Mess of Greens

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Foraged

Fig & Blueberry Coffee Cake

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So, this post is late as fig week has been over for awhile, but I can’t resist because this was the kind of cake that was super easy and so good that I kept sneaking back to slice just one more teeeeeeny sliver. But then I had slivered so much cake that there was only one full piece left, so my boys were pretty bent out of shape with me.

It’s also so simple that I after talking about the edits to the recipe that I’d made, I left baking in the hands of my honey and little dude. Brett doesn’t LOVE cooking (and I don’t think I’ve ever known him to bake ANYTHING) but Wagner does love being in the kitchen, so while I ran to the grocery store one weekend, they made this. I came home to a kitchen COVERED in flour and two worn out fellas. But y’all….usually it takes me way more than one try to get a recipe right, (especially baked stuff) but they NAILED it. Maybe I need to turn MoG over to my boys?

Anyway, for a (probably) first time baker and his toddler sous chef, this coffee cake was a hit. I LOVED it and thought it made the perfect just-sweet-enough coffee cake for midmorning (or afternoon…or after dinner…or instead of lunch) snack time. 😉 Let me know what you think!

BTW, This cake is based on one from Food & Wine but I replaced raspberries with local blueberries (since raspberries seem to like cooler weather than what we have in south MS) and lime zest/juice with orange. You could also probably sub lemon juice since lemons and blueberries go together like batman & robin.


Blueberry, Fig Coffee Cake
 
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Recipe type: Brunch, Dessert
Serves: 6-8
What You Need
  • ⅛ Cup flour, for dusting pan
  • ¼ Tablespoon butter, for dusting pan
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
  • Finely grated zest of 1large oranges or 3 mini ones
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • Juice of 1 small orange or ¼ large one
  • ½ pint blueberries
  • 4 figs, cut into eighths, or additional ½ pint blueberries
  • Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
What to Do
  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and coat with flour to keep the batter from sticking.
  3. In a mixer fitted with the batter attachment, beat the sugar and eggs at high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
  4. Beat in the butter and two-thirds of the zest.
  5. At low speed, alternately beat in the flour and orange juice until almost incorporated, then fold with a spatula until it's smooth.
  6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
  7. Gently press in the blueberries and figs.
  8. Bake the cake on the bottom third of the oven for 40ish minutes.
  9. Transfer to the upper third of the oven and continue baking for about 35 minutes more, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  10. Run a thin knife around the edge and release the springform and place the cake on a rack to cool.
  11. When you're ready to serve, dust the cake with confectioners' sugar and sprinkle with the remaining zest, then cut into wedges.

 

Roasted Fig and Whiskey Puree’

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So, let’s dive into fig week 2017, shall we? In my opinion, during the summer (and in some parts of the world, fall), there are two kinds of people…. those folks with a fig tree or two in their backyard, and those without. If you HAVE a fig tree, then you get gallons of figs to eat, make into preserves, and do just about whatever you want with them until your sated and maybe a little too full. If you don’t (like me), well, then you have to rely on the kindness of friends with fig trees or farmer’s stands to get your fig-fix. Here’s something to know about keeping them as long as possible.

Once you’ve picked or bought them, DO NOT WASH THEM. Put them in an open tupperware container with a paper towel on the bottom to wick away moisture, and leave them in the fridge. I’ve learned the hard way that if you leave figs on the counter then they melt into goo VERY VERY fast, so don’t make that mistake of your summertime fruit-gold.

But then, once you have them (or if you have a zillion pounds of them) what do you do? I’ve got lots of ideas here, but this morning my little dude craved pancakes, so I pulled out a recipe and went to town. But instead of basic syrup or  powdered sugar, we made a super quick and easy roasted fig and bourbon puree’ and drizzled the pancakes with honey. It was DIVINE…sweet, rich, and made silver dollar pancakes seem so fancy with minimal effort. My little person didn’t get the puree’ (even though all but the whiskey flavor had cooked out in the oven), but the honey and fresh figs were a HIT. If pancakes aren’t on deck for you, try this mixed into vanilla or plain greek yogurt, over ice cream, or just in spoonfuls. It’ll keep in your fridge for just under a week.


Roasted Fig and Whiskey Puree'
 
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Serves: 4-6
What You Need
  • 20 to 25 Fresh figs, washed & cut in half
  • 3 Tablespoons Unsalted butter
  • 3 Tablespoons Honey (local is always better!)
  • 2 tsp lemon zest
  • 1.5 tablespoons whiskey (I used bourbon)
What to Do
  1. Preheat your oven to 375.
  2. Slice your figs in half and place them in a roasting pan or glass baking dish, spreading them out evenly.
  3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter.
  4. Add in the Honey and cook until they've combined.
  5. Add the whisky into the hot honey/butter mixture.
  6. Pour it all over your figs and lightly roll them in the mixture so all the sides are covered.
  7. Roast the figs for about 15 minutes or until they are bubbly and very soft.
  8. Let cool for a few minutes and then puree' with an emulsion blender or regular blender.
  9. Serve on top of pancakes for a very grownup breakfast, over ice cream, mixed into yogurt with granola, or just eat it by the spoonful.
  10. Store in a small tupperware container or in a jar in the refridgerator for just under a week.

 

Spiced Persimmon Pancakes

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My little person has started negotiating. Anytime he wants something, but thinks we’ll say no, he’ll say, “Mama, let’s make a deal.” For instance, “Mama, let’s make a deal. In the morning, let’s make pancakes.” He hasn’t quite got the concept down, because there’s never a second side to the deal. Like, “If you make pancakes, I’ll let you sleep all night because I’ll stay in my own bed.” or “I won’t fight you at bath time about washing my hair.” or “You won’t have to sing every sweet song ever written until I fall totally asleep.” There’s none of that. Just the first part of the deal…the part that works out for him.

Anyway, he woke up one morning asking to make a deal for pancakes. He won, but I also snuck in a bit of extra goodness by making our standard buttermilk pancake recipe and jazzing it up with persimmon puree. And they were DELICIOUS and tasted like the holidays. Forget pumpkin spice…persimmons are where the fall and winter flavor is….

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‘Simmon Pudding with Bourbon Whipped Cream

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Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

and bring it right now!

Now that I’ve discovered the incredible flavor that is wild persimmons,

That’s how I imagine that this Christmas carol would go if it had been written in the south. img_4562

My mama and I made some plum (figgy) pudding a couple of years ago and it was such a fun, nostagic project that had plans to make it every Christmas from then on, but honestly, I wasn’t a huge fan of how it tasted. But this, y’all. Oh this. It turns out that European American settlers made this pudding all winter with the tiny squishy persimmons that grew wild (and that Native Americans had been gathering and eating all along) and, in my opinion, it’s SO MUCH more divine than the one they make across the pond. I tampered a teeny bit with a Saveur recipe and added some bourbon whipped cream, and well… I’d say it’s a holiday dessert MUST MAKE. Plus, although it takes a little time to cook, it is EEEEAAASSSY.

Note: If you don’t relish the job of foraging and then scooping out 2 cups worth of wild persimmon pulp, you can cheat and use store bought persimmons. I won’t tell.

Oh bring us some 'simmon pudding
 
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Serves: 1 9"x13" pan
What You Need
  • FOR THE PUDDING:
  • Pulp from enough ripe persimmons to make 2 cups (about 5 hachiyas or Fuyu, OR about 3 pounds of wild very smushy ripe persimmons)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 1⁄2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 1⁄2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1⁄2 tsp. cinnamon
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • Pinch salt
  • 1⁄4 cup heavy cream
  • 4 tbsp. butter, melted
  • FOR THE BOURBON WHIPPED CREAM
  • 1 Cup whipping cream
  • 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon bourbon
What to Do
  1. Preheat your oven to 350°. Place a large roasting pan filled with water ½ way or other way to create a water bath into the oven to warm. (Using a water bath will keep the center of the pudding moist. You can also use a traditional plum pudding mold that is then steamed...google that if you want to know more!)
  2. After you've gotten the fleshy pulp from the persimmons (if you're using wild, you'll need to skin them and also strain the pulp for the large seeds) add it and sugar into a large bowl.
  3. Beat in the eggs.
  4. Add in the buttermilk and baking soda into a separate medium bowl, and stir. Add to pulp, and mix well.
  5. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt into the medium bowl (i like to reuse bowls when I can). Slowly add the flour mixture to the pulp, stirring until it's totally and thoroughly combined.
  6. Add heavy cream, and mix.
  7. Grease a 9'' X 13'' baking dish with a small amount of the melted butter
  8. Stir remaining butter into batter.
  9. Pour batter into dish.
  10. Place the baking dish into the water bath that's been warming in the oven, bake until dark brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour, 20 minutes. OR bake according to your traditional plum pudding mold directions.
  11. Set aside to cool. Serve with bourbon whipped cream. (recipe below)
  12. FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:
  13. In a COLD bowl and with a COLD whisk implement on your mixer (or your hand held emulsion blender) mix the cream, extract, bourbon, and sugar until frothy and until it has peaks. If you over mix it will turn into butter.

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Foraged Beauties: Beautyberry Jelly

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Y’all, we got our first Free State Feasts virtual cookbook published and then things got really crazy really fast in life. I started a job that I just couldn’t turn down, our house started coming along really quickly and decisions had to be made about finishes and paint and light fixtures and stuff,  my little one got a cold and started school, AND I got an opportunity to start writing a food essay each month for a magazine. Cooking ended up taking a bit of a backseat for the past two weeks or so, but I’m back and I’ve got some awesome things to share! My friend, Joseph brought me a sack of wild persimmons, beautyberries, and chestnuts, and a sweet friend’s mama has been REALLY good to her basil plant this fall and she brought me a huge bouquet of it. All that is to say I’ve had some pretty incredible local ingredients to work with this weekend. Stay tuned for some stuff you’ll want to make yourself!

img_4364First up, beauty berry jelly. …

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Free State Feasts, Volume 1

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free-state-copy

Oh wonderful friends,

I’ve been working on something that I’m FINALLY able to share with you as of RIGHT NOW because it’s finally ready.

Joseph Hosey of Wild Woods Cuisine, the wonderful friend and forester who’s been dropping exciting foraged goods my way for a few months now and I have collaborated on something that I think you’re going to love.

We’ve written the FIRST in a series of cookbook-slash-guidebooks dedicated to helping you forage for local foods all around the deep south and then learn how to cook, eat, and share them in ways that feel familiar to southern palates. (Think, wild mushrooms meet pot pie, or wild greens cooked with turkey necks!) And we’re very excited to share it with you.

We’d love to email you a FREE PDF copy of the first edition of Free State Feasts, which focuses on chanterelle mushrooms, with recipes ranging from BBQ’d Chanterelles with Sweet Corn grits to Crispy Deep Fried Chanterelle Fritto Misto. You DO NOT want to miss this chance to get the FULL cookbook for free.

All you have to do is use THIS LINK to sign up for Mess of Green’s newsletter, (and also, if you haven’t already go to both Joseph at Wild Woods Cuisine & Mess of Greens Instagram accounts and follow us, too, and if you’re feeling as excited as we are, leave one of us an Instagram comment on what you’d like us to collaborate on in the future).

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Don’t forget, to get your copy of this exciting collaboration that you can use to take advantage of chanterelle season, sign up here and check out our Instagram accounts.

 

Mississippi Chanterelle Risotto

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I’ve not always had great luck with risotto… when I was first married, we had my VERY gorgeous friend who is a SUPER accomplished home cook and hostess over for supper while her fella was on an adventure to the other side of the world. She was (and still is) one of the coolest, prettiest, nicest, funnest people I know in real life. So, you know– I wanted to bring my A-game.

In an effort to impress her with my own cooking skills (insert eye roll here) I tried to make a bacon, lemon, English pea risotto and ACK! It was awful. So bad. Too much bacon, too much lemon, hardly any peas. And the RICE! Oh, it tasted like grains of sand were lodged in the middle of each piece.

Flash forward to a couple of years ago: Rice pudding & Risotto were two recipes I decided I wanted to perfect since Rice is a major, MAJOR Mississippi crop. I’m still working on the rice pudding (but I’ve got a lead!) but the risotto has come a LONG way since that first big huge failure and is something I’m finally willing share. Then, of course, when you combine Mississippi grown Delta Blues Rice (Rice GRITS, no less!) and Jones County golden chanterelles from Wild Woods Cuisine, well, how can it be bad?

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Quick, Easy, Elegant supper. Fig, Balsamic Pork Chops

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IMG_3424Fig week is technically over, but I couldn’t give up on them just yet. I still had a half pint that I wanted to use, and then when I made this sauce for supper liked the result so much that I took pictures. While I had a honey and a toddler sitting at the table slightly (ok, very) impatient to dig in. It wasn’t my finest moment.

But they waited while I frantically grabbed my camera and put the plates on the table… and then my 2 year old said “Mama! I DON’T WANT YOU TO TAKE A PICTURE OF SUPPER!” and made a frowny-pouty-irritated face. “I’m FRUSTRATED!” he said, a very descriptive emotional word that sounds silly coming out of a 2.5 year old’s mouth, except no truer words have ever been spoken because what 2.5 year old isn’t frustrated 75% of the time?

I know when I’m in the wrong, and when I’ve gone overboard, and stopping everything at 6:15pm on a Friday night when you’re having family supper to take pictures of the plate for this blog is definitely one of those times.

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Honey Roasted Figs, Whisky, & Bacon Ice Cream

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IMG_3418   I told my Instagram friends that this week is Fig Week here at MoG… and today I bring you almost a too-good-to-be-true Fig, whiskey, and bacon ice cream.

Why? Well..

1) Because it’s fig season in Mississippi, duh. How can you NOT take advantage of figs that you can pluck from neighbors’ trees or buy at produce stands and farmer’s markets all over the place? The season feels so short, and so special.

2) When my mama was going through chemo last summer and no food would stay down, I found some figs (her favorite) at one of aforementioned produce stands. They were one of two things I remember her wanting to eat during that hard time. Fig season will always, always always remind me of how strong my cancer-surviving mama really is. I decided that figs will now forever represent mama’s tenacity and strength.

3) At a 2 year old birthday party last weekend (we’ve been going to one of these fun, adorable events every weekend this summer… apparently all of Dub’s buds got born in June & July. :)) a pretty mama asked me if I had a fig ice cream recipe. I didn’t…but at that moment I knew I wanted one real bad. so bad in fact, that I posted a facebook plea to help me find more figs.

4) Thanks to said Facebook plea, I now know where all the figs in Jones county are. All of them. 😉

5) Lastly, um, Because figs, whiskey and bacon. Really. Did I really need to explain all those other things to get to this one?

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The easiest Pizza Dough alive, plus a rad chantrelle/bacon topping

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IMG_3194Ok lovelies, its time for me to share a secret with you.

 

I have the easiest, fastest, most delicious pizza dough recipe and I’ve been keeping it from you. I know. It’s terrible and mean and horrible that I haven’t already shared this because it’s so darn amazing. And to top it off, I made pizza this weekend with fresh chantrelle mushrooms, bacon, ricotta cheese and arugula. Do you hate me?

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