Fruit

This is wonderful served on croissants or on a bed of lettuce. It also makes a nice appetizer served in miniature phyllo shells.

Wonderful with steamed asparagus, this is also good chilled over a green salad and even with grilled chicken and fish. Try to use extra-virgin olive oil and the freshest garlic you can find. This will keep for about two weeks in the refrigerator.

A very simple-to-make tart-sweet syrup, this sauce is accented with freshly grated lemon zest and freshly squeezed lemon juice for a bright flavor. It’s perfect for a wintry fruit salad when the fruit is less than in season, or drizzled on top of pound cake. Make sure your lemons are at room temperature to get the maximum amount of juice out of them.

This syrup is excellent on Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes (page 121) or other berry pancakes. It’s also good with waffles, French toast, and johnnycakes.Try this recipe with blackberries or another favorite berry, or a mixture of berries. Boysenberries are great and can usually be bought frozen (but rarely fresh). Red currants are sour and add a real zing to maple syrup. You can do this with any berry you like. Blueberry syrup can be made well in advance and stored for two weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Be sure to reheat it over low heat before serving, because it tastes best hot or warm.

This naturally sweet fruit topping is very good on oatmeal, pancakes, or French toast. Be sure the banana you use is nice and ripe.

Make this in late June or early July when strawberries are abundant at your local farmers’ market, and you’ll enjoy it for months to come. Pectin, a water-soluble substance used as a thickener in jams and jellies, is available in many supermarkets. Serve this jam with any of Bubby’s fruit breads or muffins. You can also substitute blackberries, raspberries, or blueberries for the strawberries. You can mix the berries, too. Though you don’t need to sterilize the three 1-quart storage jars, you should wash the berries well. We are not canning here, or sealing, so it’s not the same process. This jam will keep for three to four weeks in the refrigerator.

Use any tart apple for this sauce. I personally like Braeburns, Mutsus, or Jonagolds. In a pinch, use Granny Smiths. It’s up to you whether to serve this warm or chilled. Excellent with Potato Pancakes (page 213), it is also called for in the Whole Grain Apple Waffle recipe (page 137), among others. This will keep for up to one week in the refrigerator.

This compote has a little kick to it, courtesy of the cayenne pepper. It’s excellent with pancakes, oatmeal, or even as a topping on yogurt, and it can be made up to a week ahead. If storing for later use, cool the compote completely before covering it with a lid or plastic wrap. This will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week. If the compote is cool, reheat it over low heat to serve hot. It can also be served warm.

This versatile fruit sauce is excellent with both Pumpkin Waffles (page 138) and Buttermilk Waffles (page 135). Try stirring it into yogurt, spooning it on top of ice cream, or serving it as you would a fruit cup. Bosc pears work the best here because they are juicy, yet they hold their shape. Use a softer pear and you may wind up with pear sauce, which certainly tastes good, but it isn’t as visually appealing as this raisin-flecked chunky compote. If storing for later use, cool the compote completely before covering it with a lid or plastic wrap. This will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week. If the compote is cool, reheat it over low heat to serve hot. Or you can serve it chilled or at room temperature.

This sauce complements many recipes in the book. It’s wonderful with pancakes and waffles and is almost a requirement with Mom’s Blintzes (page 146). You can substitute blueberries, strawberries, or just about any berry for the blackberries with excellent results. Be sure to use freshly squeezed orange juice. Alternatively, especially if you make this with other berries, lemon juice is a good substitute for the orange juice. You can even try it with grapefruit juice. The compote can be made a couple of days in advance, if you like, cooled, and stored in the refrigerator in a container with a lid. Before serving, heat the compote over low heat until it is very hot.

Apple butter, an intensely fruity and concentrated spread, is perfect with your choice of muffins, scones, and quick breads. Use Mutsu, Jonagold, Braeburn, or any other tart/sweet apple. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to a month or you can freeze it in an airtight container for up to six months.

Orange butter enhances the flavor of many dishes, from pancakes, waffles, and quick breads to savory roasted chicken, pork, or fish. It takes minutes to make this compound butter, but plan to make it at least thirty minutes in advance so the orange juice reduction has time to cool. Be sure your butter is still a little firm, but not so firm that it won’t whip in the mixer. To accomplish this, let the butter sit out at room temperature for a half hour to an hour.

A beautiful pink, intensely flavored butter, this can be made with either fresh or frozen, thawed berries. The butter should be a little cooler than room temperature when you whip it. Take the butter out of the refrigerator a half hour to an hour before you plan to use it, so it can soften.

It used to be that blood oranges came around only at Christmastime and had to be flown in from Malta. Now, however, they are grown in California and Florida and have a much longer season. We show them off in what’s become a signature cocktail at Bubby’s.

Fresh cranberry juice is worth learning to make for its vibrant flavor and color. We use frozen berries most of the year, and they actually make a more consistent juice than fresh, which are available only six or eight weeks of the year. A pound of frozen or fresh cranberries should give you about 2 cups juice. It is important to strain the juice through a very fine sieve. We use a fine chinois, also known as a China cap, to strain our juice. A chinois is actually a conical sieve with a very fine mesh. Use a spoon or even a pestle to press the juice through the chinois.

Make this in the summertime, when sweltering days coincide with watermelon season. It’s a beautiful and thirst-quenching drink that everyone loves, so make plenty. The watermelon adds a lot of beautiful pink color.

Lemonade is reminiscent of sultry afternoons and evenings spent on a screened-in porch in the days before air conditioning, when it was so hot no one wanted to move off the porch for anything more than a lemonade refill. This is my basic lemonade, which Bubby’s make lots of in the summer. You can make it a few days ahead and store it, tightly covered, in the refrigerator. Pink lemonade gets its rosy color not from a chemist’s kit, but from fresh cranberry juice. Sweeten this ade with a light or heavy hand, depending upon your taste. One of the great things about homemade lemonade is that you can customize it to how much of a sweet tooth you or your guests have.

The essence of summer, this light and colorful dish goes with just about anything. Prepare the fruit ahead of time, but don’t layer it with the yogurt and granola in the parfait glasses until an hour or so before you plan to serve it. Adjust the amount of honey according to your and your guests’ preferences.

This side dish is a great accompaniment to Bubby’s Granola (page 206), Crunchy French Toast (page 133), or, even simpler, seven-grain toast and jam. Try to buy Greek yogurt, which tastes richer and creamier than regular yogurt.