Sunday, May 31, 2015

Strawberry milk forever

good stuff
I gulped down Mimi Pond's delicious graphic novel like a big, cold glass of strawberry milk. Total joy. Read the comments on this blog and you'll glean excellent recommendations for everything from blitz torte recipes to graphic novels. Thank you, commenters.

Over Easy is the thinly-veiled account of Pond’s job at an Oakland, Calif., cafe circa 1978. She captures the fleeting pre-AIDS moment when the hippies were disappearing (“the whole mellow deal was becoming pretty annoying”) and punk revving up (“everyone, suddenly, was pissed off, as though all those years of being agreeable had been just too much.”) She recounts with affection and bemusement the antics and (abundant) romantic entanglements of her co-workers and customers, a group that included sexy waitresses, crabby cooks, chatty drug dealers, and a memorably sweet and soulful restaurant manager. The book is saucy and funny, but also poignant and wise. It takes maybe two hours to read and if you haven't guessed, I highly recommend it.
more good stuff
Gabrielle Hamilton’s strawberry milk is yet more evidence that Prune, for all its idiosyncrasy and bitchiness, was the best cookbook of 2014. This strawberry milk tastes like something a farmer's wife might pour for a rosy-cheeked child in a nursery rhyme. Clean, pure, delicate, sweet. Owen would have drunk the whole batch in two minutes flat if I’d let him. I know the recipe doesn't look like it will produce something magical, but it does. I hope you'll try it. 

Strawberry milk from Gabrielle Hamilton’s Prune

1 pound super-sweet strawberries
1/2 cup sugar 
3 cups milk
1 cup buttermilk

  1. Slice the strawberries into a bowl, add sugar, and macerate for at least an hour until very syrupy. Don’t proceed until the berries have exuded lots of juice.
  2. Add milks and refrigerate overnight.
  3. Pour into glasses. Serve with a straw. 

25 comments:

  1. Aren't the lumps of strawberries soggy? Or is that a good thing?

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Kristin! I made a Swedish Princess Cake a few months ago using Marcus Samuelsson's recipe. He calls specifically for almond paste, not marzipan. Mix 3 (7 oz) logs of almond paste, 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, 1 large egg white, and a few drops of green food coloring in stand mixer until smooth. Basically like making marzipan, I suppose. I had A LOT left over. Next time I would halve the ingredients for the marzipan. It was a fairly easy recipe. The only thing I had trouble with was cutting one single 9" cake round into thirds. Tricky but I managed. The results were astounding and incredibly delicious.

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    2. A princess cake has been on my "to make" list for some time. It is one of my favorite cakes.
      Kristin -- I think the strawberries should be jettisoned. They were very limp and soggy and bland, having contributed all their flavor to the milk. I made a new batch today and tried to crush the strawberries to see if I could get more out of them. I'm going to strain them out.

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  2. Yay! I'm so glad you liked Over Easy! I bet Mimi would trade you a copy of Secrets of the Powder Room for a copy of Make the Bread, Buy the Butter -- she's a great cook.

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    1. I have located several copies of "Secrets" online and will buy one. I'd say I owe her because I checked Over Easy out of the library, but I know the $$ will just go to the resaler. Oh well.

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  3. Wait. You can make strawberry milk from scratch????!!?! Mind blown.

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    1. I didn't even know strawberry milk was a dish until Prune. I thought it was just a stupid idea dreamed up by the makers of Quik.

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  4. Oh wow, my kids would love this. Sometimes I just whirl milk/strawberries/sugar in the blender for strawberry milk (it comes out amazingly close to Nesquick), so the Prune version is like that on mega steroids of yumminess. Will have to try.

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    1. Like a Mexican liquado, right? I love those. Especially with cantaloupe. This is very similar but I usually put ice in the blender when I make a liquado so it's colder, frostier. This is essence of strawberry.

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  5. Yes - Prune was the best cookbook of 2014. And I am cooking weekly from Food52's cookbook Genius Recipes. My favorite recipe so far is the chicken thighs. I'm off to check out Over Easy at the bookstore today - thanks for the recommendation.

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    1. Genius Recipes has been on hold at the library for a few weeks. Very popular, so I might be waiting a while more.

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  6. Despite my annoyance with the overall authorial vision of Prune, everything I made was at least good, and several things were really, really great. Sooo . . . I've asked for it for my birthday. I am THRILLED to hear about this Pond book, because Mama's Royal Café has been my favorite breakfast place since about 1982, set the standard by which all other breakfasts are judged, and is the place that introduced me to Acme bread. I live within walking distance, and it is a miracle I am not spherical. (Hey, that rhymes!)

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  7. I wonder what would happen if you put the strawberry mixture in the Vitamix? Anybody?

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  8. Annette Kitts6/2/15, 4:48 PM

    But I hate buttermilk. Will I still like this?

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