Serenbe Style and Soul

with Marie Nygren

Friday

13

June 2014

0

COMMENTS

Peaches, Plans and Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Well-Seasoned Chef Series

Written by , Posted in Miscellaneous

Image courtesy of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Image courtesy of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens

The good news: For the third year in a row, the Atlanta Botanical Garden asked me to participate in their Well-Seasoned Chef Series, a four-part cooking class in their edible garden outdoor kitchen.

The bad news: I tend to talk too much at these things and forget that people want to eat.

Still, the premise of the class was fantastic: how to make dinner for 30 people and have almost everything done ahead of time. I showed them skills and gave them recipes but I also peppered in some entertaining advice along the way:

Lesson #1 — Be willing to experiment on people

Sure, you can make the same thing you’ve always made the same way you’ve always made it, but where’s the fun in that? If you make something and it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of the world. Your food does not have to be perfect. It’s your home, not a restaurant, so relax.

I started with pecan crackers topped with Many Fold Farms brebis cheese and Serenbe fig jam, Many Fold Farms Brebis cheese and Serenbe Fig jamwhich are so beautiful and simple. Then I did herb salad with orange balsamic vinaigrette, which brings me to my next two lessons:

Lesson #2 — Homemade vinaigrettes are easy

Oil, vinegar and some sort of sweet or savory element. Salt and pepper. You may never buy another $8 pre-made bottle again.

Lesson #3 — Never plate food at home

Restaurants serve individual plates of food, but at home I always serve buffet-style. The quickest way to bury yourself in the kitchen and make sure everyone eats lukewarm foods at different times is to plate it yourself.

DSC_0178After the salad, I made roasted wild salmon with caramelized Vidalia onions, sautéed collard greens with lemon-onion butter and a grits soufflé with arugula and goat cheese, instead of my usual recipe, which includes collards and cheddar (see Lesson #1).

Before the class, I emailed the person in charge and asked if I had any repeat attendees because I planned to make the same lemon curd parfait with fresh blueberries and gingersnap cookies that I did last year. Then I got to the farmer’s market, which leads me to the last lesson.

Lesson #4 — Plan your menu and be open to throwing it out the window

As soon as I saw that the first peaches were in, my parfait plan turned into sour cream pound cake with peaches, mint and ginger. Establish a menu, but let the farmers and their fresh produce be your guide. It’s like former president Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “In planning for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensible.”

DSC_0212

Sour Cream Pound Cake with Peaches, Mint and Ginger

6-8 peaches

1/2 cup mint leaves, chopped

1/2 cup ginger liqueur

Natural sugar

2 cups heavy cream, whipped

Powdered sugar

1 recipe sour cream pound cake (recipe follows)

Peel and slice peaches. Place in bowl. If not sweet enough, add some natural sugar. Then add mint leaves and ginger liqueur. Let sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour to macerate.

Whip cream in a mixer. Sweeten with powdered sugar and some ginger liqueur. Set aside in refrigerator until ready for use.

Slice pound cake and arrange nicely on a platter. Take macerated peaches and spoon over the cake slices. Let sit for several minutes for the syrup to soak into the cake. May want to sprinkle more liqueur over the slices.

Top with whip cream. Garnish with some mint leaves.

Sour Cream Pound Cake

1 pound butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

¼ teaspoons baking soda

6 eggs

3 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

3 cups flower

Cream butter and sugar together. Mix baking soda into the sour cream and add the vanilla. Add 1 cup flour and 2 eggs alternately until all is used.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes in a 10-inch tube pan.

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