Corn Muffins, Part 2

Keeping a promise to myself, I made another batch of corn muffins today, substituting 1 cup of corn (from 2 small ears) for the raspberries in yesterday's recipe. They were delicious, especially when slathered with the Vermont Creamery cultured butter with sea salt which I did indeed return to Lucy's Whey to buy after I realized my grave mistake in passing on it when it was offered on Thursday. I thought the butter would also be good with my Quail Hill radishes and these beautifully plump and sweet sugar snap peas that I blanched for just 2 minutes before shocking in ice water, draining, and patting dry. The ice-cold vegetables and farm-fresh butter, crunchy with salt, will make a good appetizer on this warm evening.

I Should Have Bought the Butter...

Although our trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter a few weeks ago was a dream come true for the children, it did cause me to miss my friend Angela Miller's book signing and tasting at Lucy's Whey. I am still a bit bitter, imagining everyone who was enjoying her acclaimed Consider Bardwell Farm cheeses and having her inscribe their copies of her inspiring memoir, Hay Fever, in Lucy's delightful shop while I waited on line to purchase Hufflepuff t-shirts and Dark Mark lollipops, wondering if I was nauseous because of the Hogwarts roller coaster ride, the 95-degree temperature, or the butterbeer I drank with my breakfast at the Three Broomsticks restaurant. So when I heard that Allison Hooper of the Vermont Butter and Cheese Creamery was going to be at Lucy's Whey, handing out samples of her goat and cow milk cheeses yesterday I was not going to miss her, especially since I had just read about her new Cremont goat and cow's milk cheese in the New York Times on Wednesday, and I am the pubicists's dream, a reader who will immediately run out and buy whatever the paper recommends, as long as it is available within a 10-mile radius of my house. I wasn't disappointed--the cheese was exquisite. I bought an Amagansett baguette and a round of the Cremont for dinner. One regret--I passed on the creamery butter, crunchy with sea salt. What was I thinking? But I don't feel too sad. Unlike the on-sale cashmere sweaters that I resisted yesterday at j.crew and will surely be gone by today, fine American-made butter and cheeses are re-stocked as necessary at Lucy's. How lucky that this place is close to home.

Ambition Realized

Last night I finally realized my months-long ambition to serve flatbreads with artisan ricotta cheese, in the style of the Exile Bar and Grill. The Narragansett Creamery ricotta from Lucy's Whey was divine, as promised, and made even better with a drizzle of olive oil. Because the weather was so warm and my husband had spent the day improving our patio by sweeping it and getting some plants in the pots, I decided to grill my lavash rather than bake them in the oven. I added a teaspoon of black pepper to the dough last night, but I'll experiment in the coming months (I'm planning on baking outdoors at least once a week) with other spices and herbs. Here's the recipe:

Basic Grilled Lavash
Makes 6 flatbreads

For the sponge:
6 tablespoons room temperature water
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

For the dough:
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons room temperature water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt or fine sea salt
2 teaspoons olive oil

1. Make the sponge: Combine the water, yeast, and flour in a medium bowl and stir to moisten. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until very bubbly, 3 to 5 hours. Don't worry if the sponge rises and then collapses. That's normal.
2. Make the dough: Combine the water, yeast, flour, sugar, salt, olive oil, and ripe sponge int eh bowl of a stand mixer. Stir with a rubber spatula until a rough dough forms.
3. Knead the dough using a dough hook until it is soft and elastic, 5 to 7 minutes on medium speed.
4. Spray the inside of a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray and place the dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
5. Preheat a gas grill to medium-high. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured counter top and use a sharp chef's knife to divide it into 6 pieces. Round each piece into a ball, flatten into a disk, sprinkle with flour, and cover with plastic wrap. Let stand for 15 minutes while the grill heats.
6. Stretch and pull the dough pieces into 10-inch rounds (or ovals or squares--the shapes will be irregular. Brush the tops of the dough with a little olive oil. Place two of the dough pieces on a baking sheet, carry them to the grill, and lift them by two corners, stretching them more as you do so, draping them over the grill grids, oiled side down. Cover and cook until the underside is lightly charred, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.
7. Lift each one from the grill with tongs, and place it on a clean baking sheet, folding it in half as you do so. Cover the baked lavash with a clean towel, and repeat with the remaining four dough rounds, baking them two at a time. Sprinkle the lavash with sea salt and serve warm.

A Delightful Visit to Lucy's Whey

I finally made it over to Lucy's Whey (80 North Main Street, East Hampton; 324-4428) yesterday and very much enjoyed talking with proprietor Lucy Kazickas about the her hand-picked artisanal American cheeses. It is such a beautiful shop, with such a well-curated and cared for collection. I was impressed by her commitment to the cheesemakers who work so hard to produce these incredible products. So much love and devotion goes into this business! As I had hoped, she had on hand the fresh ricotta cheese I had tried at Exile in Amagansett, made at a dairy in Rhode Island. But since I had a long afternoon of driving ahead of me and had neglected to pack my cooler and ice packs, I was afraid to buy some. Instead, I came away with this amazing truffled salami (made in Utah) and a jar of highly recommended golden-pink raspberry jam from Orient. I had it on toast this morning and it was all that Lucy promised. She also says it would be great on top of vanilla ice cream.