A Chef's Diary

To look into a chef's  heart, look into their daily schedule. It is a whirlwind of planning, shopping  preparing and cooking. It is also a diary of an artist, someone who constantly creates and tweaks classics. It's a fascinating look inside , especially if it's by Clare de Boer. You can learn from just spending one day in her life.

That's what the New York Times Food section did yesterday.British born de Boer gave Times readers an interesting peek inside her kitchen. The section asked her to keep a journal for one week in July of what she made at home and not at her restaurant, King in Manhattan.,It was actually a story of two kitchens - her home in Brooklyn and her weekend place near Dover Plains, New York , a bucolic Duchess County hamlet.She cooks not only for herself but for her husband, Luke Sherwin, and his family.Although he's not a chef, more of founder to companies Block Renovation and Casper, he contributes recipes as well. I loved this diary. It gave me a lot of ideas for recipes and got me excited about adapting them for fall produce.They're relatively easy to recreate and would be perfect at any end of summer gathering. They're not fancy. You can find them at any farmer's market or grocery store.Like me, you can even adapt them for the upcoming autumn harvest, subbing in apples and pears for berries.

What are the recipes? The one that intrigues me most is the frangipane. This is a mix of almond flour, butter and egg yolks. It's then mixing them and slathering the mix on slices of buttered sourdough bread. Chef de Boer then piles sugared stone fruit such as peaches, plums and apricots.The slices are then baked for twenty to twenty-five minutes and afterwards broiled for only one to two minutes. It would be good with apples and even pears subbed in , topped with vanilla ice cream or plain cream. Another have to try recipe is the sformato, an easy kind of a souffle. It's combining the kernels of six ears of corns, and combining it with ricotta cheese and four whole eggs.Fresh basil leaves and lemon juice zing up the flavor.It's fluffiness comes from separating the eggs and whipping the whites into a meringue,What a great brunch dish this would be, especially with toasted and oiled Italian bread. One of her recipes, chicken baked in bread dough sounds amazing. Chef de Boer didn't list the recipe but you can find similar ones online. Her other recipe was a chicken with pepper and vinegar along with her husband's BLT one - the last a perfect Saturday lunch.

Chef de Boer gives us an interesting insight into her world. There is just more than shopping, prepping and cooking. There is creativity and thought - along with fun - the most vital ingredient in cooking.

The Sweetness of Cherry Season

One of the first fruit harvests of late Spring and early summer are cherries. They are  abundant right now, in  all their ruby red glory. What is so great about them is that they can be made into a variety of  different desserts. The first stone fruits of the season are perfect for everything and  anything , from ice cream to tarts.

David Tanis thought so and featured them in his column , A City Kitchen , in today's New York Times Food section.On their own, the first  harvests are a proper dessert in themselves. They're both deliciously tart and sweet, without any embellishments.. However he provides three cherry-centric desserts that highlight their flavor  and brightness.Best of all they're easy  to make- a boon in this hot weather. Some of the recipes can be split into two days so prep time is leisurely and relaxed. One of the easiest looks hard to execute but if made  in two days , an easy dessert. It is cherry ice cream sandwiches  rolled in coconut flakes. Make the ice cream the first day, it's simple custard recipe with stewed and pureed cherries added later. The cookies can be made a day later ,leaving the filling to firm up overnight. These are a simple shortbread although if you don't feel like heating up your oven, buy a good shortbread like Walker's  and use those instead.

The other desserts are both elegant ad easy as well.One is a cherry frangipane tart that can be stretched into two days of making too. Start with the tart shell, again relatively easy to whip up.There are only five ingredients with butter being the main one. The filling is classic frangipane,  using cream and almond flavoring. Cherries and slivered almonds are then pressed into the batter .They not only provide decoaration but an extra burst of sweet tartness to cut the pastry's sweetness. Mr. Tanis also puts the fruits of the seaon in one of the most elegant desserts ever - iles flottante. This sophisticated French sweet is basically fluffy meringue clouds  over a crème anglaise base. The traditional recipe calls for a drizzle of caramel but Mr. Tanis adds a sweet-sour cherry compote to give it a spike of color and a punch of flavor.A pound of pitted cherries is cooked  with a cup of sugar. Rose water is added for delicacy and for  scent as well. Pistachios are also sprinkled on top for added color and texture.

Take advantage of the first cherry harvests of June. Yes, they're good, just freshly washed and on their own but they're pure heaven in any dessert. Try them in a fun ice cream sandwich, or an elegant tart or iles flottante.