Goodbye Peaches and Hello Roasts

peach

While I am still lingering on the remnants that summer has left behind, it is impossible to deny that the air has turned cooler. Peaches are finishing their season, Fameuse apples are ready for harvesting after having matured for four years in my garden and undoubtedly, it gets dark at 7:30 at night.

peach crisp and homemade vanilla ice cream

With the peaches I have picked up at the farmer’s market, I made peach crisps to say farewell to summer (or at least tried to). I like this time of year; no longer summer, not yet fall, the season in between. It is the time for preparing our minds and bodies for the coming season. So I welcomed the chilly evening with a kind heart and a pot of roasted beef with gobo roots. I feel that we are going to have a good autumn.

Fameuse Apple & Gruyère CheeseCross Rib Roast in White Wine Tomato Saucewhite whine tomato saucegobo rootsroasted carrotsBraised Cross Rib Roast with Gobo Roots

Peach Crisp

Serves 6

6 large peaches, peeled, pitted and cut into ½ inch thick wedges

2 tablespoons cane sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ cup water

½ cup rolled oats, roughly milled using a food processor

½ cup all purpose flour

½ cup whole wheat flour or spelt flour

½ cup cane sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter, cut into ½ inch pieces

In a large bowl, toss the peaches, sugar, vanilla and water. Mix well, then let stand for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F. In the meantime, place the oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until flaky.

Squeeze the flour mixture in your fingers, form into small patties and refrigerate for about 10 minutes.

Butter a shallow baking pan. Place the peaches inside, and lay the patties over them.

Bake until top becomes golden and juice is bubbly, about 45 minutes.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

 

Braised Cross Rib Roast and Gobo Roots with White Wine Tomato Sauce

Serves 2 plus leftovers

4 lb cross rib roast

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

3 tablespons vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 large onions, cut into 1 inch wedges

2 x 1’ lengths gobo root

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon cane sugar

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

A sprig of fresh rosemary

1 ½ cups dry white wine

1 cup water

Clean gobo by scraping the skin with the back of a kitchen knife under running water. Cut into 2 inch pieces and cut in half in lengthwise. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes and change water. Repeat this process a few times until the water no longer becomes yellow. Drain well.

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 325F. Pat dry the beef and rub the salt and pepper all around.

In a heavy bottomed ovenproof large pot, heat the oil until hot but not burning and brown the beef on all sides. Transfer to a large plate.

In the same pot, sauté the onion, garlic then gobo until golden over relatively high heat. Stir constantly so as not to burn the vegetables. Add the tomato paste, thyme, and rosemary and adjust with salt and pepper. Add wine and water, and then bring to a simmer.

Return the beef to the pot, cover tightly and braise in the oven, turning the beef once in the mid way until done about 80 minutes to 1 ½ hours or a meat thermometer reads 145C for the medium rare in the centre of the meat. Adjust time to your liked doneness.

Take the pot out of the oven. Let the beef rest on a plate covered with a piece of aluminum foil. Transfer the vegetables to a serving plate with a slotted spoon, leaving as much the liquid in the pot as possible. Reduce the tomato-y liquid over medium high heat to half of the amount, stirring occasionally until it attains a thick consistency. Adjust the taste with salt and pepper.

Carve the meat into ½ inch thick slices and serve immediately with the wine tomato sauce and the vegetables.

Adapted from www.epicurious.com.

 

Roasted Carrots

Serves 2 plus leftovers

10 large carrots, cut in half or quartered lengthwise

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the carrots in a large baking sheet, drizzle with the oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for about 30 minutes.

Serve immediately with the cross rib roast. Follow by the peach crisp with ice cream.

Brut

Garlic Scapes and Beef Stir-fry

garlicscapes and beef stir-fry

Summer has finally arrived in my garden with a sudden heat, melting my tomato plants against a south-facing wall, sweetening my raspberries and thickening sunflower stalks. Broad beans also started to swell rapidly under the scorching rays. After weeks of complaining about having too much rain, we now must rush, overwhelmed, to catch up with watering to maintain the crops. This is how we start summer in the West Coast. A much awaited season…

garlic scapesgarlic scapesraspberriesingredients

This is a dish my grandma used to cook when garlic scapes were abundant at the market. She didn’t grow her own produce, other than few shiso plats in her tiny space in the midst of Tokyo, but appreciated cooking with nature’s natural clock.

The tasty sauce in this recipe that she made by scraping the bottom of a pan was a good stimulant for a poor appetite even during hot Japanese summer evenings. I hope to serve this dish the next time that I see her accompanied by a light glass of beer!

garlic scapes and beef stir-fry

Garlic Scapes and Beef Stir-fry

Serves 3-4

1 lb beef sirloin, cut into ½ inch strips

A dash of sesame oil

1 tablespoon sake or white wine

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch

Salt

2 tablespoons sesame oil

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 small knob ginger, finely chopped

2 scallions, thinly sliced

½ lb or more young garlic scapes, cut into 2 inch long pieces

½ each of red, yellow, and orange bell peppers, cut into strips

Salt and pepper

A pinch of cane sugar

3 cups cooked rice

Marinate the beef in the sesame oil, sake or wine, soy sauce and a pinch of salt for at least 10 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the vegetables.

Heat a large frying pan with half the amount of the sesame oil and vegetable oil over medium high heat. When it starts sizzling, stir-fry the garlic cloves, ginger and scallions for a couple of minutes.

Add the scapes and stir-fry till softened. It takes a while, so stir constantly so as not to burn the vegetables. Add bell peppers and cook until soft but still crunchy, and season with salt. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Stir the cornstarch into the marinated beef. Using the same pan, heat the remaining oil till hot. Sear the beef till browned on one side, and turn on the other side till browned.

Add a pinch of the cane sugar and the same amount of salt to the beef, and stir well. When the inside of the beef turns soft pink without blood, it’s about time to return the vegetables to the pan. Stir well to combine all together for few minutes. Transfer the beef mixture to a large plate.

Return the pan on the stove over high heat with ½ cup water. Boil and scrape the bottom of the pan, reducing the liquid to make gravy sauce. When the sauce starts bubbling, stop the heat. Pour over the beef mixture.

Serve immediately in an individual bowl over rice.