Moonrise

I have a hard time adjusting to the amazingly long days here in Montana. The sunrises around 5:45 but it doesn't set until 9:30-10:00. It's wonderful to have such a long day ahead of you, and the full moon makes the evenings almost as bright. In the past, I've taken advantage of the full moon alone with a glass of wine on my porch, but this summer all that changed. The boys over at the local rafting company invited us to a full moon float. We left the lodge by 10:30 pm and by 11:30 pm we were on our way to the base of the local dam. After getting the raft to the shore and shuffling cars to our final destination we embarked on an hour long trip down the river. The cool air was tempered by the warm water and the rapids that we encountered balanced out the calm. It was a long, beautiful and very wet experience. I wish I could have taken pictures, but I hated the idea of sacrificing my camera to the river. We wrapped up around 3:30 am and headed back to the lodge.
Before I started my evening of rafting I prepared a "last supper" for our guests that were departing early the next day. The dessert turned out beautifully, a sweet-tart apricot galette encased in a cornmeal pate sucre and then topped with house made ice cream and a drizzle of apricot syrup.
The stone fruit available in this portion of the US is unbelievable. I think we must receive the riper fruit, considering these beauties wouldn't be able to a survive a cross country trip. In another few weeks we'll have local apricots and cherries galore! These Washington apricots were picked up from the local grocery, and after a quick blanch to remove their soft skin they were ready for the cornmeal crust (see the recipe at the bottom of the post).

Of course before dessert we enjoyed a dinner of fresh Sockeye Salmon, shipped in earlier that day from the Pacific Northwest, over truffled creamed corn, lightly wilted baby bok choy from our lakefront garden and then finished with a yellow tomato and crispy bacon vinaigrette. It was delicious and beautiful. The salmon was oven roasted and the vinaigrette was flecked with finely diced shallots, fresh thyme and parsley from our herb garden (pictures of the herb garden to come) and leftover bacon from breakfast that morning. (see below for the vinaigrette's recipe)

Cornmeal Pate Sucre
Yields: Enough pastry for 1-15 inch galette or 12 individual galettes

2 Cups all-purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon Sugar
16 Tablespoons (8 ounces)butter, cold and cubed
6-8 Tablespoons cold water

Filling for Tart
3 #pounds of your favorite fruits, prepared (washed, sliced, blanched etc.)
1 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons all-purpose Flour

For the dough; In the work bowl of a food processor combine the dry ingredients and pulse to combine. Add the cold, cubed butter to the dry ingredients and pulse 10-12 times till the butter is cut into the flour mix. Turn the butter/flour mix into a large bowl and slowly add the butter in, working the mix into a dough with your fingers. You want just enough water for the dough to come together when you press it into a disk. Too much water is a recipe for disaster, go slow-you may need less and you may need more than noted in the recipe. Gently form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 1/2 an hour hour. Roll the disc of dough out into a large circle, about 1/4 inch thick. Place the dough onto a silpat lined sheet pan, fill with your fruit filling leaving about 2-3 inches of dough on the outside rim. Casually fold the sides of the dough over the filling, brush lightly with an egg wash and sprinkle with raw sugar. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and bake for 30-45 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the cooking time. Remove from the oven and allow the galette to rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Yellow Tomato and Crispy Bacon Vinaigrette
Yields: 2 Cups

1 pound Yellow tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roughly diced
1/4 cup diced shallot
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh parsley, chopped
3 Tablespoons Champagne vinegar
1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
5-6 slices of cooked bacon, chopped (re-crisp in a saute pan if needed, you want it to be crispy!)

Easy enough, fold together all of the ingredients except the bacon. Taste for salt and pepper, then fold in the crispy bacon right before serving.