Today I (Alex) actually made dessert in the afternoon (because I had a soccer game at 5:00) and Max was in charge of making lamb burgers later for when Mom and I got back from the soccer game. I decided to make a dessert called clafoutis because it looked cool and Mom said it was kind of like the Dutch Apple Pancake we made last week. She was right–it’s like a sweet pancake batter poured over fruit; usually cherries or plums, and then you bake the whole thing in the oven. However, we don’t like cherries or plums much, plus when we went to the store there were no cherries or plums so we bought frozen mixed berries to use.
Clafoutis
The ingredients are simple: milk, 3 eggs, sugar, vanilla, melted butter and flour. You whisk those all together and pour into an oven proof pan. Then you add your fruit.
The recipe didn’t say to butter the pan, but I wish we had because our claufouti stuck to the bottom of the pan a bit. Also, although the berries tasted delicious, I think the fact that they were frozen and then thawed meant they added a little too much liquid to the batter…so it didn’t puff as much as it might have. Next time we will use drier, fresh berries. With whipped cream though, it didn’t matter!
Lamb Burgers
I (Max) was in charger of burgers and a salad since Alex and mom were in Brooklyn at Alex’s soccer game. I shaped the burgers ahead of time, making a little depression in the center so they wouldn’t puff up. And I made simple arugula, goat cheese and tomato salad. I also measured some quinoa to cook on the side.
Quinoa is pretty cool. I love the before and after pictures where it goes from these tiny seeds to puffy circles with a spiral in them.
When Alex got back from her game, I cooked the burgers on a grill pan on top of the stove (watch out because there is a lot of fat in ground lamb and it sprays off in hot droplets.) And I started the water for the quinoa. We added goat cheese to a couple of the burgers. And we always toast the buns on the grill pan at the end.
Then it was time to eat. Note: mom and dad were welcome to the quinoa: Alex and I had left over fries from Shake Shack…we were being environmentally thoughtful and using up leftovers (plus we like the fries better:)