Inside the Kitchen: Kentucky Blackberry Cobbler

Happy Friday everyone! Today's edition of Inside the Kitchen (my food column for Insider Louisville) is available now. This recipe is a traditional from the Kentucky region, and is a great way to warm up and take advantage of those glorious blackberries (usually picked fresh and frozen).

I like to serve it with warmed cream during the cooler months, but seeing as that we're back in 70º weather this weekend, fresh whipped cream (sugar unnecessary) is a great accompaniment!

Take a look at this link:
Inside the Kitchen: Kentucky Blackberry Cobbler

There is an episode in my pick-your-own past that I remember quite vividly, and it involves those Kentucky sapphires commonly known as blackberries. This is a fond memory and a very important building block to my relationship with food– you can’t get any closer to the ground than hand-selecting your food straight off the bush.

Even though the day in the fields ended up a bit traumatic because I received my first bee sting, I was treated inside the farmhouse almost immediately, and we were soon back home with our spoils. All in all, it was a champion for great homegrown foods. With such a surplus, we sprinkled the berries with sugar and froze them in big bags…from which little lady gourmet hands snuck frozen treats every fifteen minutes.

Many of us have the same experience with pick-your-own at Huber’s Farm, at the very least by picking our own pumpkins from time to time. Perhaps this is one of the many reasons that Louisvillians are so taken by our food traditions. We appreciate the energy that goes into the food, from both mother nature and the farmer, and that connection encourages us to treat food as the precious commodity it is. Thus, we have at our fingertips a long history of great food, combining the influences of our overseas ancestors, a rich Southern tradition, a Midwestern sense of harvest bounty, and a population that nurtures their recipes as one in the family.

I recently had a new neighbor move in from the New England area, so I took it upon myself to make a little “Welcome to Louisville” treat. A quick stroll through the store told me that blackberries were going to be my main ingredient! Luckily one of our Kentucky treasures is the traditional Blackberry Cobbler, so off I went to whip up this classic dessert, perfect for cooler weather.

Blackberry Cobbler is a very easy recipe, the only catch is that it takes about 45-55 minutes in the oven to go through the bubbling, caramelizing, browning process (now that doesn’t sound too bad, does it?). The cobbler batter is a wonderful base that I could eat directly with a spoon if I didn’t have the promise of blackberry heaven in my immediate future. It is akin to biscuits, and doesn’t have sugar in the batter itself…that comes with the blackberries to create a nice glazed crust on top. For warmer weather, you can serve the cobbler with warmed cream (which I chose), or with fresh whipped cream–whatever makes you happy.

Kentucky Blackberry Cobbler

Traditional Recipe

2 1/2 C Fresh blackberries, washed

1 C Sugar

1 C Flour

2 t Baking powder

1/2 t Salt

1 C Milk

1 Stick of unsalted butter, melted

First you should take care of the blackberry and sugar mixture because it needs to sit for a while. Stir together just the berries and sugar in a large bowl and let it sit out for 25-30 minutes. This will coax out the juices of the blackberries so that they can be sweetened up by the sugar, and we can taste the full spectrum of the fruit–this process is called macerating.

After about 20 minutes, you should turn on the oven to about 375º and start preparing your batter.

Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and milk with a wooden spoon. Next, stir in the melted butter and hand-mix it until the ingredients are well incorporated and you have few clumps.

Pick out a clean baking dish– a smaller one will do– pour in the batter and smooth it out. You can choose to line it with parchment paper or not, but don’t grease the pan (there is enough butter in there already!). Finally, pour the macerated blackberries on top with all the sugar included and evenly distribute it over the batter.

The pan of happiness

Bake this promising pan of happiness in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how golden you prefer it to be. Let it set up for a good 15 minutes so it will hold its shape. It will be bubbling like crazy and quite hot, so be careful!

This hour goes a little like this: you can hear it bubbling through the vent behind the stove, you can smell the buttery dough caramelizing with the sugar, and you can see the dotted crown of blackberries creating that quintessential golden cobbler crust. It is a marvel to have in your oven, let me tell you!

Serve warm or room temperature with warmed cream or fresh whipped cream. You can store this at room temperature with foil over it for 2-3 days, probably longer in the fridge…but it never lasts that long for me!

Inside the Kitchen with Louisville Lady Gourmet! Eggplant Lasagna with Saffron

Hello dear food-lovers! Today marks the day of my first original article for the Inside the Kitchen column with the Insider Louisville publication.

I currently write two columns for them, the first being Juice which is a health food column released on Tuesdays, and the second is Inside the Kitchen with the Louisville Lady Gourmet, which will feature both ambitious and delicious recipes as well as my comments on the food culture of Louisville.

So, on Tuesday or Friday you will receive a link to my Insider Louisville Column!

Today's Inside the Kitchen post is about an irresistible Eggplant Lasagna (sans pasta) with Saffron. Layers include roasted eggplants, tomato sauce, saffron risotto, and mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

I hope you enjoy: Inside the Kitchen Eggplant Lasagna with Saffron

I am enamored by food, and my insatiable appetite has brought me many adventures in cooking. Transforming fresh food into the gastronomic trinity of breakfast, lunch, and dinner is my only true addiction, and I thank our hometown for nurturing that set of skills.

As Louisvillians, we have such a wealth of resources to stretch our culinary muscles, from our public cornucopia farmers markets to our flourishing and exciting dining scene. We are constantly surrounded by good food and inspiring cooks, so let me give you a peek inside my kitchen to see what this Louisville Lady Gourmet is getting up to.

My favorite memories usually revolve around sharing food with dear friends. Nothing unites us more in merry conversation than a warm dish of nourishing food, am I right? Add a bottle of wine and the conversation gets a little louder and the laughter even more frequent.

The moment I can dish out seconds is when I know we’re sharing a great moment together. This dish did the trick with its warm tomato sauce nestled in melted, fresh mozzarella cheese and rounded off by the yielding bite of the roasted eggplant and the creamy saffron risotto. If you are a fan of saffron, here is your chance to see what it can do next to tomatoes, and it is pretty much what saffron can do to anything… turn it to culinary gold!

Eggplant Lasagna with Saffron
Adapted from Bon Appétit

2 Eggplants

1 Onion, minced

Olive oil

Butter

1 C Rice (arborio is preferred for risotto)

Pinch of saffron

1/4 C White wine

1 C Water

Salt

Black Pepper

Homemade Tomato Sauce (recipe below)

Garlic

Sage

Salt

Black Pepper

2 C Fresh mozzarella cut into cubes

1 C Grated parmesan

Some notes before we begin:

I recommend using a mandolin slicer for the eggplant, but a sharp knife will do. You just need thin, uniform slices.

Remember that risottos become fluffy and creamy through movement, so if you have some pan-tossing skills, this is a good time to exercise them (or begin practice– it’s so fun, don’t be scared to try it!).

The tomato sauce can be made with whole, peeled tomatoes or canned tomatoes; a food processor or an immersion blender is useful for making the sauce too.

The best way to approach this recipe is in three parts. Even though this is a lasagna sans pasta, it is still true to its layered form: Roasted eggplants, saffron risotto, homemade tomato sauce, and your cheeses. You won’t be disappointed.

To roast the eggplant, simply wash, slice, and distribute them on a baking sheet and drizzle them with olive oil on both sides, just enough to roast evenly. Slide them in the oven at 400º for about 15 minutes until they are browned but not burnt. If some of them do happen to burn (those sneaky oven hot spots are a pain, aren’t they?), just get some greek yoghurt out and eat them as chips. See, all is not lost! Set the browned ones aside to cool for lasagna layering.

The saffron risotto is such a delight to make. Stirring and tossing the risotto until it is fluffy and changes to that golden hue may well induce philosophizing on how great life is.

We all know butter makes everything better, so heat about a tablespoon of butter and about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Then add 3/4 of minced onion and let it dance around until soft and translucent. At this point add the rice and sauté until it turns opaque–right at the point before it starts toasting–then incorporate the saffron and add the white wine! This will deglaze the pan and take care of anything beginning to stick to the bottom. The wine should reduce down for about a minute, then you can add the water. Cover and cook the rice through for about 15 minutes, stirring and tossing occasionally, season with salt to taste.

The tomato sauce is my own experiment, and I have found that sage is magic in any tomato sauce, so that is my herb of choice. If you have another favorite, such as basil or oregano then go for it–again, this is your kitchen, do what makes you feel good. If you don’t have a blender or food processor, use crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce depending on how thick you desire your end product.

In a saucepan, sauté the remaining 1/4 of the minced onion and a couple cloves of minced garlic in olive oil. When that begins to smell fragrant, add the sage and fry that up as well–this releases the flavor of the herb. Then you add in your tomatoes, salt, and pepper and stir until combined. Simmer until it becomes the consistency you want, season and adjust to taste, and now you have a great tomato sauce!

Finally, you layer all of these ingredients together: bottom layer sauce, then saffron risotto, then mozzarella, then eggplant, and parmesan, then repeat until you run out of ingredients. I used a 9×13 glass baking pan and repeated the layers twice. Cook in a 400º oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is nice and bubbly. Let it set for about 10 minutes before serving.

I served it in bowls, but if it sets up nicely you can try to plate it. In any case, seconds are truly irresistible.

Go forth and create, dear food-lovers, it was a pleasure to have you in my kitchen! Bon appétit!