Local Mixed Berry & Lemon Thyme Tart

The pick-your-own farms that litter the Delaware river bed are in full season.The fertile land holds many of my earliest childhood memories that is the joy of gorging yourself in a field of fresh ripe berries that are just waiting to be eaten.

This weekend my sister and I picked our hearts out at Phillips Farm in Milford, New Jersey. This sprawling and vast 200 acre farm sits above the mighty Delaware River and offers an amazing selection of pick-your-own strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries & peaches

After picking our black raspberries and blueberries, we headed home to help prepare for a feast that night, a celebration of my sisters return to the States. Her father, a veteran pastry chef turned IT professional, had been preparing food for the occasion and smoking a brisket all day. I decided to make a dessert from the fresh berries we had picked that day for the occasion and came up with this recipe.

The tart was a lovely, indulgent and refreshing finale to the mass feast dubbed 'Lynchfeast' and was shared in the wee hours of the night over candle light on the patio overlooking Lynch creek where the feast was held. The tart was devoured that night and no evidence remained except the berry blood stained grins that were on the faces of the satisfied friends and family. 

Read More

Tomatoes: A Love Story

On hot summer days like the past few weeks have seen; its to hot to cook, to move, or to do just about anything. Philadelphia, Like the rest of the Northeastern seaboard, has been enveloped by a hot, sticky, humid, mess of a summer; however, for me, this can only be made acceptable by the promise of a delicious tomato season. These lycopene rich fruits generally come to Pennsylvania in July and are around until roughly September. If you are lucky enough to be able to pick up some tomatoes at a local farm stand in season, you can truly taste the vast difference between heirloom and local tomatoes, as opposed to their bastardized GMO and off season sisters available year round at many super market chains. 

Read More

Little Baby's Ice Cream


I first heard of Little Baby's Ice Cream when a friend of mine told me about their Earl Grey Sriracha Ice Cream that they had picked up from Green Aisle Grocery and how surprisingly delicious the combo was. No doubt, an ice cream flavor like that will turn a few heads; but it doesn't end their. The Philadelphia based mobile scoop tricycle has been popping up all over the city at trendy venues like Union Transfer and Morgan's Pier. Little Baby's scoops out their super premium "Philadelphia Style' Ice Cream that features a 16% butterfat-content dairy, sourced from Trickling Springs Creamery in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Little Baby's offers other outlandish flavors like Peanut Butter Maple Tarragon, Pizza, and Anchovy. They also offer a variety of dairy-free options for the dairy impaired such as Coconut Tea and a Philadelphia favorite, Goldenbergs Peanut Chews Vanilla Molasses. For the last year Little Babies has created quite a reputation and a following for their 'weird ice cream'. One of the partners of Little Baby's, Pete Angevine, was kind enough to answer a few questions for Eclectik Domestic:

Read More

Plum Tomato & Candy Striped Beet Ragù

My friends and I recently went in on a C.S.A farm share with Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative. For those of you who are not familiar, C.S.A stands for Community Supported Agriculture and helps support local farm economies. The share consists of around 7-12 items a week and the bonus aside from the tasty seasonal bounty is that you actually save money participating as opposed to shopping at the grocery store ( a lot of store bought organic produce is normally marked up 50 to 150%, and much of it isn't even local!). I highly recommend it. There are a variety of pickup locations around the city including Russet in Center City. At my house we're a few weeks into the share that consists at this point of dark greens, radishes, and my favorite, beets. Around here we are getting creative with the produce from the farms in Lancaster and although I have to admit, it was a bit of a challenge to incorporate so much of the weekly share into dishes, I now feel as though I am getting the hang of cooking seasonally.

Read More

D.I.Y Terrariums

 

Terrariums are the latest craze in the gardening world; there are so many varietals, shapes, and sizes to play around with. However pre-made terrariums can run you a pretty penny. I took interest in figuring these out babies a few years a go when I saw them being sold at shops around the city. When checking the price tag, I was always astonished at the absurde prices of 40, 80 and even 150 dollars. Disheartened by the their price range, I soon started researching how to do-it-yourself. The first step is to start scouting out interesting glass containers. I found a few of the glass container pictured above at a Flea Market at Clarke Park, for around 2-5 dollars a pop. Reusing old liquor bottles such as Art in the Age's perfect corked bottles, St. Germains or even old mason jars, all work well too. The possibilities are endless and it creates a one-of-a-kind piece of living art! 

Read More