CLEAN GREEN CUISINE: A Little Slab of Heaven

We had quite a busy weekend of celebrating! Friday night we celebrated Derek's birthday at Delux, then ended up back at our apartment with a bunch of friends after they kicked us out (and had a minor incident with a car alarm). I cleaned out the liquor cabinet to make cocktails for everyone.

I used Myer's Rum and ginger beer to make (sort of) Dark & Stormies. And mixed up pretty martinis with vodka, tripe sec, pomegranate juice, lime juice, and a little more ginger beer. They were very tasty but I didn't even come close to finishing mine. We all stayed up until the wee hours of the morning placing bets on the circumference of each other's heads. A very late night for us.

Needless to say, we were not in the best shape to spend our whole Saturday attending parties. I cooked us a restorative breakfast of french toast made with challah bread, which helped.

First on the agenda was my soon-to-be-nephew's 4th birthday party. It was a spiderman theme - complete with pinata that seemed to be the highlight of Justin's day.

Derek also got to spend some time with his other nephew and namesake.

Baby Derek is a very good eater.

For the event, I decided to try making my first slab pie. A slab pie is basically a pie baked in a large baking sheet. Its perfect for feeding a crowd. And this one went fast!

I filled it with local peaches and raspberries and topped it with icing. It looked good on a spidy plate.

I switched off the vodka crust for this recipe and went back to an all butter crust. This crust is just a no-fail for me. The slab pie idea came from Smitten Kitchen - and this post gives great instructions on making flaky pie crust. I used a food processor this time, but I like the pastry cutter method to. It really is so easy and takes seconds! If you've never tried crust from scratch, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Its so worth it.

Peach Raspberry Slab Pie

for crust:

3 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1.5 Tbls sugar

1.5 tsps salt

3 sticks unsalted butter, frozen and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

3/4 to 1 cup ice water

for filling:

2 - 2 1/2 lbs ripe peaches (about 10 medium) pitted and sliced

1 cup raspberries

1 cup sugar

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cornstarch

for icing:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbl milk and 1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbl lemon juice

Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until just blended
Add frozen butter pieces to processor, and pulse until mixture resembles a course meal. You should have pea-sized bits of butter throughout the flour
Turn the flour mixture into a large bowl. Sprinkle 3/4 cup ice water over the flour, and stir dough with a wooden spoon until it starts to stick together. Add a little more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, if its not sticking. Dough is the right consistency when it holds together when you squeeze it, but is still a little crumbly.
Divided dough in 2 parts, one slightly larger than the other. Pat each part into a small rectangle, wrap each in saran wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days. Can also be frozen for up to a month
Combine peaches, raspberries, sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a large bowl. Stir to combine and set aside
Preheat oven to 375º
Grease a 9" x 13" baking pan and line with parchment paper
Flour a large work service or cutting board
Roll out larger piece of dough, adding flour to surface to keep from sticking, until it fits in pan with some overlap
Roll dough around rolling pin, lay the end over the edge of pan, and unroll into prepared pan
Add filling to pan on top of pie dough
Roll out second piece of dough and lay over top of pan
Fold over edges and crimp with fork to seal
Prick with fork all over top of crust to vent
Bake 45 - 50 minutes, until crust is golden and filling is bubbling
Stir together powdered sugar and milk and vanilla or lemon juice in small bowl. Add a little more liquid if icing is too thick
Let pie cool, then drizzle icing all over the top

After the birthday celebration, we headed to a party to celebrate my friend Allison's recent marriage. Allison and her husband eloped a few months ago, so her parent's threw them a lovely cocktail party at their house to celebrate. We took a photo of all the high school girls...

Me, Allison (in white obviously), Maria, and Lucy. Allison is actually a professional food photographer. She has a great blog of all her work. I love her style!

Sunday ended up being a pretty lazy day. We picked up the CSA and stopped by the South End Open Market for a little more produce. I had planned to run 6 miles this weekend, but that was just not happening. Instead - I baked.

If I haven't introduced you to my best friend in the kitchen, let me take a moment to do that. Please meet, my KitchenAid Professional Stand Mixer.

She helped me whip up a delicious batch of blueberry cupcakes.

These cupcakes were made with a basic vanilla buttermilk base, with ripe, sweet blueberries folded into the batter.

I thought these would be the perfect treat to bring to Shakespeare in the park tomorrow night.

Blueberry Cupcakes

Makes about 16 cupcakes

2 cups, plus 2 Tbls all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

zest of 1 lemon (optional - I forgot to add it!)

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 - 1 1/2 cups blueberries

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbl lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350º
Line 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners
Whisk together 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until light and fluffy
Slowly add sugar and beat until combined
Reduce speed to low, and add 1/3 of flour mixture. Beat until flour just disappears
Add half of buttermilk and beat until combined. Continue adding flour and buttermilk in this manner, alternating between the 2 and ending with flour.
Beat in vanilla extract
Toss blueberries in small bowl with remaining 2 Tbls flour
Remove bowl of batter from mixer and gently fold in blueberries
Fill muffin liners about 3/4 full
Bake until tops are just golden and a toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean (except for some blueberry splotches)
Cool cupcakes for 5 minutes in pan, then remove from pan and cool on wire rack
Cook additional cupcakes in the same manner if you have more batter
Once cupcakes are cooled completely, whisk together powdered sugar and lemon juice
drizzle icing over cupcakes and allow to set

This seems to be the summer of pies, tarts, quiches, and casseroles. Putting fresh veggies in a dish and baking them with milk, cheese, and some butter is such a great way to turn a humble vegetable into an impressive main course. Last night I continued on that theme and baked a Tomato Corn Pie with our CSA loot. This recipe is a classic. Simple layers of tomato and corn, topped with sharp cheddar cheese and baked in a fluffy biscuit crust.