Saturday, August 16, 2008

Gauge of Success

All those other foods I've written about on this blog? Forget about them.
Three years worth of dithering, but today the BEST thing I ever ate happened.
Cranky cooked it, so all glory to him.
Really, the BEST thing.
It was our plum clafoutis. I'd been waiting all summer to make a plum clafoutis, but the damn plums weren't ripening fast enough.
So we made our first attempt from purchased fruit.
Our second attempt was a savory dish, with sausage. (I had NO idea we were reinventing Toad in the Hole.)
Finally, having discovered that Toad in the Hole is based on Yorkshire pudding, not clafoutis (the only difference is in the amount of eggs, and no sugar), I decided my next clafoutis should have fewer eggs. I found the first two versions too dense. And I l-o-o-o-ve Yorkshire pudding.
Well. Bingo, eh wot? This dish came out custardy. Tender. Moist.
AND. The plums were perfect. Half were fresh, juicy, tart and ripe. The other half were prunes, from the same tree. Deep, sophisticated fruit flavor.
Serious butter (but not too much).
Let's see. Do I have a recipe for you? No, of course not. But if you have a clafoutis recipe, there is probably too much sugar in it (we used two tablespoons) and too many eggs. I wish you could use Green Gage plums from my backyard.
Because this was the best thing I ever ate. And I don't even have a sweet tooth.

17 comments:

Ms Brown Mouse said...

oh my that looks good, I wonder how it works with passionfruit?

kudzu said...

Do you really, really have green gage plums? I have been looking all over for them ever since David Lebovitz wrote about them and have seen nary a one in our markets. (I didn't get to a farmer's market this week -- fie on me!) Anyway, I'm so happy you are so happy with your eggy sweet.

shuna fish lydon said...

oooooh! so exciting. I had the most amazing Greengage plum tart at Oliveto last night. They have a great balance of sweet & acid. o yes.

p.s. you may not have a sweet tooth, but you have a sweet scent.

cookiecrumb said...

Morgan: I would totally try it with passionfruit. Although I forget what passionfruit is like. So what? Try it.

Kudzu: I think they are green gage. They are green. But I don't think there's much of a commercial crop, if any. I will save some for you, but we'd better hurry!
:)

Shuna: Oh wow. How cool, a green gage plum tart at Oliveto.
You are sweet, too, my love.

michael, claudia and sierra said...

i'm about to make a blackberry version this evening. can i use 2% milk? i wonder...

looks wonderful, of course. ahhh well, i have no fruit or anything that grows on my huge chunk of land. but i have reasons.... i do i do....

ps - i smell good too. maybe not like pears - but clean... will that do?

cookiecrumb said...

Claudia: I should tell you we used mostly buttermilk. I love buttermilk. But I'm sure 2% will work for you.
As for smelling clean -- I love that smell.
As for Shuna, she has personally sniffed me, and I'll never forget it.

michael, claudia and sierra said...

i love buttermilk too
and always have some in the house
but mine is fat free and well, that could be a mistake
so i'll stick with the 2%

we bought blackberries at the farmers market and they are beyond tart - so i'm thinking that the clafoutis is the way to go...

thanks

Zoomie said...

"Gauge" of success - with green gage plums! Thigh slapper. Love it.

Anna Haight said...

Wow. Brings back childhood memories! My mother planted a green gage plum tree in our yard, and we had lots of good things from it!

Sam said...

Mmm - how about pear clafoutis?

I stewed up some of your pears with a punnet (I know you like that word) of blackberries a touch of sugar and a tbsp of St George Spirits pear Eau de vie. It'll be my breakfast for the week, with St Benoit yogurt.

thank you again - delicious!

cookiecrumb said...

Cook Eat Fret: I think all commercial buttermilk is low fat. It still works! Tasty.

Zoomie: Heh. Thanks!

Anna: I never imagined I'd ever taste a green gage plum. Just pure luck that there was a young tree (sapling, actually) already here. This seems to be its first really good harvest year.

Sam: Pear clafoutis is definitely on the list.
I'm tickled that you made breakfast out of the pears. So sensible, not committing yourself to all that butter and carbs.
Punnet!!

Ms Brown Mouse said...

BTW - it totally works with passionfruit!

cookiecrumb said...

Morgan: Hooray! Lucky you.

michael, claudia and sierra said...

2%?

not so good...

AND NOW WE KNOW!!!

cookiecrumb said...

Claudia: I just checked. The buttermilk I prefer is the same fat-content as whole milk. Sorry you were unhappy with your effort. (Of COURSE Ripert is going to use cream, he's French!)

Anonymous said...

the last time I saw and tasted a passionfruit, i think it was 20 years ago, poor me ;-)


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