect for breaking the fast and I got to use up my delicious black tomatoes the second time.
The recipe is on Martha's website too, though the one in the book calls for 3 oz fontina, not 2. And one head of garlic would have someone calling the fire station, 4-5 large cloves are more than enough on a 7 inch (I can never get the pastry to fit on a 10-inch pan, and I haven't gotten around to getting 8 or 9 inchers). Actuallythe crust isn't super thick at all, and i think it would be soggy if it were any thinner.

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