Gianduja Stracciatella Gelato

Say "jyan-do-ah stra-cha-te-la".

That's a mouthful, isn't it?

And oh what a mouthful it is!
Creamy nutty cold smoothness punctuated with streaks of bittersweet chocolate.
As they say in Italy, squisito.

I made this incredible gelato yesterday, using a recipe from my most recent cookbook purchase, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. David, a former pastry chef, has an enviable life in Paris - baking, cooking, blogging, writing, eating. Can't think of much that's better than that!

It was a steamy day and I craved something sweet and chilly. A popsicle just wasn't going to do it.
Looking through the book, there were so many choices, but this one caught my eye. It sounded a lot like Nutella, which as you know, is a favorite in our house.

You will need an ice cream maker of course. I've been using this Cuisinart model for years. It's inexpensive and so easy even a child can do it. ( I have often encouraged this, but she hasn't taken the hint yet.)

Making this gelato is a bit more complicated than your average ice cream recipe. There's quite a few saucepans involved, a couple of bowls, more than one strainer, toasting of nuts and some waiting time.
But I promise you, it's worth it!

Be sure to use the good stuff.
The best chocolate you can find (I used Black & Green, plus Scharffen Berger) and real dairy cream (try to find something local that hasn't had thickeners added).

The coolest ( and most delizioso) thing about this is the straciatella, which are the streaks of chocolate. It's the idea of chocolate chips but in a sophisticated Italian style. I'd had them before in vanilla gelato, but I never knew how it was made. Actually it's the simplest part of the recipe. See below for instructions.

Gianduja Gelato with stracciatella,

adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted and skinned (see note)

1 cup whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. sea salt, or other coarse salt

4 oz. milk chocolate, finely chopped

5 large egg yolks

Place toasted, skinned hazelnuts in a food processor and finely chop.

In a saucepan, warm the milk with 1 cup of the cream, sugar and salt. Once warm, remove from the heat and add chopped hazelnuts to the saucepan. Cover, and let sit for an hour at room temperature.

Put the milk chocolate pieces in a large bowl. In another saucepan, heat the remaining cup of cream just until it boils. Pour the cream over the milk chocolate and stir until it's completely melted and smooth. Set a mesh strainer over the top then place the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice and cold water.

Pour the hazelnut-infused mixture through a strainer into a medium saucepan, pressing on the nuts firmly, making sure to extract as much of the liquid as you can. Discard the hazelnuts.

Rewarm this mixture gently. (How do you know when it's just warm? Stick your finger in it.)

In a separate medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the warm hazelnut-milk mixture into the egg yolks, then scrape the whole thing back into the saucepan.

Place the saucepan on medium heat and stir constantly with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the spatula.

Now, pour the custard through the strainer that's placed over the milk chocolate and stir it in until well-combined and cooled. (I had to press on it quite a bit with the spatula to help it through the strainer.)

Chill the mixture thoroughly in your refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

To make the stracciatella, melt 5 oz. finely chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate in a bowl set in a saucepan of simmering water (or a double boiler). Stir until it is completely smooth.

To add it to the gelato, drizzle the warm chocolate in a very thin stream directly into the ice cream maker, while it is still running, but just at the very last moment before it is done. You'll be able to see it harden into chocolate streaks.

You may want to eat it all at this very moment.

Go ahead, at least lick the dasher.

But put the rest in a plastic container and freeze for at least an hour or so.

If you can.

Note: To toast hazelnuts, preheat oven to 350. Spread the nuts in an even layer on a baking sheet.

Bake the nuts for 10-15 minutes, stirring them once or twice while baking so they toast evenly. Let them cool completely before using in a recipe.

To skin the hazelnuts, rub them, while still warm, inside a clean dishtowel. This will remove much of the papery skin. Don't worry about getting it all off.

It's Clam-tastic!

The biggest social event of the year in our town isn't a black-tie gala or fancy benefit auction.
It is a fundraiser, but the kind that's fun for everyone.

For three days in July, strawberry shortcake is acceptable for breakfast.
There's no place to park.
The town hosts 100,000 strangers and old friends.
The smell of fried clams clings to your clothing.
You spend $50 so your kid can win a $2 stuffed snake.
There's a giant clam named Steamer on the prowl.

It's the Yarmouth Clam Festival! And we love it.
Every year, hundreds of Yarmouth volunteers donate their time to the Festival to raise money for local non-profit organizations. Athletic teams, music groups, churches and schools make most of their annual budget at the event. It's definitely a team effort.

 Of course the food is the biggest draw.
Clams fried in crumbs, clams fried in batter, clam cakes, steamed clams, clam chowder - it's all here.

The Yarmouth Ski Team (state champs!) has the lock on crumb-battered fried clams. These are the most popular kind, with a crunchier coating over the sweet and briny whole clam.

The kids bread the clams by hand (it's a rite of passage for members of the the team)...

while parents make up the fry team.

We serve them up, hot and fresh, to long lines of visitors and locals.

Tired of clams?

The beverage of choice is the lime rickey, delightfully thirst-quenching.

When you're done eating (for now), there's a parade on Friday night.
Don't miss the neighborhood lawn mower brigade,

the XXLLL Bean boot,

and Shriners in lobster boats.

There's also a road race, a tennis tournament and a professional bike race.

For those less athletically-inclined, there's an art show and crafts fair.

Take a look at this website for more cute stuff.

Mark your calendars for next year.

Yarmouth Clam Festival is always the third Friday in July.

I wouldn't miss it for anything.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation - Part 3, Chinatown

In many cities across America, and other countries, you'll find a place called Chinatown.

San Francisco's Chinatown is the second largest in the US ( New York is the first) and perhaps the most well-known. It's a neighborhood filled with Chinese shops, restaurants, schools and home to to many of the 120,000 Chinese residents of the Bay area. They live in close quarters, multi-generational families, sharing an apartment and working at various local businesses. The kids attend Chinese school in the afternoon, learning culture and language, long after their regular school day ends.

The neighborhood is colorful, exotic and bustling. It's alive with the sound of various Chinese dialects and busy with Chinese of all ages shopping and socializing.

For a nine year old from Maine, it's just plain fascinating.

We took a walking tour with the lovely Linda Lee of All About Chinatown Tours. Linda grew up in Chinatown and has been leading tours for 26 years. She's full of information and lots of fun.

After a brief history of Chinatown, Linda got down important business - the food.

First stop was a tiny fortune cookie factory, located down a narrow pedestrian alley. Three Chinese women sat at workplaces, quickly grabbing hot, flat cookies from a belt, stuffing them with fortunes and folding the cookies before they could cool.

My daughter got a real kick out if it, especially when the owner (manager?) gave the group a big bagful of flat cookies to snack on. As the youngest member of the tour, Linda insisted that she carry the bag and frequently offer cookies to everyone.

Next stop was the food markets. We saw many things that were easily recognizable as food...

And some that weren't...

Linda also took us to a Chinese herbal pharmacy, where there were many weird and wonderful remedies for whatever ails you.

Dried lizard for your headache?

Hey, you never know.

And we had the privilege of visiting a Buddhist temple. Our timing was perfect, as a trio of Buddhist nuns arrived to chant noon prayers. It was magical to watch...

Of course the tour stirred up our appetite for Chinese food.

Linda recommended the House of Nanking for lunch.

And I can heartily recommend Linda Lee, for a great way to see more of San Francisco's Chinatown than the average tourist.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation - Part 2, Calluna Vineyards

To be perfectly honest, I know very little about wine.
I might recognize enough names on a wine list to be able to make a choice that won't make the waiter snicker.
Give me a nice cold glass of Pinot Grigio on a summer evening and I'm happy.
In the winter, a warming goblet of Zinfandel works for me.

There's a world of wine out there and many, many people who study it, taste it, rate it, collect it and make it.
One of these people is our friend David Jeffrey.

David and his family own Calluna Vineyards in beautiful Sonoma Valley, near Healdsburg. It is the culmination of a dream that David has had for a very long time. He's maintained a passion for fine wine since just after college (when Budweiser was the drink du jour), collecting it and enjoying it. After many years in corporate finance, his enthusiasm and curiousity about winemaking got the better of him. He moved the family from the New York area to California, enrolled in Fresno State's Enology program and fantasized about his own vineyard. David even went to Bordeaux and apprenticed with a winemaker there, for three months during the 2003 harvest.

In 2004, the property that is now Calluna came on the market. It was nothing but bare land, needing an extensive infrastructure and of course, plantings. With the help of investors and extended family, David's dream could become reality.

Investors actually have a pretty sweet deal. In exchange for capital, they are granted guest house privileges for a certain amount of time. They can enjoy the beauty of a winemaker's realm without actually having to do the work.*
Here's the guest house and its garden. Not shown is the hot tub and bocce court.
Like I said, a very good deal.

On our recent trip to northern California, we were lucky enough to spend some time at Calluna with the Jeffreys.
The property is spectacular.

They built their home at the top of approximately 40 acres. It's surrounded by vineyards, planted with a variety of grapes including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

The views are breathtaking...

And the product?
David's goal is to make Bordeaux style wines in terms of balance, intensity and longevity, but he also aims to capture those qualities in the context of the Sonoma terrior**.
Translation?
The character of a French wine from Bordeaux, with a California accent.

Admittedly, I am not much of a wine connossieur. But I must say, the Calluna Vineyards Cuvee that I tasted was quite delicious. It's a blend of four kinds of grapes and as David says "an expression of the fruit of the land".
They are also bottling a Cabernet Sauvignon (The Colonel's Vineyard) and a Merlot.

If you are interested in trying these wines for yourself, you'll have to go through the website, Calluna Vineyards.

If you are not that interested in wine, here's a picture you'll probably appreciate:

Molly, the vineyard dog

*FYI, we are not investors. Just friends, happy to see a longtime friend who is so sincere follow his passion and succeed.

** Terroir is French for soil. In this case it refers to a sense of place and the environmental factors (such as the soil, altitude, angle of incline) there that affect the final product, be it wine or another artisanal food.