Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Welcome to the August 2020  Improv Cooking Challenge . This group is headed up by Nichole of  Cookaholic Wife . And I haven't been very consistent, but I love the idea of the group, so I will try to be better in the coming months. The idea behind Improv Cooking Challenge: we are assigned two ingredients and are challenged to create a recipe with those two things. This month's items: cherry and lime. Here's what the crew is sharing with those ingredients... Vodka Cherry Limeade by Making Miracles Filipino Crema de Fruta by Pandemonium Noshery Makrut Lime-Kissed Clafoutis by Culinary Adventures with Camilla Cherry Lime Bourbon Smash by Cookaholic Wife Cherry Lime Rickey by A Day in the Life on the Farm Lemon Cherry Muffin By Sneha's Recipe Makrut Limes First a little about my lime, a Markut lime. It's not your 'run of the mill' lime...and it looks like a little green brain, doeesn't it?  I do have to wax nostalgic about...

Today is our final January post in our year-long project that I'm calling the Kitchen Matrix Project, after Mark Bittman's  Kitchen Matrix  cookbook. You can read about it:  here . I'm very excited about the dishes and the bloggers who are joining me. Next month, Wendy at A Day in the Life in the Farm picked the recipes. I can't wait to follow along with her choices. This week, I picked 'Clafoutis + 3 Ways' for the group which means we could make Cherry-Pistachio Clafoutis, Peach Clafoutis with Star Anise, or Mango Coconut Clafoutis...along with any variations or adaptations that we needed or wanted. But, first, I'm going to be a little bit of a stickler on terminology. You wouldn't expect anything else from me, right?  Clafoutis comes from the Limousin region of France and is traditionally made with black cherries; all other variations - made with plums, prunes, apples, cranberries, blackberries, peaches, and mango - are called flaugn...

We discussed and debated this morning and just couldn't agree. You can call it a  clafoutis  if it's made with cherries; if it's made with any other type of fruit, it's a  flaugnarde . This was made with a mixture of cherries and wild blueberries. So...what do you think it should be called? Is this a  Flafoutis  or a  Claugnarde ? Whatever you call it, it's dairy-free, gluten-free, and all kinds of delicious. Ingredients non-dairy butter for greasing the pan 3 C fruits (I used 2 C cherries and 1 C wild blueberries) 4 eggs 3/4 C organic granulated sugar 3/4 C sweet white rice flour 1-1/2 C almond milk 2 T vanilla paste 1 T cherry liqueur powdered sugar for dusting Procedure Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter your baking dish(es). Spoon the fruit into the bottom of the dish(es). Whisk the eggs, sugar, and flour together until smooth. Add the milk. vanilla paste, and liqueur. Whisk until smooth. Pour over the fruit. Bake for 45-50 m...

Weekends in a French Kitchen (click to read about the project:  here ) launched this month.  And if you're game, I'm including affiliate links to the cookbooks at the bottom of the post. Yesterday I posted from Daniel Boulud and Dorie Greenspan's cookbook. Today I'm sharing a dish from Mimi Thorisson's  A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse. Special thanks to the project organizers: Alice of  A Mama, Baby and Sharpei in the Kitchen , Christy of  Confessions of a Culinary Diva , Tammy of  Telling Stories from Chez Nous , and Emily of  Blue Bungalow . What a fun, fun project they have designed. Join us. This week's selection from Mimi Thorisson's  A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse  is Clafoutis. You'll find this recipe on page 135 of the  A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse ...we will not be posting the actual recipes on our blogs. Clafoutis and My Thoughts... B...

I have seen several desserts like this around the blogosphere recently - some with blueberries, some with pears. But they are all calling this a 'c lafoutis. ' Klah-foo-tee! They look delicious. However, it is actually a  flaugnarde.  Clafoutis  is a dessert that comes from the Limousin region of France and is made with black cherries. Only cherries. Other variations are made with plums, prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries, but those are called  flaugnarde . Since mine is made with fresh strawberries, a  flaugnarde  it is. And here's another interesting tidbit, for  clafoutis  purists: the cherries are baked with their pits intact.  Ingredients 2 C fresh strawberries, destemmed and halved 4 eggs 1/2 C organic raw turbinado sugar 3/4 C white whole wheat flour 1 C milk 2 T Chartreuse powdered sugar for dusting Procedure Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the baking dish. I used an 11" round. Lay the strawber...

I originally called this a 'c lafoutis ' when I called the boys to the table this morning - clafoutis 's ready!  Clafoutis is as easy to make as it is fun to say. Klah-foo-tee! But I realize now that I was incorrect. This is a  flaugnarde.  Clafoutis is a dessert that comes from the Limousin region of France and is made with black cherries; other variations are made with plums, prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries, but those are called  flaugnarde . Since mine is made with raspberries, a  flaugnarde it is. And here's another interesting tidbit, for  clafoutis  purists, the cherries are baked with their pits intact. Also, I skipped the almonds and subbed Jenn's homemade apricot liqueur for amaretto. 2 C raspberries 4 eggs 3/4 C organic granulated sugar 3/4 C white whole wheat flour 1 C milk 2 T apricot liqueur powdered sugar for dusting Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter your baking dish(es). The amounts above gave me one 9" flaug...

It's time for the August Secret Recipe Club  reveal. What's the Secret Recipe Club? It's a group started by Amanda of Amanda's Cookin'  but recently handed off to April of Angel's Homestead . Each month, every participant is assigned to someone else's blog from which they pick a recipe - or two - to make and post, but it's all a secret until the big day. Today's the day. I always love a kitchen challenge and some culinary adventure...and meeting new-to-me foodie bloggers. Meet Holly of PheMOMenon who writes: "So, in an attempt to keep what sanity motherhood and marriage leave me with, I am trying to conquer my world, one recipe at a time. Cheaper than therapy, and much more tasty!" I couldn't agree more. Cooking is definitely my happy place, too. There were so many of Holly's recipes that I've tucked away in my to-do pile. The boys really wanted to try her pan dulce . But it was her zeal for clafoutis - blueberry or...

I've never made, or even heard of, a clafoutis . But when I was searching for something to do with a jar of cherries, recipes for clafoutis kept popping up. Sounds like a sign. This dessert comes from the Limousin region of France and is traditionally made with black cherries; other variations are made with plums, prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries, but those are called flaugnarde . And here's another interesting tidbit, for clafoutis purists, the cherries are baked with their pits intact. The pits, when heated, supposedly impart a unique flavor to the custard-like batter. My cherries were already pitted so...not traditional. Not surprising, right? Also, I skipped the almonds and subbed rum for amaretto. Camilla's Anise-Kissed Clafoutis adapted from Simply Recipes 2 C cherries, pitted 4 eggs 1-1/2 C raw turbinado sugar 3/4 C white whole wheat flour 1 C milk 2 T rum 2 t anise seeds powdered sugar for dusting Preheat the oven to 350F. Bu...