Best Hot Blueberries From Jimmy Steinmeyer Recipes

AMERICAN BERRY TART

Steps:

• In the bowl of a food processor, place the flour, salt and sugar. Process by pulsing on and off once.
• Add to that mixture the butter and shortening. Process, pulsing on and off about eight times, or until the mixture looks like lumpy cornmeal.
• Sprinkle the water evenly around the butter-flour mixture and process, pulsing, for five seconds.
• Empty the mixture out onto a pastry board or work surface. With the heel of your hand, start working the dough together by pushing it against the board and away from you bit by bit. Do this two or three times, or until the dough blends together and does not stick to the board. Be careful not to overwork the dough, which will make it tough. Gather the dough together in a ball, wrap the ball loosely with plastic wrap, then flatten it slightly to form a thick disk. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.
• Roll out the dough and place in a 10-inch tart shell. Refrigerate for one hour.
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prick the pastry here and there with a fork or knife tip. Line the pastry shell with foil, then fill with weights or dried beans to keep the dough from rising.
• Bake the pastry shell for eight minutes, or until it is set. Then remove the weights and the foil, and return the pastry to the oven. Bake an additional eight to 12 minutes, or until the pastry is golden. Let cool on a cake rack.
• Meanwhile, make the almond pastry cream by beating the egg yolks with the sugar, using an electric mixer or whisk. Beat until the mixture is pale, thick and forms a ribbon. As you do this, put the milk in a medium-sized pot over medium heat and bring to the boil.
• Add the flour to the egg mixture, stirring gently until smooth. Then add the hot milk to the egg mixture, whisking vigorously all the time.
• Return the mixture to the pot and heat over a medium flame, whisking continuously. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan. Continue whisking until the mixture thickens, almost to the consistency of a pudding.
• Remove the mixture from the heat. Stir in the butter, vanilla extract, almond extract and the pulverized almonds. Rub the top of the pastry cream with a bit of softened butter to prevent a skin from forming on the surface. Let the pastry cream cool to room temperature.
• Spoon the pastry cream into the baked tart shell. Arrange the strawberries - either whole, with the tips up, or sliced - into a star pattern. Fill in the corners with the blueberries.
• In a small saucepan, melt the currant jelly. Paint the berries with the jelly to give them a nice glaze.

HOT BLUEBERRIES (FROM JIMMY STEINMEYER)

Steps:

• In a large skillet, over low heat, melt the butter. Add the berries, sprinkle with the sugar and cook until they give off their liquid and collapse, about eight minutes. Remove from the heat.
• Serve hot over the vanilla ice cream.

BLACKBERRY LINZER TARTS

Steps:

• Place the sugar and pistachios in a food processor. Process until the pistachios are finely chopped.
• Add the egg yolks, butter and cinnamon and process until smooth. Add a fifth of the flour and process with short pulses until mixed. Transfer to a mixing bowl and add the remaining flour, stirring with a wooden spoon until the flour is combined.
• Gather up the dough into a compact ball. Place on a piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk shape. Wrap in the plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
• Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is 1/4-inch thick. (This dough is very fragile. It may be easier to place the dough directly on the cookie sheet and, with a sheet of plastic wrap between the dough and the rolling pin, roll it out.) Cut the dough into 5-inch circles, gather up the dough and reroll it for the remaining circles. Transfer the circles to the baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes or until browned. Allow to cool before removing from the baking sheet.
• Place the figs in a food processor and process until chopped. With the processor running, add the water and process until smooth. Spread the fig puree over the baked circles.
• Arrange the blackberries, standing up, over the fig puree. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and transfer to dessert plates.

OKLAHOMA BLACK-EYED PEAS (FROM JIMMY STEINMEYER)

Steps:

• In a medium-sized pot, over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp, about five minutes. Remove the bacon, crumble it and set aside. Pour off all but about two tablespoons of fat from the pot.
• Return the pot to medium heat, and toss in the onions, pepper and celery. Brown these in the fat, stirring frequently. Add the crumbled bacon, tomatoes, sugar, bay leaf, basil, salt and pepper and stir. Then add the frozen black-eyed peas. Simmer for one-and-a-half to two hours, or until the beans are soft but not mushy, adding a little water from time to time if the mixture dries out.

RICK MOONEN'S CIOPPINO

Steps:

• In a large pot, heat the olive oil until it is smoking. Add the onions, peppers and salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat, stirring, for five minutes.
• Stir in the basil, one teaspoon of the oregano, one teaspoon of the thyme, half of the parsley stems and the garlic. Cook for one minute. Add the 12-ounce can of tomatoes with the juice and bring to the boil. Add the stock, wine and clam juice, bring to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook for 20 minutes. Strain the broth through a fine sieve, pressing on the vegetables to extract all the flavor. Set aside the broth and discard the vegetables.
• In a food processor, place the fish trimmings and pulse the machine on and off until the fish has the consistency of ground beef. Remove the fish to a large bowl.
• Place the onion, celery, leek, pepper and tomatoes in the food processor and pulse on and off until ground. Mix this with the ground fish. With a whisk, whip in the remaining oregano and thyme, the remaining parsley stems, the bay leaves, peppercorns and half the egg whites, until incorporated.
• In another bowl, whip the remaining egg whites until they form a soft peak. Fold them into the fish and vegetable mixture. Transfer to a large, tall pot.
• In another pot, bring the fish broth to a rolling boil. Ladle some of the hot fish broth into the pot containing the fish, vegetable and egg-white mixture, whisking with each addition.
• When you have about one-third of the hot liquid incorporated, pour the rest in at once. Whip the mixture well with a whisk.
• Place the pot over high heat. As the mixture heats up, the egg white mixture on the top will become more solid, forming a raft. When this happens, reduce the heat to low. Using a ladle, push a hole through the center of the raft. This will allow you to see the mixture as it cooks. Do not allow the mixture to boil; if it does, it will not become clear. Simmer slowly for 30 minutes. Ladle out the consomme through the hole and strain through a wet towel. Discard the raft. Once the consomme has cooled, it can be refrigerated for one day or frozen for up to one month.
• In a clean pot, bring the clarified consomme to the boil.
• Place the fish pieces, the shellfish and the peppers in a pot. Pour the boiling consomme over the fish. Simmer until the clams and mussels open up, about four to five minutes after it returns to the simmer.
• Divide into hot soup bowls. Garnish with tomatoes and parsley.