Blue Cayenne

We’re in the midst of a hellacious heatwave here in Southern California. Lots of sun and way too much humidity! (I had to look up the spelling of hellacious just now  and my spell checker suggested hilarious. Now that is funny!)

So…I’m longing for autumn with all the oranges and browns and cinnamon and cardamon (shorter days and cooling trends!) that season brings.

My local Trader Joe’s, with their over-the-top tradition of stocking pumpkin everything in October kind of burns me out on pumpkin. (Truth be told, Pumpkin Body Butter is just a wee bit too outré for me.) So, this week I was quick to pick up some early persimmons at my local farmers’ market and impatiently waited for them to ripen. During that wait I came across this Claire Saffitz recipe for spiced Persimmon Cake and Juliet and I enjoyed every single bite.

It may not be autumn according to the sizzle recorded on the garden thermometer but it is autumn in our hearts. What’s better than that?

This Spiced Persimmon Cake recipe is a Claire Saffitz recipe from her wonderful cookbook Dessert Person. You can find the cookbook through your local bookstore or on Amazon here.  Dessert Person is a must have in your cookbook collection if you enjoy baking.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen and shared with Blue Cayenne’s Chief Quality Officer, Juliet, who was rocking a pretty autumn-orange bow for the occasion.

Sunday is my Farmers’ Market day. Can’t wait.

In particular, I’m looking for peak-of-the-season tomatoes. In recent weeks the vendors at my market have artfully arranged mounds of all sorts of beautiful tomatoes on their tables in colors ranging from bright golden yellow flecked with Christmassy red to a green that would make Kermit the Frog sit up and take notice.I’m particularly fond of those large flat multi-colored tomatoes. Few things are as pretty on a galette than an arrangement of multi-colored tomato slices. Here is one we previously featured on Blue Cayenne. You can find the recipe if you follow this link Tomato Galette.

This summer, I’m also in love with the black cherry tomatoes like the ones shown in the background photo below; I think they are a variety called Indigo Rose. There also is an abundance of tomatoes this year (see front right of the photo below)  with intense dark red flesh; they are a small to medium sized tomato that is deep red with some black on the tomato’s “shoulders” by the stem. The Farmers’ Market vendor I buy tomatoes from says they are called Black Krim. 

Scientists seem to be of a mind that intensely-colored fruits and vegetables (like these tomatoes)  are good for our health. In fact, the site Science Insights says of black tomatoes: “A black tomato is a tomato variety whose skin turns deep purple, mahogany, or near-black due to high levels of anthocyanins, the same pigments that give blueberries, eggplant, and red cabbage their dark color. Despite the dramatic exterior, the flesh inside is typically red or dark red, and the taste is often described as richer and more complex than a standard red tomato. Black tomatoes aren’t genetically modified. Most come from traditional crossbreeding between cultivated tomatoes and wild species that naturally produce anthocyanins in their fruit.”

“Richer and more complex”  flavor? I’m definitely “in.”

My plan for this week’s buy is to make an arborio rice-stuffed tomato bake on a bed of waxy Yukon Gold  potatoes. I love this recipe because it allows the tomato taste to shine with little significant interference from the bland accompaniments–the rice and the potatoes. Served with a pretty tossed green salad,these stuffed tomatoes make a substantial main dish or they can be served alongside a main dish of your choice. 

This recipe is from Leah Koenig’s Portico cookbook. You can order the cookbook through your local bookstore or on Amazon here,

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.

Every month Blue Cayenne features recipes from our archive of more than four hundred recipes. These recipes are our “Oldies But Goodies.” Today’s Oldies But Goodies recipe is for an Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake

Here is the link: Carrot-Orange Olive Oil Cake.

Want to dive deeper into our archive? Just click one of the categories at the top of this page or use the category search drop down menu on the right side of this page.

And…here is a link to Blue Cayenne’s main page:Blue Cayenne Food and Photography Blog. . If you are in the mood to cook (or eat!), we hope you will take a moment to look at the many excellent recipes we have featured.