Stone Fruit Class at the Institute

The Institute of Domestic Technology and Saving the Season have teamed up for a series of classes that focus on a single seasonal fruit. We're calling it STS at IDT, and so far this year, we've already have great classes in Citrus and Cherries. Later in the summer we'll have Figs, Tomatoes and, into the fall, Autumn Jelly.

But right now we're in the heart of Stone Fruit season,  and that's the topic of our next STS at IDT class later this month.

Due to popular demand, we've just added an additional Stone Fruit meeting time, see BELOW. The class is an all-day, hands-on workshop at Altadena's historic Zane Grey Estate that will cover plum jam, nectarine chutney, orgeat syrup (sweetened almond milk flavored with apricot kernel "bitter almonds") and homemade ice cream. You'll go home with jars of everything, plus we'll feed you a fantastic lunch.

Sunday July 22

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more info and to sign up, click here.

It's Starting to look like a book

Ok, maybe that's overstating it, but the copyedited manuscript I sent back to Knopf yesterday is starting to read like a book—a cookbook, that is. The manuscript was about 700 pages and weighed nine pounds on the FedEx scale. I'm not sure about the final recipe count. Somewhere under 200, but not by much. Also I just saw the cover design, and I love it. Stay tuned.

Where to buy Blenheims

Go get a pencil, or take a note on your smartphone, because I'm about to give you the best tip of the year. Ready? Mike Cirone of See Canyon is back at the Santa Monica Farmers Market with his organic, dry-farmed Blenheim apricots, ABOVE. Mike says it's a bumper crop this year, and he's selling them for $40 dollars per 20-pound boxcase. There's not a better deal in the market. He'll be in Santa Monica Wednesdays and Saturdays for the next three weeks or so.

If you make one batch of jam this year, let it be Blenheim apricot jam. There's nothing to compare.

Rhubarb

I can't deal with copyediting my manuscript any longer, so I'm going to play with rhubarb instead. 

Mara des Bois

Here's a strawberry you don't see every day: Mara des Bois, BOTTOM, a remarkably fragrant hybrid of four European varieties. (See the full explanation by David Karp here.) They're available in very limited quantites at Harry's Berries for $6 a punnet, which works out to about $20 per pound. I'll use them for my slow-cook jam, an urban adaptation of old-fashioned sunshine jam.

Apricot Jelly

Here's one for Slow Foodists: apricot jelly with no added pectin, adapted from a peach jelly recipe in the 1828 cookbook Seventy-Five Receipts, for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats. The author, who gives her name as A Lady of Philadelphia, insists that using the pit kernels will "greatly improve the flavour." I agree. (I also added lemon verbena leaves—see the shadow in the lower left jar.)

The technique isn't hard but requires a couple of days. The secret is to use underripe fruit that's still showing some green because it has more pectin. I can't share the recipe yet, but it will be in my book. It works equally well for European plums, such as greengages, and peaches of course.

Nocino

Today was the Festival of San Giovanni, the traditional day to harvest green walnuts for making nocino, a delicious walnut liqueur. To mark the occasion, the innovative Institute of Domestic Technology offered an all-day nocino workshop. It sold out fast, as always seems to be the case at the Institute, but, since I also teach there, I convinced the powers that be to let me attend in return for demonstrating a recipe from my book that includes nocino. 

We convened this morning at the Eagle Rock estate of Institute director Joseph Shuldiner—Il Direttore, if you please, BELOW—to harvest his English walnut tree. The unripe nuts were smaller than eggs, ABOVE, smooth to the touch and crisp as apples because the shells had not yet hardened. The nut meats hadn't firmed up yet either—they were pure jelly. I worked barefoot as tradition demands.

After picking, we made our way to the Institute's Altadena headquarters at the Mariposa Creamery, where Istruttore Felicia Friesema took charge. As with most liqueurs, nocino is easy but requires patience. You slice the nuts and cover them with strong booze, sugar and spice, and allow the mixture to infuse for 40 days (some say 60) before decocting it into bottles. Then the real test of patience begins. Ten-year old nocino is said to be the best, and certainly you would never drink this summer's batch before cold weather sets in this fall. When ready, nocino is nearly black, with a complex flavor of nutmeg, allspice, coffee and caramel. 

Instruttore Friesema brought several recent vintages to taste, and she used a 2011 to demonstrate nocino posset (thickened cream). Mariposa Creamery co-owner Steve Rudicel taught nocino ice cream, and I shared the recipe from my book for Black Walnuts in Maple Syrup with Nocino. At the end of the day we all toasted San Giovanni with a cocktail flavored with—you guessed it—nocino.

That last one was Il Direttore's recipe. He's kind of a boozer, if truth be told, which is why we get along so well.

Nocino 

This recipe, still in development, is based on recipes from The Institute of Domestic Technology and Anna Tasca Lanza's valuable Sicilian cookbook The Garden of Endangered Fruit. The fundamental elements are green walnuts, 80-proof or higher grain spirits, and sugar. You can change the aromatics if you like, but always use small quantities because spices can become overpowering as they infuse.

In Los Angeles, you can purchase green walnuts from Peacock Farm at the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market and the Sunday Hollywood Market.

2 pounds green English walnuts, 1 1/2 inch or less (about 30)

zest from 2 lemons

3 1/2 cups sugar

5 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1 bottle (750 ml) 80-proof vodka or other neutral grain spirit

1  Quarter the walnuts and place them in a large glass jar (three quarts or larger). Add the remaining ingredients and mix. Seal the jar and place it in a sunny place for 40 days. The liquid will turn a sinister green before blackening. Once every ten days, agitate the jar by inverting it a time or two. You can taste the alcohol at any stage and add more aromatics if you like.

2  At the end of 40 days, strain out the solids and bottle the liquid. Seal the bottles and store in a cool, dark place for several months. Anna Tasca Lanza suggests opening the first bottle on All Saints Day. The liqueur will keep indefinitely without refrigeration. 

Yields about one liter