Hip Hop and Clafouti

Even in a shapeless shift, she looks gorg-e-ous

I always browse the cook book section of the library.   I came across Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking.  Be still my beating heart.  I worship at the altar of Nigella.  Not only does her food look gorgeous, she is gorgeous!  With her dark perfectly done hair, curvy body, and perfectly groomed eyebrows (I'm all about the perfectly groomed eyebrows). 

My favorite part of her cooking show Nigella Lawson Express is when she entertains friends.  She quickly whips up a delicious meal, then goes to change for the evening, and the party is a hit.  Then the last clip is of her, before bed time, sneaking in a bed time snack of the meal she cooked.  My favorite part of the clip was when her friend asked her how she was able to whip up everything after work and she responds with her usual wit and grace.  Insert delighted dinner guests laugh here.  Click here to see what I'm talking about.  Last time I hosted a dinner party, I ran out of room in my oven, the guests started to arrive and I still hadn't done my hair, and because I was so exhausted and stressed out,  I didn't bother doing my make up and sat there in my Lululemon pants and grubby t-shirt with frizzy poufy hair.  Not that my friends cared because the food was good.  I didn't even get to the bedtime snack part.  I passed out on the couch. Not very Nigella-esque.

The inside cover of her cookbooks says the following:  "How to Be a Domestic Goddess is not only about baking, but also about enjoying being in the kitchen; about taking sensuous pleasure in the entire process". 

P goes to school and I'm left to my own devices.  Realize that it's still early in the evening.  I look at the plums leftover from Easter's plum cake.  I was going to return them to the store, but thought might as well eat them.  But, what to do with them?

Then I remember the dessert clafouti.  According to Wikipedia, clafouti is defined as a French dessert where cherries are covered in a flan like batter.  Last time I ate clafouti was on my first date with P so the dessert has a special place in my heart.  I had enough plums to last me til kingdom come so I took the liberty of using plums and frozen raspberries instead of cherries.  

Plum and Raspberry Clafouti

(adapted from Julia Child's (whom I also cooking worship) clafouti recipe)

1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour

 4 plums cut into slices

2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries

1 tablespoon brown sugar (optional)

1 tsp of cinnamon (optional)

Icing sugar to sprinkle once out of the oven Use more or less of the brown sugar depending on how sweet the fruit is.  Most clafouti recipes I saw didn't add any sugar or spice to the fruit, but I was already taking liberties as it is, so why the hell not?

Place plums and raspberries in a buttered 7 to 8 cup baking dish. Mix the milk, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour (you can either put it in a blender or mix by hand) until smooth.   Pour batter over the fruit.  Place in 350 degree oven.

While in oven, dance some hip hop for 45 minutes.

 Okay obviously the last instruction is super optional.  Having gorged all weekend on food for the sake of research, I decided that it was time to get back into exercising.  I hate the gym and love hip hop.  So while my clafouti was baking, I played some Hip Hop Dance Experience.  To be honest, thank goodness I was by myself because I am rusty and I kept messing the routines up.  Also, the hot oven heated up my tiny apartment and dancing became unbearable near the end.

After 45 minutes of waving your hands like you just don't care and being Naughty by Nature, take clafouti out of oven.  Let cool for a few minutes.  Sprinkle with icing sugar.

You down with clafouti?  Yeah you know me!

I didn't sprinkle it with icing sugar.  I had just done 45 minutes of exercise and didn't want to ruin it with extra calories.  I ate the clafouti with plain yogurt sweetened with a little bit of vanilla sugar (take a used vanilla pod and plop it into some white sugar.  It takes on the vanilla fragrance and can be used in just about anything like coffee, tea, or desserts).

The plums still had some tang which cut the rich eggy, custardy-ness of the batter.  The fruit released their juices, so it's juicy, custardy, and all around delicious.  It's not an overly sweet dessert.  Definitely would make this again, but with different fruit.  

It's so easy to make too that I could see myself making this for a Nigella-esque dinner.  I'm also happy that I got to do two things I love to do on my day off: cooking and dancing hip hop.  At the same time no less.  Nigella would probably approve (I say probably because she might not.  I'm not a mind reader!).  As for the sensuous pleasure part Nigella talks about, between you and me, I  put a little bit of vanilla extract behind my ears when I used it in this recipe so I am perfumed with vanilla.