The CookingBites recipe challenge: berries

Yorky said:
Before they ripen, they have the consistency of an apple but taste like a very bitter gooseberry. After they ripen they have the consistency of a soft plum but still taste extremely bitter.
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I've never eaten or even seen a gooseberry. But I'm not a fan of bitter.
 
Yorky said:
My boss and I would buy 2 kg of un-ripe goosberries in the Clyde valley to eat in the car and by the time we got to the Wirral, they were all gone!
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We grew gooseberries for a while, but the birds loved them more than we did.
 
Talking of gooseberries - these are pink gooseberries from my garden. I need to write up the recipe - its gooseberry & Camembert tart with balsamic drizzle:

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I'm reminded of a bit comedian Pete Holmes had about the name of the fruit boysenberry; it goes something like this:

I think it's weird that we have a berry called boysenberry. Human men and women get together and name berries. There are two varieties of berries that I'm aware of: regular and poison. We named one of the regular berries after something that's one letter away from a horrible camping accident.​
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
I'm reminded of a bit comedian Pete Holmes had about the name of the fruit boysenberry; it goes something like this:

I think it's weird that we have a berry called boysenberry. Human men and women get together and name berries. There are two varieties of berries that I'm aware of: regular and poison. We named one of the regular berries after something that's one letter away from a horrible camping accident.​
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I knew nothing of boysenberries before I bought Simon and Garfunkel's "Bookends" album, c. 1968.

 
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karadekoolaid said:
Curious to know how the blueberries paired with the cinnamon. It´s an unusual combination.
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I wanted to make a blueberry ice cream, and my wife wanted me to make cinnamon ice cream, so I decided to do them together. I have to confess that I did consult The Flavo(u)r Thesaurus before I tried it. It worked, but the blueberry flavor muted the bite of the cinnamon a bit, and the bite of the cinnamon cut into the sweetness of the blueberry. Not bad, but not something I want to make again.
 
I´ve worked a lot with herbs and spices, and while I would never, ever consider myself an expert, there are some combinations which just don´t seem to work, partly for what you´ve mentioned above. Cinnamon is a "hot" and potentially invasive spice if overused. I cringe at the thought of those franchised "Cinnamon Roll" outlets, where you get a grungy, sweet, heavy lump of dough absolutely drowned in cinnamon. That´s not the case here, but I think you´d do better with a tiny pinch of cumin seeds, or fennel seeds, or, if you can find them, nigella/kalonji seeds.
 
This is not an entry. Banana pancakes topped with strawberries, blackberries, toasted macadamia nuts, and honey drizzle. There are several really nice entries for pancakes here already.

This is something I make at least twice a month, though the fruits may change here and there. When bananas start to turn, I peel them and freeze them in ziplocks to use for pancakes at a later date (or banana bread if I have an excess). I do the same with pineapple (with the pineapple after thawing I puree it in my food processor before mixing it into the pancake mix). Also, I always use buttermilk, egg, and vanilla extract in my pancake mix, or sometimes I will use rum like Malibu or some other type of liquer in place of the vanilla. And I never use regular syrup, though I do own some maple syrup (not a huge fan). Anyway, this was quite yummy! I ate 1, hubby ate 4.
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SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
but the only pekmez I knew before now was grape, though I've made plum pekmez just this autumn (7 plums in Australia were about 1kg in weight this last autumn).
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Oh your description is absolutely yummy. I might learn that pekmez is not what the original pekmez is, I am open to that...it might be a process of, discussed here in other posts as well, a dish, or preparing process to be distorted and spread further away from the original country, in this case, is it Turkey?
We are possibly not as precise in naming all of those fruit prepares, but as I mentioned, pekmez is here in Croatia, in amateur mouths, called mainly the one of strawberry, than apricot, those are the most common, plum is more also very popular...grape, honestly never seen on market shelves here or tried...but it must be delicious...I would love to prepare a grape pekmez...

It is smooth to spread, that is what I remember...not very thick...no visible fruit particles in it...

I love halva (or rather I adored it, but now on the low or no sugar diet, it is probably out of the scope)and I imagine tahini would be lovely too, although I do not seem to tolerate sesame well in the last year or so, I tried to make it myself, it was disastrous....

O wow, those plums are voluminous, great!

I made a cake using those plums eventually, and then another one, an improved version of the same recipe, will post in the What you ate...it was gorgeous...I guess I will have to wait for a mark down on plums or other fruit to try to recreate or create a personal pekmez...

We have spent 9-18h with the reparation team, plus we painted the two new walls today, and it was 38C...tomorrow is possibly a similar schedule...and not much of the day is left...but hopefully soon...
 
Recipe - Pan-seared chicken with berry-balsamic salsa

Fruit salsas are very popular in the restaurants around here these days, so I thought I'd try one for the challenge. This one mixes fresh strawberries and blueberries with a little onion, mint, balsamic vinegar, and honey. I was out of my regular balsamic, so I used white balsamic, and it was fine.

This may seem a little odd at first, but fresh strawberries and balsamic are natural companions, and every celebrity chef seems to have their version of the combination (whole strawberries marinated in a sweetened balsamic dressing is one of our favorite picnic foods). There's something about the brightness of the berries, the assertiveness of the vinegar, the subtle sweetness of the honey, and that little cooling effect of the mint that goes so well with an otherwise humdrum chicken breast.

This one will be made again, as the salsa is versatile as well - there's nothing stopping you from spooning this over a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Pan-seared chicken w/ berry-balsamic salsa

Pan-seared chicken w/ berry-balsamic salsa

 
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