My old house mate, Chuck, and I used to host Sunday night dinners at least a couple of times a month. Chuck would sit on the barstool and commentate while I chopped and sautéed and grilled. He was the appetizer man. Olives, fig bread, manchego. Chuck could always be counted on to purchase a fine spread of apps. It’s been a while since Chuck bought his own place, took on his own house mate, and hauled a grill up to his own patio. At least now he’s eating his own peanut butter, and drinking his own wine ;)
Last Sunday I stopped by my friend Gretchen’s house to pick strawberries. She has an amazing patch of strawberries that spiral around the outskirts of her back yard. She also gave me some rhubarb that she had picked from her plot in the P-patch the day before. With such an amazing bounty, I decided to have people over for dessert. I called Gretchen first but she couldn’t make it so I called a few more friends. What began as an invitation to dessert ended up as a Sunday Dinner Reunion. Matthew was cooking Mexican food, and there is no better time to be invited for dinner. He fixed a phenomenal fajita spread, with all of the extras, and his wife, Amy assembled some delicious salads. I knew dessert was going to have to be sensational.
I scoured my vast assortment of cookbooks for something fun to do with rhubarb and strawberries. I decided to just wing it and headed to Larry’s Market with the old dog, Baci, to gather some ingredients. Cobbler always sounds good to me, so I decided to do some version of that. I began with my favorite Cream Scone recipe and adapted it to become the topping for the cobbler. The fruit part I wanted to keep simple since I had such beautiful raw ingredients to work with. I looked into using Minute Tapioca to thicken the fruit mixture (as recommended in Cooks Illustrated) but the cost was $4.00, I only needed a tablespoon, and I had cornstarch at home. Settled.
Pinched for time, I worked quickly, but even so, I was thankful that Sunday dinners are on ultimate time. Ultimate Frisbee players are notoriously late for everything and Sunday dinner is no different. So I stuffed the steaming hot cobbler into the trunk of my car and zoomed to Wallingford. I could smell how delicious it was going to be all the way there.
Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Coconut Vanilla Scone Topping
6 cups of mixed strawberries and rhubarb (strawberries sliced or halved if they’re small, rhubarb cut into ½ inch pieces)
¾ cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon vanilla
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the fruit, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla together and tip into a 9 inch deep dish glass pie plate. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the filling is quite hot. By adding the topping to already hot fruit, one eliminates the soggy topping problem that many cobblers have. Meanwhile, prepare the topping…
Coconut Vanilla Scone Topping
1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter , chilled and cut into 1/4-inch pieces
½ cup unsweetened coconut, toasted until golden
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (not the light kind)
1 tablespoon vanilla
sanding sugar and extra coconut milk for topping (brush and sprinkle)
Place flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt the food processor fitted with steel blade. Pulse to blend. Remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse until butter is broken into pieces and distributed throughout the flour mixture. It should look like very coarse breadcrumbs. Transfer dough to large bowl. Stir in the coconut. Stir the vanilla into the coconut milk and stir that mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Scrape up dough and lightly flour the counter underneath. Roll out the dough to the size of your pie plate and transfer it onto the hot fruit. Try to crimp the edges but be careful, since the pie plate is hot. Slice and open some vents atop the cobbler. You have to really separate the dough if you want the vents to stay open. Brush with some extra coconut milk and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired. Bake until the top is light brown, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, with whipped cream, ice cream, yogurt, or just plain.
Serves 8 generously.
Dishes, baby? Until Joe came along I was the dish man. And, let's be clear honey...you did cook some amazing master pieces on the weekends, but I did my share of 'fusion' cooking on the weekdays! How soon you forget the bow-tie pasta and red sauce pasta dish--infused with portabellas, sugar snap peas, pomegranate, chicken, and a slight dash of chocolate mole. Ole!
As for dish washing, Joe has been slacking ever since he landed himself a serious girlfriend! ; )
Posted by: Chuck LaForte | August 03, 2006 at 02:08 PM