Monday, July 28, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie: Summer Fruit Galette




This week's TWD challenge, Summer Fruit Galette, was selected by Michelle, of Michelle in Colorado Springs. I almost didn't make this, even though all the stars were in alignment for me to make this dish. My 10 month old daughter was sitting peacefully in her swing, watching me in the kitchen, and my peaches, nectarines, and plums had been ripening in a brown paper bag for the last few days. My college roommate, Whitney, taught me to ripen fruit in a brown paper bag. Her mother would bring her crates of peaches and plums and we would ripen them until they nearly burst; we would devour this fruit, often in lieu of actual meals, while standing over the kitchen sink, juice dripping off of our elbows, neither of us saying a word, as we would revel in our contentedness. This is one of my fondest memories of my old roommate and whenever I eat stone fruits, I think back to those summers.

Now that I've painted a picture of my idyllic youth, surrounded by fresh fruits and good friends, imagine my horror last summer when I was pregnant and suddenly developed some kind of strange allergy to stone fruit. And only stone fruit. My ears and throat would itch, and my throat felt like it was swollen upon consumption of even a single cherry. It became painful to eat cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, and nectarines. I tried to soldier on and just deal with the symptoms, but my reaction seemed to be getting progressively worse, the more pregnant I got. My doctor just told me it was an unlucky coincidence; it wasn't the baby's fault, and I would have just developed this allergy pregnant or not. I didn't believe my obstetrician one bit. I knew this had to do with being pregnant, and as much as the low energy, swollen feet, and shortness of breath bothered me, nothing made me more upset than my new inability to enjoy summer stone fruits. Anyhow, flash forward to this summer. I'm not pregnant any longer, and I can eat stone fruits again, without consequence! Apparently, my allergy to stone fruits was brought on by being pregnant! My doctor still thinks I'm a bit crazy, but those symptoms were real, I tell you. So, I gleefully made this galette, and was so happy with the results. Ms. Greenspan's galette recipe has a custard which you pour over the fruit for the last 15 minutes of baking. I cut the sugar from 1/3 of a cup to 1/5 of a cup, as I felt my fruit was sweet enough. I think this was perfect and her crust perfectly showcases lusciously ripe stone fruits. Please visit Michelle's blog for the full recipe and don't forget to check out what the other TWD'ers baked up this week! Thanks!

18 comments:

allison said...

Your galette looks amazing. I would hate to get symptoms like those--I'm not sure I could not eat the fruits, they are so good.

Boo & Bee said...

You are a cherry picker! I love your Whitney story. Did you ever speard cantalope all over each other too? Oh whoops that was high school and Ann Baker. Do you wait until your fruit is bruised to use it in your desserts?

Your galette does look so good!

Unknown said...

Your galette looks great - glad you are over your stone fruit allergy. Isn't pregnancy weird sometimes?

Jules Someone said...

Glad you enjoyed the galette!

Susie Homemaker said...

Pregnancy is nuts. Doctors are nuts. I ripped my eyebrows out last summer while pregnant, and he thought it was in my head.
Thanks goodness you got over it!! This galette was worth it!

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Engineer Baker said...

Pregnancy-induced stone fruit allergy?!? The horror! Beautiful galette though.

Liliana said...

Your galette looks wonderful!

Great memories!

Anonymous said...

How nice that you can eat them again. Your fruit ripening and eating youth sound wonderful. Nice work.

Susie Homemaker said...

Just read your comment on my blog - please email me and I will give you the address to mail the goodies to once you've made them (if you haven't already emailed me!)
the email is on the website!!
Thanks so much for the sweet comments!
Susan

Pamela said...

Isn't pregnancy the most amazing and crazy thing all at the same time? Glad you are able to enjoy the stone fruits this summer. Looks terrific.

Sihan said...

i love your story... and thank god you can finally have your stone fruit now! great job on the galette too!

Prudy said...

Beautiful blog and glad you are done with your stone fruit allergies!

Anonymous said...

I love the image of you all eating the fruits over the kitchen sink... very nice. Your galette turned out beautifully!

Eleganza Strings/ The DeLadurantey Family said...

Ummm. Looks good!

Liliana said...

I glad that your allergies disappeared after your pregnancy. I have the same allergies and they're not going anywhere!

Your galette looks so delicious! Thanks for sharing your trip on how to ripen fruit.

Bungalow Barbara said...

Lovely galette! I'm glad you can eat stone fruits again!

Anonymous said...

Looking for "stone fruit ears," I found your blog article. I had this same problem immediately after my tonsillectomy (at age 14) more than 40 years ago. No one has ever understood how painful those plums were back then. Once I healed, all was fine.

Until I ate a peach this morning Had oral surgery a couple weeks ago. Coincidence?