Diced Tomato

Matzo Lasagna for Passover

2011-04-24T13:29:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to make matzo lasagna. This isn't so much a recipe as it is a suggestion. I had a carton of Pomi diced tomatoes I needed to use up as they were about to expire and I need some delicious passover food. Fairly easy to throw together.

I decided to swap out the usual ricotta with some mascarpone. Which gave it an almost buttery ness in the final product. cjr described the final result tasting just like Zachery's pizza. Definitely more saucy than cheesy, but that's the way we like it.

If you're using a jarred pasta sauce instead of canned tomatoes, skip the garlic and sugar as they are likely to already be inside your sauce. Then again, you can never have too much garlic!

It makes enough for about 4 people

Ingredients

3 matzo sheets

One 26 oz can of diced tomatoes (750 g) or pasta sauce

4 oz of mozzarella cheese, shredded or sliced thinly.

1/2 cup of mascarpone cheese (or ricotta cheese)

4 cloves of garlic, minced

Handful of basil leaves, roughly chopped

1 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Crushed red pepper (optional)

1/2 cup of water

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Mix the tomatoes, sugar, salt, crushed red pepper, basil, and garlic

3. Spread a quarter of the tomato mixture in the bottom of a 9inch square baking dish. Place a sheet of matzo on top.

4. On top of the first matzo, place 1/4 cup of the mascarpone in dollops around the matzo. Then sprinkle about a third of the mozzarella on top of that. Then, add another quarter of the tomato mixture.

5. Repeat step four with the next sheet of matzo.

6. Place the last matzo on top, pour over the remaining tomato sauce, and cover with remaining mozzarella cheese. Pour in the water around the edges of the matzo.

7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 25-30 minutes. Then, uncover the lasagna and place the lasagna under the broiler for about 30 seconds until the top cheese is nice and bubbly.

Perfect Passover Matzo Meal Pancakes

2011-04-24T12:56:00.000-07:00

My history with Matzo meal pancakes is well, mixed (pun intended). As a child, my cousins always made us pancakes from a prepackaged mix. They were edible, but never as good as the real deal. I always "chalked" the problem up to the lack of chemical leaveners.

Today, I woke up and decided to take a stab at home made passover pancakes. I found this recipe on epicurious. I didn't have matzo meal, so I ground up two matzos in the food processor very finely and decided to make a few risky swaps. Since eggs are precious in our house as we only buy them at the farmer's market and they are quite expensive I decided to use only one egg in place of 3 - replacing the other two with yogurt (think buttermilk pancakes!). Then I made the swap from using water (I assume to make it parve?) to milk.

By some miracle, it worked! Not only were our pancakes delicious, they may even have better than normal ones... I know what I'll be doing with any leftover matzos I have! Plus, unlike most passover recipes they aren't overly "eggy".

This recipe doesn't make very many pancakes - maybe enough for 1-2 people MAX (2 is already a stretch) so you'll have to scale it up for a crowd. Also, you'll want it to sit for about 10-15 minutes before cooking as the matzo needs to soak the liquid. These minutes are crucial as they should allow you just enough time to cup up whatever toppings you like, do the dishes, and set the table.

Some ways to spruce up the batter in future: adding some orange zest and cardamom or a pinch of cinnamon, and, of course, chopped fruit and chocolate chips!

Ingredients (enough to make about 6 4-inch pancakes)

1/2 cup matzo meal (about 2 matzos worth, ground in the food processor)

1 tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg

2/5 cup plain or vanilla whole milk yogurt (~1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon)

1/2 cup whole milk

Butter (for pan)

1. Mix the matzo meal, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

2. Beat the egg, yogurt, and milk together.

3. Mix the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients until combined, try to avoid over mixing. Let stand for about 10-15 minutes. Batter should have the consistency of runny-ish yogurt. If too thick, add a bit more milk.

4. After the batter is rested, heat up a bit of butter in a pan over medium-high heat.

5. When the pan is nice and hot, pour some batter in 3" or so rounds - trying not to over crowd the pan. Now is the time to add toppings such as chocolate chips or fruit sprinkled on top of the batter that you've poured into the pan.

6. When the bottom of the pancakes are nicely browned (don't expect them to bubble up too much to know when to flip!) flip the pancakes and cook the other side until brown. Between rounds of pancakes add a bit more oil to the pan to ensure the next batch doesn't burn.

7. Serve with fresh fruit, maple syrup, and some butter. cjr likes his with nutella.

Panzanella Salad (For Two)

2011-04-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

This is one of those "serendipity" recipes where you happen to have all the ingredients at your disposal. I had some leftover Italian bread, olives, mozzarella cheese, and basil. Plus, all the stuff I usually keep handy like cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and shallots.

I know this is horribly "out" of season. But I just couldn't face another bunch of chard or another squash and I'm ready for summer already! Sorry locavore police. I tried to keep it to ingredients that came from no further than Mexico (rather than Chile like everything seems to come from around here...).

This makes just enough for two people to have a small-to-medium "entree" sized portion. It's extremely easy and in the time it takes the bread to crisp you can assemble the remanning ingredients. Shouldn't take more than about 15 minutes from start to finish.

This salad is usually consumed room temperature. Which makes it an ideal candidate for springtime picnics.

To make it vegan, just swap the cheese for some walnuts or pine nuts.

Ingredients
4 thick slices of Italian bread
1 persian cucumber, roughly chopped into chunks
30 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1 pepper (I used yellow), cut into chunks
1 shallot, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced finely
15 basil leaves, chiffonaded (cut into thin strips)
1-2 oz (about 1 to 2 inch size cubes) of mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
10 olives, pitted and cut in half
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic or red wine vinegar
Salt, to taste

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Toast the 4 slices of bread until hard. Alternatively, can be done in a toaster.

2. In the meantime, mix the remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

3. When the bread is done, remove from oven and cut into large cubes (0.5-1 inch cubes). Toss with the other ingredients. If you want the bread to soak up more of the dressing you can let it sit longer and eat later, or, if you prefer your bread a bit crispy, serve immediately.

Soba Noodle Salad with Veggies, Tofu, and Ginger-Miso dressing [Vegan]

2011-02-20T15:41:00.000-08:00

Big news here at diced tomato! I'm moving back to nyc this fall. In the meantime, I'm frantically trying to use up the stockpile of food in my pantry. Somehow, this means making a lot of Asian-inspired food. Between the bulgogi and the peanut noodles we've gone a bit crazy here.

Today, I threw together this noodle salad. I kind of made up the dressing but it turned out pretty well. I even made some more to use for a stir fry I made later and to put on regular salads.

Ingredients

1/2 lb of dry soba

veggies

1 sweet red pepper, roughly chopped

2 small (persian) cucumbers sliced into rounds, skin on

1 avocado, in 1/2 inch cubes

10 basil leaves, chiffonaded

sesame seeds

tofu

1/2 block (7-8 oz), thinly sliced extra firm tofu

olive oil for the pan

dressing

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp soyaki (or more soy sauce)

1 tbsp (yellow, mild) miso

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp fresh, grated ginger

2 tsp sesame oil

1 small shallot, thiny sliced

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

1. Prepare the soba noodles as per the package instructions. When done rinse in cold water.

2. Mix the dressing ingredients and combine well.

3. Cook the tofu. Place enough olive oil in a skillet just to coat the bottom and place over medium high heat. Toast the pieces of tofu in the skillet until they are golden brown on each side - about a few minutes on each side.

4. Just before the tofu is done, toss the noodles, pepper, cucumber, and dressing.

5. To serve, place a layer of noodles. Top with a few pieces of avocado, a few pieces of tofu, sprinkle with some basil and some sesame seeds. If desired, sprinkle a little more red pepper flake and cayenne pepper on top for an added kick.

Vegan "Bulgogi"

2011-02-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

Ok. So "Bulgogi" in it's direct translation can't actually be vegan since it involves meat. But Tofu in the style of Bulgogi - as it turns out - is completely delicious! For those of you who aren't familiar with it Bulgogi is a korean beef dish of quickly cooked beef that's been marinated in a delicious sweet and spicy sauce.

I saw this recipe on Manifest Vegan and I knew I had to make it ASAP.

I set it up in the AM and just made a portion for lunch and it was fabulous. I didn't have green onions, but it was excellent nonetheless. I also didn't have a pear, so I substituted an apple instead. Plus, I used 1/3 cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup trader joe's "soyaki" because I didn't have enough straight soy sauce.

Ingredients:

1 block superfirm tofu (I used TJ's high protein extrafirm tofu) sliced into 1/4 inch "steaks"

4 green onions, chopped - use the whole bits

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, sliced

1 tsp freshly grated ginger

2/3 cup soy sauce

4 tbsp sesame oil

6 tbsp sugar

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp red pepper flake

1 tsp cayenne pepper

4 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 medium apple, grated (skin and all - none of the core)

1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Olive oil (for pan)

1. In a smallish dish (I used an 8x8 square pan) layer the tofu. Next, sprinkle on top the green onion, onion, garlic, and ginger.

2. In a separate bowl, mix all the remaining ingredients (except the olive oil). Make sure they are well combined.

3. Pour the liquid mixture over the tofu and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight.

4. When read to cook, heat some olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Fish out the tofu from the sauce and place a layer of tofu on the bottom of the skillet. Next, add enough sauce and veggies just to cover the tofu and allow to cook for a few minutes until the sauce has thickened and the bottom of the tofu begins to caramelize. Flip the tofu pieces and cook for another minute or so.

5. Serve immediately. I chose to serve it over brown rice which absorbed some of the delicious remaining sauce. I also chose to add an additional sprinkle of red pepper flake, but this is up to you.

Peanut Noodles with Stir-Fry Vegetables [Vegan]

2011-02-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

I saw this really delicious looking recipe of whole wheat linguine with winter vegetables. At Trader Joe's yesterday a bag of "stir fry" vegetables caught my eye. It's a cabbage, carrots, celery, bok choy, and some other vegetables (snow peas!). Perfect for this recipe (and already prepped!). Of course, if you can't find the stir fry mix (most supermarkets have something similar in the frozen section) you can always make your own by cutting up some cabbage, bok choy, carrots, snow peas, celery, etc... and making your own. But this is much simpler.

I decided to change a few thing around. Adding some citrus to the peanut sauce and some more spice. It was excellent. Note, this is best eaten on the day it's made and probably best not to eat too much since it can be quite heavy.

Ingredients:

1 16oz bag of "stir fry" vegetables

1/2 bag (8oz dry) of whole wheat spaghetti, cooked (you can keep the pasta water around to thin the sauce)

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

For peanut sauce:

1/4 cup peanut butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Juice of one medium size lemon or large lime

Cayenne pepper (to taste)

Salt, to taste

For garnish:

Sesame seeds

Red pepper flake

1. In a large pot or dutch oven add the olive oil and bag of vegetables and cook over medium heat until softened. Add the garlic and saute for a minute or two just until softened. Cut the heat.

2. In the meantime make the peanut sauce. Mix all the ingredients together until smooth. Add some of the pasta water to thin out the sauce until it's thinned and smooth but not too watery. Think runny yogurt consistency.

3. Put the cooked pasta in the vegetable pot and turn the heat back on. Add the peanut sauce and toss to coat. Cook just until everything is heated through.

4. Serve in a wide bowl with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and red pepper flake. Eat immediately.

Apple, Ginger, & Watermelon Radish Slaw [Vegan]

2011-02-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

This weekend it was 72 degrees F in the bay area. In early February. I believe we broke the record high. It was gorgeous and sunny and perfect. It rivaled most of the nicest summer days we get around here. Yesterday we spent the day roaming around the waterfront on our bikes and walking around some of the local marinas dog watching, but today we got up early to do laundry and watch the Chelsea vs. Liverpool game (go Liverpool!).

After the match, we went to the Farmer's market as usual and found it was crammed with people and a lot of stuff was gone by the time we got there (no firm tofu!). But I managed to pick up a few more watermelon radishes.

I didn't want to roast anything with the weather being so warm, so I decided to keep it raw by making a slaw with carrots, ginger, apples, and some citrus. It was nice and easy with the grating disc of the food processor (1 bowl dish!). A box grater would've worked, but it would've been much more tedious.

We used this slaw to top an open faced sandwich of pan-seared extra firm tofu "steaks", avocado, and spicy mustard on a baguette.

Ingredients

4 small watermelon radishes, peeled

4 carrots, peeled

2 small apples, peeled and cored

1 inch cube of fresh ginger, peeled

3 tablespoons orange juice

3 tablespoons lime (or lemon juice)

salt to taste

cayenne pepper or minced spicy peppers - such as a jalapeno (optional)

1. Using a grating disc or box grater, grate the radishes, carrots, apples, and ginger. Add the citrus juices and salt (to taste) to the vegetables.

2. If desired, add some cayenne pepper or minced peppers to the slaw to spice it up.

Cranberry Apple Cornmeal Crumble [Vegan]

2011-01-25T16:31:00.000-08:00

We bought some apples. I was pretty excited. The fulfilled all my apple critera, hard on the outside, bought from the market, small and uncoated. I expected a nice rewarding crunch. Unfortantely, all I got was mush. I don't remember the variety, not your normal Gala/Fuli/Granny Smith or anything like that. But it wasn't pretty.

Anyway, I'm stuck with a few of these apples. Apple sauce is out of the question as neither I nor cjr are really that into the stuff. So I decided to incorporate them into a crumble. I would never suggest putting bad apples into a crumble on their own though, so I cut them with some sturdy/tart granny smiths. But you can use any mix (I recommend at least doing about 50% sturdy/tart apple like granny smith for texture though).

I also have a bag of cranberries still languishing in my fridge. I was surprised to find most of the berries in a fairly usable state. So apple-cranberry crumble it is!

I asked my friend the internet to find me a recipe and this one came up. Like it was fate! I love anything with lemon/citrus peel and anise seeds. I did make a ton of alterations though. The nice part of crumbles is how easy they are to modify since they're a rustic pile of mush and crunch to begin with and so they're not as fussy as other baked goods.

The first thing I did was cut a lot of the sugar out. Sorry, it had to go. Secondly, I upped the cranberries and put in less apples. I I wanted those cranberries gone and I had a hard time parting with my good apples which make such delicious snacks. I left the skin on the apples. There's good fiber in there! I added some ground ginger. Also, I made it vegan. Out when the butter, in came the earth balance. Out when the egg, in came some coconut milk. Also, no course "polenta" (just a fancy word for corn meal anyway) in came the american "fine" cornmeal. Out went the pastry flour (don't have any) in came good old all purpose. Oh, and I cut the topping amount in half.

The crumble certainly came out on the "tart" side, but actually was quite nice. And the topping crisped up nicely and actually tastes like fruit!

If you miss the sugar, add a scoop of ice cream or sweetened whipped cream but I wanted to lighten it up and make the fruit be the star, instead of a heavily sugared buttery topping.

Cranberry Apple Cornmeal Crumble

Filling:

3/4 pound sweet apples such as gala, cored, and sliced thinly

3/4 pound tart apples such as granny smith, cored, and sliced thinly

1 bag of cranberries, washed and picked through

1/2 cup brown sugar (increase to 3/4 cup if using only tart apples)

pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

zest of 1 lemon

zest of 1 small orange

juice of 1 medium to large lemon (about 1/4 cup)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:

1/2 cup corn meal

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp aniseed

pinch of salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup earth balance margarine, cut in cubes, cold

1-3 tablespoons coconut milk (any kind) or favorite milk substitute

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Mix all the filling components together (I suggest doing the lemon first and tossing the apples in that as you go along). Scatter in a 13x9 inch baking dish.

3. Add all the components of the topping in a bowl except the margarine and coconut milk and toss to combine.

4. Add the margarine and use your fingers or a pastry blender to incorporate the cold margarine into the flour mixture.

5. When margarine is incorporate, add coconut milk 1 tablespoon at a time just until the dough comes together in a loose ball.

6. Crumble the topping over the filling and bake for 50-60 minutes until bubbly and the top is golden brown.

Winter Root Vegetable Soup [Vegan]

2011-01-25T16:07:00.000-08:00

Today, I'm home sick. Dunno what happened. Stuffiness set in the middle of the night. Woke up to my alarm at 6am to head off to spinning thinking, "This just isn't happening today". Right now, I'm full blown scratchy throat/feverish/sniffly. My one hunch is the huge pile of dust we kicked up at the office yesterday moving some furniture around may have compromised my immune system (serious dust allergies here!). Either way, I'm home with my tissue box and my bottle of pedialyte.

And like all sick children, all I want is soup. And since my mother is 3000 miles away (and grandmothers even further...) and cjr is in crazy qualifying-exam-final-week-panic-mode I had to make it myself! Ah, the days of sitting in bed with the remote and begging for cups of tea and soup are over, huh?

Oh well.

I bought a bunch of root veggies this weekend at the farmer's market (what else is there to buy this time of year besides root vegetables and citrus fruit anyway?). I bought some turnips and "watermelon radishes" which look more like turnips to me but taste pepper-y like a radish. I also had some Kabocha squash I've been meaning to tend to so I roasted it, scooped out the inside, and roughly mashed it and tossed it into the soup to give it some body. And what is root vegetable soup without some potatoes? That just wouldn't do!

If you don't have watermelon radishes just use regular ones and increase their number to about 8-10 or just leave it out if you can't be bothered to peel those tiny buggers. If you've never seen a watermelon radish they look like a green turnip on the outside, but inside they are a vibrant pink (with an intervening "white" layer) just like the inside of a watermelon. They are lovely roasted, raw like normal radishes, or in soups like here.

Root Vegetable Soup with Watermelon Radishes and Kabocha Squash

Ingredients

1 medium kabocha squash (about 8-10 inches in diameter)

3 celery stalks, diced

1 medium to large onion, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

2 small turnips, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces

2 watermelon radishes, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces

2 medium red potatoes, unpeeled and diced into 1/2 inch pieces

1 quart vegetable broth

1 quart water

2 bay leaves

Salt to taste

Olive oil for sauteing vegetables and roasting squash.

1. Roast the kabocha squash. Set oven to 400F and cut the kabocha the long way (around the meridian). Scoop out and discard the seeds and innards and lightly coat in olive oil or spray oil and hit with a pinch of salt. Set, cut side down, on a foil lined baking sheet and roast in oven until fork tender - at least 20-30 minutes possibly longer depending on size of squash. When done, set aside to cool.

2. When the kabocha is almost done roasting, start with the remaining veggies. In a large dutch oven or stock pot, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and set on medium-heat over the stove. Add the celery, onions, carrots and a pinch of salt and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

3. Next add the turnips and radishes and sauté a bit for another 2 minutes or so. Finally add the potato and sauté for another couple of minutes.

4. When the root vegetables just start to soften, add the stock and water. Then, scoop out the insides of the kabocha squash flesh (no peel please!) and mash roughly. Add squash mush/purée to the soup mixture and stir. Add the bay leaves and a pinch of salt.

5. Cook until all the vegetables are all fork tender (at least 15-20 minutes) try to avoid overcooking or the veggies get too mush. Salt to taste.

6. Before serving, fish out the bay leaves.

Penne with Acorn Squash and Feta

2010-12-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

This recipe came to us by serendipity. It happened to be posted on Chubby Vegetarian on a day when we happened to have squash, olives, and feta. One of the great things about it is that it's really versatile and you can swap the pasta out for greens and make a salad. You can also change up the cheese and use goat cheese or nuts.

We made a few swaps. I prefer balsamic to red wine vinegar and penne to fetuccini. Plus, we decided to serve it room temperature.

Ingredients (makes 3-4 serving)

for roasted squash
1 medium acorn squash
6 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil

for dressing
2 tsp salt
15 good quality olives, minced (we used a mix of french green olives and kalamata)
1 large shallot (diced)
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tsp sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

for assembly
half dry pound penne pasta
1/2 cup crumbled sheep's milk feta such (French or Israeli are preferred) or nuts

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, cut the acorn squash in half, and then cut into wedges (think watermelon slices). Toss the squash and garlic cloves with olive oil and salt and place on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil or parchment paper and roast until fork tender - about 30 minutes, but keep checking it. When it's done allow to cool and use a spoon to scrape away the peel. Cut the squash into bite size pieces.

2. Cook the pasta as per package instructions. Set aside.

3. Smash the 6 pieces of roasted garlic with a fork. To the garlic, add all the ingredients for the dressing. Add salt to taste but remember olives and feta can already be quite salty.

4. To serve, put about 1/4 of the pasta in a bowl, top with 1/4 of the dressing mixture, a few pieces of squash, and 2 tablespoons of feta. We prefer ours room temperature.

Irish Scones with Orange Mascarpone Whipped Cream

2010-12-26T17:04:00.000-08:00

cjr and I are dog-watching these last few weeks. For this lovely girl:

Her name is Tinkey and we're watching her while her family galavants through South America until the new year. She's some kind of husky/shepard-y mutt and she's a pretty lady who loves to give kisses and chew raw hides and get compliments from everyone she sees. She also loves to hang out with us, especially when we're cooking. So she's our temporary mascot here at dicedtomato.

For breakfast on Christmas morning cjr wanted some Irish Scones. Ever since he's come back from The Emerald Isle in the spring he's been in love with scones.

We've been using the recipe from thekitchn. As with all pie/biscuit dough, it's quite shaggy but don't be alarmed! It'll all be okay in the end.

As for the whipped cream, we actually used it to top some of our bread pudding. I love how mascarpone adds body to whipped cream and the orange zest is really lovely. We used some leftover whipped cream to top leftover scones which we ate today (Boxing day!) and its thickened nature reminded me of the clotted cream you often get with scones in the UK and Ireland.

Irish Scones

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3/4 - 1 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350F

2. Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.

3. Add the butter in small bits and combine with your fingers until the butter is combined well and sandy (try to not overwork).

4. Add the cream slowly just until you get a soft dough that just comes together.

5. On a floured surface, using a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1 inch height and use a biscuit cutter (or a sharp knife) to cut into about 10 biscuits.

6. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake the biscuits for 8 minutes, turn the baking sheet, then bake for about 4 more minutes just until they are just lightly golden on top.

7. Serve with a knife (to cut them in half like an english muffin) with some irish breakfast tea, irish butter, jam, honey, and whipped cream (recipe follows).

8. Store any extra scones in the freezer and defrost in the oven.

Orange Mascarpone Whipped Cream (from Giada De Laurentiis)

Ingredients

1/2 cup Mascarpone Cheese

1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp fresh orange zest

1. Mix the mascarpone and orange juice until well combined and creamy.

2. Add the heavy cream, sugar, and zest and combine well. (You can stop here if you want to prepare this early)

3. Just before serving, whip until thick and fluffy, careful not to over whip.

4. Store any remaining cream in the refrigerator.

[Vegan] Brown Rice Sushi Bowl

2010-12-23T13:42:00.000-08:00

This recipe was inspired by a 101 cookbooks recipe. I tried her version but I found the sauce a bit too heavy for my liking so I decided to omit it, and instead just make (brown) sushi rice and add more ingredients to the bowl.

It's a highly versatile dish. Use whatever ingredients you have lying around. I had some avocado, cucumbers, green onions, tofu, daikon pickles (recipe follows), and pickled ginger. But (if you eat fish) I'm sure some good sashimi quality stuff would work here. Or even a slice of chicken teriyaki, etc. Other veggies would work too. Especially anything pickled. Maybe some wasabi would be nice for those of you into that kind of thing... Or those slender little japanese Enoki mushrooms. I used some of the Trader Joe's seaweed snack which is basically just nori (sushi seaweed) that has been lightly salted/oiled. Which I prefer over just straight nori. But either works.

I like to use a really small amount of rice on the bottom because too much rice can be a bit much with the other ingredients. I would stick with about half a cup of cooked rice per person or so.

Daikon radishes are long white asian radishes. They are very large, and resemble giant white overplump carrots. Like all radishes, they don't do well with long term storage and are best prepared right after purchasing them. I found that my one daikon radish weighed nearly exactly one pound. If you can't find Daikons any mild radish will do here, but it will be more work to peel and chop so many little ones! You can often buy pickled daikon in supermarkets that have a large Japanese food selection.

Pickled Daikon, from Tyler Florence

Ingredients

1 lb daikon radish (about one medium size daikon radish)

1 cup rice vinegar

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup kosher salt

1. In a small saucepan, simmer the vinegar, water, and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

2. Peel the daikon and cut into 1/4 inch rounds. Place in a colander and coat liberally with the salt. Allow to stand and drain for about an hour.

3. Once the daikon has drained a sufficient amount of liquid, rinse off all the remaining salt. Then, dry the daikon well.

4. In a clean container, place the daikon radishes and cover with the (cooled) vinegar/sugar pickling mixture.

5. Place in refrigerator for at least 4 hours or (best) overnight.

Brown Sushi Rice, from Alton Brown

Ingredients
1 cup (dry) brown rice.
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tsp salt

1. Cook the rice as per the package instructions.

2. When the rice is almost done, mix the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and microwave for about 30-45 seconds until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Set aside.

3. When the rice is done, add the vinegar/sugar mixture and mix to coat evenly.

4. Set aside.

Brown Rice Sushi Bowl

(Rough instructions for preparing one bowl)

Note: this time, I used softer tofu so I didn't cut it into matchsticks, but I find that the harder stuff in matchstick form is better.

Ingredients

4 oz extra firm tofu, salted, pressed, and cut into matchsticks.

Olive oil

1/2 cup cooked sushi rice

1/2 avocado, sliced

1/2 small persian cucumber, cut into matchsticks (I leave the skin on)

1 green onion, diced (green part)

3 pieces seaweed snack (or 1 piece sushi nori)

1 tablespoon pickled ginger

4 rounds pickled daikon, cut into matchsticks

Sesame seeds for garnish

Soy sauce (or salt) for serving

1. In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, heat some olive oil to coat the pan. When hot, add the matchstick tofu and pan fry until golden brown on all sides.

2. In the meantime, assemble the bowl. Place the rice on the bottom of the bowl, then artfully place each of the remaining ingredients (cucumber, avocado, seaweed, daikon, ginger, and green onion) in small "corner" of the bowl. Make sure to leave a space for the tofu.

3. When the tofu is done, add it to the bowl. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds. Serve with soy sauce or salt on the side if desired.

Vegan Chickpea Flour Soup

2010-12-13T15:20:00.000-08:00

I saw this recipe on the kitchn and it immediately reminded me of a Moroccan soup my mother makes with semolina flour (for which no decent recipe exists in English.... I should probably fix that). I liked the idea of swapping the semolina for chickpea (aka garbanzo) flour since chickpeas contain more protein.

The best part is that it's super simple and barely requires anything out of the ordinary pantry-wise (assuming, like me, you stock chickpea flour....) so it can be made almost anytime.

The soup does tend to clump, so add the chickpea flour slowly and evenly while whisking. Or, use an immersion blender at the end to break up any lumps.

This soup keeps ok, though it does get clumpier. And you might need to add a touch of water. However, it's certainly best the day of. It's so simple and fast though (takes under 10 minutes from start to table!), that making just one or two servings at a time is worth it.

As is, I would say it makes about 4-5 decent bowl fulls.

Ingredients
6 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
2-3 large cloves of garlic peeled (but left whole)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 cup chickpea flour
4 scallions (green onions), diced into rings (green/top part only)
1 lemon, cut into wedges

1. Prep the stock. Mix the water, oil, garlic, cumin, and salt in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, and allow to boil for about a minute.

2. Lower the heat, and slowly whisk in the chickpea flour in small bits (to ensure against clumping). Whisking all the time.

3. Return to higher heat and boil about 3ish minutes until the soup has thickened quite a bit.

4. To serve, sprinkle with scallions and serve with a lemon wedge (which you squeeze into the soup).

Vegan Tofu Dengaku

2010-12-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

I was very sad to learn recently that one of my favorite dishes - Tofu Dengaku - which is basically grilled pieces of Tofu topped with a sweet miso sauce, is actually made with fish stock! Thus, making it decidedly not vegetarian.

However, I learned that this simple dish can be made at home w/o any loss of flavor due to the omission of fish stock. I just swapped it out for plain water which did the trick.

For the miso, make sure to get the deep red miso, not the mild yellow variety.

The original recipe called for sake, but I had none. I swapped it out for vodka, but either liquer works just fine.

Traditionally, you would serve these with skewers which add a nice touch and make for a great vegan appetizer, though they are best served immediately after frying. As an appetizer, I say they serve about 4-5. As a main course (for example, with a side salad) I would say it only serves 2.

Ingredients:

Tofu:

One 15oz block firm tofu, cut into 3 large slices.

Light oil for coating

Sauce:

3 tablespoons red miso paste

1 tablespoon sake or vodka

1.5 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon mirin

7 tablespoons water

Garnish:

Sesame seeds

1. Drain the tofu. on a cutting board lined with several pieces of paper towel, place the pieces of tofu. Cover with several more pieces of paper towel and place another cutting board on top as well as a heavy object such a can. Allow the tofu to drain it's liquid for ~15 minutes.

2. Prep the sauce. In a small saucepan, mix all the sauce ingredients and simmer until thickened, then pull from heat.

3. After the tofu is done draining, cut each of the three large pices of tofu into 5 smaller pieces giving you a total of 15 or so equal sized, biggish pieces.

4. In a hot NONSTICK frying pan coated with a touch of oil, place half the tofu pieces and cook until they are just starting to blacken. Rotate the pieces to evenly cook. Note: the tofu has been known to stick.

5. When done, place to one side and repeat with the remaining tofu, adding oil if necessary.

6. To serve, splay out the tofu pieces, evenly distribute the sauce amongst all the pieces, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Marzipan Stollen Ice Cream

2010-12-09T10:26:00.001-08:00

cjr has grown very fond of marzipan stollen from Trader Joe's. Marzipan Stollen is a christmas 'bread' common in Germany. It's kind of like a sweet challah with mixed in candied/dried fruit as well as a thick strip of marzipan running down the middle. Personally, I don't much care for raisins or artificial candied fruit which rules out just about all commercial versions. Usually, I make my own. However, this year I'm nursing a broken shoulder until just about Christmas-time, so baking bread is out of the question. Ice cream, on the other hand, is easily doable with just one arm.

So here is my marzipan stollen flavored ice cream. I adapted a recipe for Pan Forte ice cream from David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop - one of my favorite/most used cookbooks - since I couldn't find a decent recipe online.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, this recipe can be easily approximated by getting a pint of good vanilla ice cream, prepping just the fillings, and using the ice cream/mix-in layering technique in step 3 on from the 2nd day. You went get the nice spiced/orange-y custard as the base though, which I think gives it a more authentic taste.

As for the marzipan, make sure you're getting marzipan and not just almond paste (which will be too soft/liquidy). I make my own by sending a roughly equal amount of peeled almonds and powdered sugar through a meat grinder and adding enough almond flavored simple syrup to reach a marzipan-y consistency. I chose to color my marzipan in festive multicolors, but plain will do just fine as you'll get some color just from using the soaked fruits.

When arranging the layers, make sure not to disturb the dried fruits too much or else their colors will bleed into the frozen custard.

It really does taste like Marzipan Stollen in ice cream form!

Ingredients:

For the mix ins:

1 cup mixed dried fruit/berries (such as raisins, currants, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, etc)

1 cup marzipan, cut into half inch cubes.

1/4 cup candied orange peel, cut into tiny bits (~1/8 inch cubes)

brandy

For the base:

1 cup half-and-half

2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

peel from 1 large orange (use a veggie peeler to get wide pieces)

2/3 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

3 tablespoons honey

2 cups heavy cream

Day 1:

Place any required items in freezer for your ice cream maker.

Prep the mix ins:

1. In a bowl place dried fruit and add just enough brandy to cover the fruit. Place in fridge, covered to soak.

2. (Optional but suggested) Place the marzipan bits in the freezer separated on a cookie sheet to get cold overnight.

Prep the base:

1. Warm the half and half, sugar, spices, and orange peel in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and allow to steep for 30 min.

2. Place the cream in a large bowl and place a thin mesh strainer over the cream.

3. Rewarm the mixture. In another bowl, whisk the yolks. Then add some of the warmed mixture to the yolks, slowly, and while whisking constantly.

4. Scrape all the yolk mixture back into the saucepan.

5. Heat the mixture gently, constantly whisking, until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

6. Pour the mixture through the strainer and into the cream. Discard any spice bits, orange peel, or gunk that remains.

7. Warm the honey (I used the microwave for about 15-20 seconds) and then stir it into the rest of the custard base.

8. Chill the base in the refrigerator over night.

Day 2:

1. Churn the ice cream as per the instructions of your machine.

2. While churning, strain off any excess brandy from the fruit. Press gently to get any that have over-soaked.

3. When churned, place about 1/4 of the ice cream in a wide container and spread evenly. Sprinkle 1/3 of the brandied fruit, marzipan chunks, and candied orange.

4. Add another 1/4 of the ice cream and repeat the layering process. Try not to move the fruit to much or the color will bleed.

5. In the end you should have 4 layers of ice cream base + 3 layers of fillings in between.

6. Place a piece of wax paper over the surface to prevent freezer burn, place the container lid tightly, and freeze overnight.

Day 3:

ENJOY.

[Vegan] Cranberry Pecan Butternut Squash Bread

2010-10-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, I go a little crazy at the market. Today was no exception. The squashes and late season melons and watermelons were just calling to me. I took home one of each. I also grabbed the first bag of this season's cranberries at Trader Joe's yesterday and they were just waiting for their first calling.

During my weekly meal prep today, I roasted my butternut squash. It's pretty simple, just make a few knife incisions to release steam, and pop into a 450F oven until totally tender. Takes about an hour of idle time for a decent size squash. Then, scoop out the seeds and peel away the skin (should come off easily). Puree the flesh (think baby food or canned pumpkin) and measure just shy of two cups for this recipe or - better yet - weigh out 15 oz.

Any decent sized squash will yield MORE than enough for this recipe. And if you don't want to deal with squash, get a can of pure pumpkin puree. But please, none of that spiced/sugared pumpkin pie filling. Also, most squashes will work lovely here my favorites are always butternut and acorn but do let me know if you find another variety works well.

Squash + Cranberries are a pairing made in heaven (kind of like orange and cranberries actually....) and this bread doesn't dissapoint. Added bonus: it's vegan. But kind of by accident. It doesn't need eggs or butteriness because it gets all that moisture and richness from the squash.

I actually added some crystallized ginger to this bread, but in the end I found it more distracting than anything so I'm not including it in this recipe. I also didn't use as much cranberries, but I wished that I had. If you don't like cranberries as much as I do either leave them out or half the amount -- it's up to you. If you don't want them to be so tart, you can substitute an equal weight of dried cranberries which are sweetened so they're not so tart.

I baked only half the recipe and froze the remaining batter in an airtight container for another day. However, if you prefer not to bother with two loaves, you can easily halve the recipe since it has no eggs in it to worry about halving.

Vegan Cranberry Pecan Butternut Squash Bread
makes 2 loaves, adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (or 1.5 c more all purpose flour)
2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/3 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
15 oz (just under 2 cups) butternut squash puree OR 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup water
1 cup chopped pecans
1 12 oz bag fresh cranberries, roughly chopped

1. Heat the oven to 350F. Lightly oil and flour your standard loaf pan(s) - 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 inches.

2. Mix the dried goods: flours, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, & spices

3. Mix the wet stuff: squash puree, vegetable oil, maple syrup, & water.

4. Add the wet goods to the dry goods and combine. When fully combined, fold in the pecans and cranberries.

5. Split the mixture into two and put half the mixture into one of our floured loaf pans. Put the remaining into either another loaf pan, set aside for when the first loaf is finished, or freeze in an airtight container with a piece of wax paper covering the surface for rainy day*.

6. Bake for at least one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out mostly clean with just a few clinging crumbs.

7. Allow to rest for 20 minutes before digging in!

*OK, today was technically a rainy day so I mean ANOTHER rainy day.

Couscous with Vegetables, Oranges, Olives, and Tofu

2010-10-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

This all started with some extra firm tofu from trader joe's we bought a week ago. Usually, I make 101 cookbooks' fabulous caramelized tofu recipe or some sort of Asian inspired dish. Since cjr wasn't feeling in much of a cabbage mood, and I wasn't feeling in much of a soy sauce mood I came up with this compromise: A Moroccan inspired tofu dish.

Sure, I could've been much more fussy and made the chickpeas from dried beans, steamed the couscous rather than quick cooking it in boiled water, or cutting up a large butternut squash -- but this way is so much more convenient (and so easy to get at your local Trader Joe's....). I was inspired to make this when I was staring into the refrigerated case at my local TJs and I spotted some olives with fresh herbs. Next I grabbed olives' best friends: oranges. From there I grabbed the bag of squash, and a can of garbanzo beans -- remembering that I had some celery, tomatoes, onions, and carrots hanging out at home waiting to be used!

Obviously, these recipe is very versatile and you can omit/add anything you like. I like my food heavy on the cumin, but you can always spice to taste. Other things I think would go well in the stew include: dried apricots, pomegranate seeds, apples, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, zucchini -- the sky's the limit!

Also, you can just remove whole elements. Just the couscous and veggies would be fine, or nix the couscous all together!

And I don't want to hear any complaints about the sugar in the tofu. If you can deal with gobs of sugar in your Thai food, I think you can deal with a teaspoon or so in your dinner.

Plus, this dish is a meal in it of itself! It's got tons of veggies, protein (tofu), fat (olive oil/olives), and whole grain carbs (couscous). So it's actually kind of balanced!

Ingredients
(Makes enough for 4-6)

Couscous
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups whole wheat couscous
2 cups water or veggie broth

Stew
1 small onion, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
2 carrots (or 15 baby carrots), peeled and diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups water or veggie broth
1 16oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 12 oz bag butternut squash chunks
4 medium tomatoes, roughly diced
1 tsp paprika
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt

Oranges & Olives
2 large oranges, segmented
8 oz french olives, pitted and cut in half
1 tsp cumin

Tofu
1 tablespoon olive oil
16 oz superfirm tofu, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Garnish
1/2-1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Prep the couscous
1. In a medium sized pot boil the 2cups of water with the 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/2 tsp salt
2. Remove from heat, stir in the 2 cups couscous
3. Allow to rest for 5 minutes and fluff with a fork

Make the stew
1. In a large heavy pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat
2. When the olive oil is hot, saute the carrots and celery. After 2-3 minutes, add the onions and continue to saute until the vegetables are soft.
3. Add 2 cups of water and the tomatoes, cover the mixture, and continue to cook.
4. (optional) peel the chickpeas to remove the outer skin
5. Add the chickpeas, cumin, paprika, and cayenne to the pot as well and salt to taste
6. In the meantime, cook the squash in the microwave as per instructions on the bag. Ours stated to cook on high in the bag (cutting off the corner) for 5 minutes.
7. Add the squash and remaining water, reduce the heat to medium and allow to simmer while preparing other ingredients.

Make the oranges/olive topping:
1. Mix the pitted olives and the segmented oranges along with the cumin and set aside.

Caramelize the tofu
1. In a large frying pan heat half the olive oil.
2. When the olive oil is hot, add half the tofu.
3. When the tofu is golden is browned on one side, turn them over.
4. Sprinkle in 1 tbsp brown sugar and a 1/4 cup almonds.
5. Don't mix until the other side begins to brown as well then mix until the sugar dissolves
6. Move the tofu/almond mixture onto a plate and repeat steps 1-5 with the remaining tofu.

To assemble
Scoop a layer of couscous, then ladle some of the stew (including some of the juices), some of the olive/orange mixture, a few pieces of tofu and almonds, and a sprinkle of cilantro.

Sunchoke & Sweet Potato Gratin

2010-10-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today, instead of going to our usual Sunday's Farmer's Market in Temescal we trekked out to the larger one at Grand Lake in Oakland. It's a 25 minute bike ride instead of our usual 10 minute walk, but there's always some more unique finds at the larger market.

This week, we came across some sunchokes and early season white sweet potatoes. For those who have never seen a sunchoke, they are these kind of nubbly tubers and have nothing to do with an artichoke (though often they are labeled "Jerusalem Artichokes"). I've roasted sunchokes before and while they're delicious prepared that simply, we were looking for something just a bit more interesting.

Note, this recipe is VERY heavy so you definitely should eat it in moderation and be in the mood for such a thing

I decided to adapt one of my favorite gratin recipes to include sunchokes, but omit the greens.

Ingredients
2 lbs sunchokes, roughly peeled and thinly sliced
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 gloves garlic, minced
1 cup heavy cream & 1 cup whole milk (Or any 2 cup combination of the two)
2 tablespoons butter + more for the dish
2 tablespoons flour
5 oz gruyere cheese, coarsely grated (a little over a cup)
fresh thyme
fresh rosemary
salt
pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Over medium heat heat the olive oil. When hot, sauté the onions until soft and translucent then set aside.

2. Make the sauce. In a small sauce pan over low heat heat the garlic, cream, milk, and a pinch of salt just until barely simmering. In a separate pan, melt the butter over low heat.

3. When the butter is melted, sprinkle in the flour and whisk for about a minute. Whisk in the warmed milk/cream mixture for another minute or two until the mixture starts to thicken.

4. Butter a 9x13 baking dish. Spread half of the sweet potatoes and then half the sunchokes on the bottom of the pan. Next, sprinkle half of the onions on top followed by half of the sauce and then half the cheese. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the top.

5. Make the next layer by spreading the potatoes, then the sunchokes, then the remaining onions, then the remaining sauce, then the cheese, another bit of salt and pepper.

6. Cook until most of the liquid has rendered out and the cheese is bubbly and browned (about an hour).

Egg White Frittata

2010-09-19T12:56:00.001-07:00

Ever since I started making ice cream I seem to end up with a lot of egg whites which are in need of a good home. In my savory food, I actually prefer egg whites, but I just don't know how many egg white omelet's I can eat...

So instead, here's my "end of the week, clean out my fridge egg white frittata".

It's basically a baked omelet or a crustless quiche. The best feature is it takes almost no time to prep so the work is pretty minimal.

The combinations are really endless (as are the proportions). I didn't use any onion or garlic this time, but adding some diced garlic to the tomato base or chopped onion to the egg mixture is delicious. Also, thinly sliced eggplants are lovely in this as well.

Also, if you prefer the yolk (or only have whole eggs) just use half as many whole eggs.

The tomato base is used as a means to introduce a bit more moisture and prevent the egg mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pan. If you have no fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, broken up into chunks, and spread over the bottom of your pan until they coat the pan ~1/2 an inch up sprinkled which just a bit of sugar to cut the can-y ness of the tomatoes is a great substitute.

We also got to test out the new Cowgirl Creamery table cheese, Wagon Wheel in our recipe. If you can't find any, any good table-y cheese works great. As does Parmesan or Aged Gouda.

As always, please wear gloves when chopping spicy peppers! Even if they don't seem spicy at first.

This much eggs makes a relatively shallow frittata, if you want to serve more people, just double the recipe and make a "thicker" frittata and serve eights instead of quarters. You will have to increase the baking time though. If you use whole eggs, you'll want to cut smaller slices since egg yolks make it quite a bit richer.

Ingredients, Serves ~ 4.

4-5 medium tomatoes, chopped
8-10 egg whites
1 russet potato, sliced thinly (skin on)
1 zucchini, sliced thinly
3 jalapeno peppers, chopped
2 tablespoons of dill or cilantro chopped finely
2 tablespoons of of grated parmesan or table cheese
Olive oil
Salt to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

2. In an oven proof sauté pan with a lid (we use this one) spread out the tomatoes so that the cover the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle a bit of salt and olive oil over the tomatoes. If you want to add some garlic, now is the time.

3. Spread out a layer of potatoes, then a layer of zucchini and repeat until you have no more potatoes and zucchini left.

4. In a small bowl, mix the egg whites, dill, cheese, and sliced jalapeno and add a pinch of salt.

5. Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes and zucchini layer, making sure it spread it rather evenly. It won't seem like much, but that's okay.

6. Bake in the oven, covered for about 45 minutes up to an 1 hour 30 minutes. The frittata is done when the eggs are opaque and the middle no longer jiggles.

Vegan Macaron, Updates

2010-06-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

1. The technique of allowing the shells to sit for about 40 minutes after piping but before baking has greatly improved my "peak" problem and allowed them to settle. Also, it's improved my "gut spilling" problem. Banging the sheet pan against the counter a few times also helps.

2. The addition of a teeny tiny bit of xanthan gum (or guar gum) just before the versawhip/syrup mixture achieves stiff peaks gives them a tiny bit more structure. xanthan gum also adds a flavor I don't love so a really tiny amount - less than a 1/4 tsp should do the trick (if you can measure an 1/8 or half of a 1/4 do that.). BUT I hate this stuff and it did make my mix just a bit too stiff in my opinion. It could be that just the smallest pinch helps, but I'm not sure.

3. ~~I've also switched to adding the almond/powdered sugar mixture INTO the fluff mixture in small bits and using the technique in this video as suggested by another awesome site.~~ This doesn't really seem to make a differnce, in the end. Just avoid overmixing (or undermixing?) and that's that.

See my ORIGINAL POST on vegan macaron success.

Vegan Macaron, first "successful" version.

2010-06-16T17:51:00.001-07:00

Edit: Updates #1

First off: These are very much a work in progress. If I make any adjustments that help, I'll post updates on my blog. I might play around with the sugar-to-almond-to-liquid ratio and the temperature of baking as well as the baking conditions. The taste is spot on, the texture is 7 out of 10 (less "chewy" inside). The look is probably 7 out of 10 as well (The feet aren't as pretty and the tops aren't perfectly smooth). I may yet play with adapting other macaron recipes instead of the one I used as a base.

I've been trying to think of what to bring to the next vegan bake sale. I made some egg-free marzipan but there's tons of that stuff floating around. I decided to be a bit more ambitous: Vegan French Macarons! Now there has been some work on this before. But I wanted to avoid using egg replacer as I've heard the taste isn't great and sadly that last beautiful link is recipe-less. Sigh. I was going to have to do it on my own!

I did some research on vegan meringue and I noticed one common theme was the use of a modified soy protein called versawhip 600 K (the 500 version isn't vegan). Its really popular amongst enthusiasts of molecular gastronomy for making foams. Pretty cool stuff!

Note, if you stop before mixing the versawhip+syrup mixture into the almond/sugar mixture you basically have a really cool vegan marshmallow fluff. Seriously! You might consider making high hat cupcakes with it! Or fluffernutter sandwiches! Or, as my friend jk suggested, mixing it into homemade vegan chocolate ice cream adding a coconut milk caramel swirl and chocolate chips and you now have vegan phish food!! Now these haven't been tested by me, but they're just ideas that I'm putting out there.

I played around with adapting the macaron recipe from the LA Times. My reasoning was as following: egg white are made up of mostly water and a bit of protein so I wanted to maintain that ratio. I replaced the water from the egg with plain old water (though a flavored liquid should(?) work too) and the protein came from the versawhip -- though I added less because versawhip is much better whipping agent than the protein in egg whites. From there it was pretty simple.

I would normally add vanilla to these babies, but there's some talk that versawhip + alcohol don't play well. It might be worth folding into the batter along with the egg whites though.

I suspect with a more skillful hand -- by which I mean better piping skills - someone could really make some awesome macarons with this recipe. Plus, it's much simpler than any of the others I've seen out there!

Makes about 20 filled macarons or 40 tops. Since there are no eggs involved, this recipe is easily scalable to any amount you like! They'll keep for a few days in an airtight container but they are quite delicate.. they didn't take very kindly to being transported in my bike basket but then again I didn't take too many precautions.

Ingredients:

76 g water (about 1/3 cup)
6 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup + 4 tsp almond meal
2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon versawhip 600K

1. Preheat oven to 350F and take out too cookie sheets and nest them inside each other. Line the top one with parchment paper.

2. Mix the almond meal and the powdered sugar. Grind the mixture VERY finely. A coffee grinder/spice grinder is the best option as I found the food processor just didn't do a good enough job. Also, sifting once or twice won't hurt either.

3. In a saucepan, mix the water and sugar and combine over low heat just until all the sugar is dissolved. Should take a minute or two max.

4. In a stand mixer mix the dissolved syrup from the saucepan (sugar + water) and the versawhip.

5. Keep mixing until STIFF peaks form - this may take quite a long time.. upwords of 10 to 15 minutes just be patient!.

6. When the mixture begins to climb up the bowl and hold stiff peaks, cut the mixing. At this point you basically have your marshmallow fluff. Pretty cool!

7. Add half the fluff to the ground almond/powdered sugar mixture. Fold into mixture. Again, it won't look promising and be very stiff and hard to fold on. Have faith and carry on.

8. Add the remaining fluff and fold just until combined. Once combined, fold 2 times more and that's it. You want to just barely "lighten" the mixture.

9. Place the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a half inch tip (or cut the end off a ziploc bag)

10. Pipe onto parchment in nice, uniform rounds about an inch or so in diameter. The batter should be quite stiff, so you might want to smooth out the tops of the macarons with the back of a spoon so they aren't so "peak-y". Allowing the piped tops to hang out for a few minutes may also solve this problem in a more natural way. You can also try banging the baking sheets against a counter to help them settle.

11. Bake for 4 minutes, then quickly open the door to let out some steam. Bake for another 4 minutes and check. You'll probably assume disaster when you see that the guts of your macaron have spilled out into a strange mess, but do not despair. Bake for another 2 min or so and then pull from the oven when tops are nice and firm). You do not want to "brown" the bottom of the macaron.

12. Allow to cool. Once cool, you should be able to pull off the "whole" macaron and leave behind the leftover "guts". The bottoms should remain in tact.

13. Fill with whatever you like, here I'm showing you them filled with Dulce de Leche. Again, I can't recommend Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World enough, I'm sure any of the "butter" cream recipes in that book would be lovely here!

Orange Olive Oil Buttermilk Cupcake Bottom

2010-05-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make another batch of ricotta-sage frosted cupcakes. The 'frosting' I love, but I was just not that crazy about the 'bottom'.

In my mind I got this crazy idea that what I really wanted was some kind of honey/olive oil-y cake. I tried a few things out. First I went to Martha's cupcake book and made the honey cakes subbing olive oil for vegetable oil. The cakes came out OK... but they were kind of muffin-y. Not ethereal and fluffy. I tried tweaking the recipe a bit, but it was no use. These were great muffins, but no cupcakes.

Next I tried a recipe by Carine Goren for "fluffy orange cake" and while the texture was spot on, the cake had an overwhelming "eggy" flavor that I just didn't care for.

Finally, half giving up, I decided to make one last shot at this but this time I went with one of my favorite's, Martha Stewart's Buttermilk Cupcakes. The texture is amazing, light and fluffy -- a perfect vanilla cupcake. To tweak it, I swapped half the butter for olive oil and then added some orange zest. It came out just as I wanted it to!

The progression of cupcakes, the left four are the two attempts at "honey" cupcakes, the next two are the "orange cake" and the final two on the right are the buttermilk orange olive oil cakes.

Here's the altered recipe. Frost as you like (though I like my ricotta frosting, with or w/o the sage...)

Note: this makes 36 REGULAR size cupcakes. It makes ~100 mini ones. Yes, that's a lot of tiny cupcakes.

Orange Olive Oil Buttermilk Cupcake Bottom
3 cups cake flour (NOT self rising)
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp coarse salt
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup good quality, fruity olive oil
2.25 cups sugar
5 whole eggs, room temperature
3 egg yolks, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups buttermilk, room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a cupcake tin with liners. Mix the dry ingredients: the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2. Now the wet stuff: cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and then drizzle the olive oil in. Next, add the whole eggs one at a time followed by the egg yolks, one at a time. Make sure each egg or yolk is fully incorporated before adding another. Add the vanilla extract to the mix.

3. Add the flour to the wet mix. Add the flour in about 2-3 additions, alternating with adding the buttermilk.

4. Divide batter into lined cupcake tin. Do not fill more than 3/4 full, or else they will overflow. I like to fill ~1/2 full -- more room for frosting!

5. For large cupcakes, bake ~20 minutes (for small start checking ~12 min). Cakes are done when a toothpick through the center comes out cleanly. Try not to "overbake" the cupcakes or else they will be dry.

6. When done, allow to cool completely outside of the cupcake tin before attempting to frost.

7. Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. For long term storage, consider the freezer as the fridge tends to dry out cupcakes. Cakes in the freezer can last up to 2 months. It's best to wait until the day you're serving them to frost them. And always frost at room temperature and then leave the cupcakes out at room temp until consumed (fridge + frosted cupcakes = dry dry dry bleh).

Garlic Scape Pesto

2010-05-27T16:09:00.001-07:00

Perhaps you've noticed some new, curious things appearing in your local farmer's market this spring. I've noticed all kinds of new spring onion-y things floating around, but one thing that really caught my eye were garlic scapes. What were these magical wand shaped things?

Apparently, the come from garlic bulbs and must be removed to help the garlic keep more resources for the bulb itself, rather than for the scape.

Lucky for us, we get to enjoy the stuff.

The scapes are VERY strongly garlic flavored (not for those garlic haters out there or um... vampires?...). We opted for a delicious garlic scape pesto which mostly got eaten on the end of carrot sticks, but was also delicious on whole wheat pasta.

Garlic Scape Pesto (from Dorie Greenspan)

Makes about a cup of pesto.

Ingredients
about 10 garlic scapes, finely chopped
1/3-2/3 cup of grated Parmesan
1/3 cup of slivered almonds
Up to a 1/2 cup olive oil
salt, to taste.

In a food processor, place the scapes, 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese, the almonds, and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Process. Add more olive oil and/or Parmesan to taste and texture preferences. Add salt to taste, mix well.

A tip from Dorie: if you're not going to eat the pesto immediately, place a piece of saran wrap over the surface to keep it from oxidizing and stash (covered) in the fridge. Covering is VERY important, this stuff will make everything else stink of garlic otherwise.

Carine Goren's Sweet Secrets in ENGLISH

2010-04-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

My favorite baking book, "Sweet Secrets" by Carine Goren has finally been translated into English and was released last month. I cannot recommend this book enough. Especially because a lot of the recipes will seem more 'unique' to the American palate. Plenty of cookies, "babka" type yeast cakes, cheese cakes, and fruit based cakes. Not so muchy heavy handed frosting. LOTS of chocolate.

So far the one good source seems to be Sifrutake which is an Israeli bookseller based in NYC but you can buy it online from them as well. Amazon doesn't have it (claims it's out of print... which is just not true). I myself have purchased books from Sifrutake without any problems.

Here's a taste of some of the recipes that I've featured of hers (though I've made many other recipes from the book):

Maple-Pecan Buttons

Mocha Krembo

Tasty Travels: Notes from a British Supermarket

2010-03-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

I'm staying across the pond (Nottingham, England, UK) for the next two months working with a collaborator and of course, one of my main fascinations if food.

Eating out would be prohibitively expensive for the next two months so I opted for a flat with a kitchen and I buy my own groceries. So far, I've visited two Sainsbury's, a small independent ethnic-y supermarket, and an organic grocery store in the Nottingham Area.

Here are some of my observations from the Sainsbury:

1. The selection of fresh veggies is not quite as extensive (no squashes!) and most of the stuff is prepackaged (a la Trader Joe's which after all is owned by the people who own Aldi). However, the produce is MUCH cheaper than I expected. I bought 4 small avocados for about $2 (£1.39). Though they are taking forever to ripen... I got some radishes for snacking, cherry tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, onions, lemons, plums (!), apples, clementines, greens, and mint, bell peppers, and cooked beetroots. I also saw celeriac root as large as a decent sized melon! Very cool.

2. Toiletries are ridiculous cheap as well. I bought a full size body wash for something like 10p (15 cents) and some decent tea tree oil shampoo and conditioner for just over 50p (75cents) each!

3. The cereal selection is much smaller, no waffle crisp here unfortunately (or my favorite Kashi Go Lean...) I opted for some generic rice krispies.

4. The dairy area is expanded. Whole milk is labeled 4%. Cream comes in yogurt tub-y containers and there is single cream (half-and-half), double cream, extra thick double cream, irish cream, etc.... So many types of butter (not in convenient "stick" form). Cheese, yogurt, everything. Not many brands I recognize (aside from the Activia stuff). I got some good Müller corner crunch yogurt which is really tasty. Though not as tasty as the Danone Stracciatella yogurt I had in Austria (which sadly they don't have here!).

5. Brits love chocolate bars, crisps (potato chips), and biscuits (cookies) and the area devoted to these things is really large and overwhelming. For week 1 I settled on some Chocolate Hob Nobs, mini Mars Bars (like more delicious Milky Way bars), Cadbury Fudge, Digestives, Wotsits, and Sour Cream and Chive (not onion!) Snack-a-Jacks. Yum.

6. Boy is there a lot of tea! I got me some PG Tips (which I find steeps too fast/strongly and I have to remove the bag immediately!) and some Jacksons Sencha Green Tea with Mint (which is reallllly good).

7. The cashiers SIT DOWN!! What a great idea!

8. My first trip to the grocery store -including groceries for the week, toiletries, tissues, detergent, pantry essentials like honey, salt, olive oil, pastas, and rice which should last me a good long time only cost me some £59 ($90). I found this really reasonable. My second trip only cost £19 ($29) and I haven't eaten out in Nottingham yet nor do I plan to eat out all week (until next weekend when cjr comes to visit!). In that sense, the UK is quite affordable (to live in) but probably not so much for visiting in a standard hotel and having to eat out all the time sense.

9. Please sent me suggestions on what to get on my next excursion out! I know I need to get some Quorn products soon. But tell me what your favorite biscuit, crisp, yogurt, etc... is I'm always looking for recommendations!

Daring Bakers February 2010: Tiramisu

2010-02-28T09:16:00.001-08:00

Not too many words this week, just photos. Click this link for a recipe.

Getting ready for my trip to the UK/Israel and haven't had time to really "reflect" on my time making tiramisu (which included homemade lady fingers and mascarpone). Here are some photos of the process to get you by...

For what it's worth, I think I'll stick to the store bought lady fingers as they were kind of a pain. The homemade mascarpone was a lot of fun! And the previous post (mascarpone/monterey jack mac and cheese) was inspired by the leftovers!

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

Super Quick Marscarpone & Monterey Jack Macaroni & Cheese

2010-02-11T18:49:00.000-08:00

I had some leftover mascarpone I used for a different recipe and I had to use it up quick as it doesn't keep long.

I also had quite a bit of monterey jack cheese lying around that I figured should be used so I decided on one of my favorite comfort foods: mac & cheese.

And surprisingly, it was one of the most delicious things I've ever eaten. The creaminess of the marscarpone paired nicely with the meltiness of the jack cheese. Awesome! The following is an approximate recipe and there's lots of leeway.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup flour
1-2 cups of whole milk
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (~100 g)
200 grams monterey jack cheese cut into small pieces or shredded (2 cups shredded)
Salt to taste
1 pound of corkscrew pasta, cooked

1. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan and add the flour, whisking constantly until a thick paste forms. Add a cup of milk a little at a time, whisking to incorporate well. Then add the mascarpone cheese, whisking constantly. Finally, add the jack cheese in batches and stir well.

2. When all the cheese is melted, add salt to taste.

3. Mix the cheese sauce and the cooked pasta and enjoy! Yum.

SF Vegan Bake Sale! February 13th, 2010

2010-02-10T17:52:00.000-08:00

This Saturday I'll be hawking my Vegan Coconut Milk Caramels at the SF Vegan Bake Sale! I've even made some chocolate covered! Come out and support two really awesome causes, and sample some tasty foods. Look, your Saturday is already been made awesome:

1. Order Sandwich at Ike's
2. Browse and purchase some baked goods while you wait
3. Take said baked goods/sandwich to Dolores Park and have yourself a mini picnic
4. Eat some Ice Cream at Bi-Rite or have some coffee at Ritual to top it all off!

Vegan/Vegetarian Beet Kubbe (Dumpling) Soup

2010-01-31T13:45:00.000-08:00

Kubbe (or Kubba) are semolina dumplings (usually) filled with a mixture of ground beef or lamb. It's a recipe I grew to love after visiting family friends who come from Iraq (These are Israeli Jews that immigrated from Iraq). I would totally be in favor of this becoming the national soup of Israel... Harira (which hails from my family's 'home' country) is a similarly delicious sour soup that, sadly, does not compare to the lovely purple-y dumplings in this Iraqi dish.

Sour Beet Kubbe soup is just kubbe (semolina dumplings) that are then cooked in a broth of beets, some aromatics, and a whole lot of lemon juice! The sour is the key component of this dish.

This year, we decided to incorporate it into our Christmas dinner. (A long with Smitten Kitchen's Sweet Potato & Swiss Chard Gratin, Ellie Krieger's Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, David Lebovitz's Quince Tarte Tatin, Alton Brown's Buttermilk Biscuits, 101 Cookbook's Cranberry Jam, some homemade Cherry/Chocolate ice cream, and a simple salad.)

Also, we opted to make it veggie. This soup is now actually VEGAN. (The only non-vegan component was the meat, and once that's taken care of there's not a drop of egg or milk in sight!)

Making this soup is an undertaking. The minimum amount of time you can expect to spend is about 2-3 hours and that's if you start making the soup first, then the filling, then the dumplings, and boil the dumplings just before your intended serving time. I did it over a more leisurely day, so I made my kubbe first and my soup last. You'll make about 2-3 dozen kubbe (no one should eat more than 3 in one sitting!) so you'll have plenty to share.

For the filling:
1/2 package "Meatless Ground" or "Soy Crumbles" (We used the Yves brand) (You'll need about 6 oz)
-- or an equivalent amount of ground beef (if you *must*)
1/2 tsp Baharat spice blend (or make some yourself, the first 'generic' recipe will do)
1/2 tsp salt
1 (very) small onion (or half a larger onion), diced
Oil for sauteing

For the dough:
500 g semolina flour (I used an italian brand, probably used for bread/pasta making but it was perfect)
200-300 mL of water
pinch of salt

For the soup:
About 6 medium/large beets peeled and diced into 1/2 inch chunks
1 onion, diced
10 cups of vegetable broth (or water) -- I used 6 cups homemade broth + 4 cups water
4 celery sticks, chopped
Oil for sauteing.
2 tablespoons brown sugar -- I used turbinado sugar
1/2 cup - 1 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed please!)
Salt/Pepper to taste
2 tbsp chopped celery leaves of cilantro (Optional)

To assemble the dumplings:
You'll probably make more dumplings than you can eat, but they freeze VERY well. I like to portion out 2-3 dumplings/person and only cook that many (they tend to fall apart when left in the cooking liquid too long). Just freeze them on a cookie sheet, and then, when hard, drop them into an airtight container/zip lock back and freeze for up to 6 months. Mmm.

Okay... on to the instructions.
To prepare the filling:
1. In a pan over medium/high heat heat the oil (olive is fine) and saute the onions until translucent.
2. Add the soy crumbles (or ground beef) and cook until it just starts to change color.
3. Make sure to break up any large chunks.
4. When cooking is complete, add the baharat and some. salt/pepper. Allow to cool.

To prepare the dough:
1. Mix the salt and semolina flour.
2. Start adding water, a little bit at a time, until the dough just comes together as you kneed it.
3. You do not want to add too much flour, as it will make your dough hard to work with. It's best to keep a little extra semolina around. Work fast, the dough dries out quickly.

To prepare the dumplings:
1. Place some water in a small bowl for dipping your hands in as you work.
2. Pinch off a small piece of dough (smaller than a golf ball, but not by much) and shape into a ball.
3. Using your thumb, press a deep whole into the ball and use your thumb to create some space in the ball (think "tunnel" more than opening it out. You want to make the top hole small and the "walls" of the dumplings fairly thin.
4. Then, fill the hole 3/4 full with the "soy/beef" filling. Make sure not to over stuff, close off the hole by pinching the ends shut.
5. You might need to dip your hand in water to make sure you get a really good seal on the filling (so it won't escape when boiling).
6. Continue this process until all your dumplings are filled (they should golf-ball sized now).
7. Now is the time to set aside the number of kubbe you expect to need, and freeze the rest.

To prepare the soup:
1. In a large soup pot over medium heat, saute the celery in some oil until soft. Next add the onions and saute until translucent.
2. When translucent, add the 10 cups of liquid (broth or water) and the beets.
3. Cook for an hour to an hour and a half until the beets are tender.
4. When beets are tender, add a 1/2 cup of the lemon juice and brown sugar and cook for an addition 20-30 minutes.

To cook dumplings:
1. Once your soup is ready (and with the pot still over medium heat), add as many dumplings as you'd like to serve (2-3/person) about 30 minutes before you expect to serve it.
2. When the dumplings float, they are done. Cut the heat and serve the soup. Do not continue to cook the dumplings as they will fall apart.

To serve:
1. Ladle some of the broth/beet mixture along with 1-2 kubbe into a bowl. Serve with the rest of the lemon juice so people can add some to taste (I like mine extra sour!)

Updated Coconut Milk Caramels

2010-01-31T13:15:00.001-08:00

I've been tinkering with the vegan coconut milk caramel recipe and I think I've found a more optimal method. I was inspired by David Lebovitz's caramel recipe.

I opted to separate the sugar/syrup with the rest of the ingredients to get a deeper caramel flavor. Also , I discovered (through the work of a friend) that you need to use LESS earth balance than say if you were to use smart balance because earth balance has a slightly higher fat content. I've altered the original recipe to say so, but I thought I'd point it out here. It still makes a good 60-80 caramels. Plenty to go around! Especially with Valetine's Day coming around. I wrapped some of mine in cute heart cellophane and put it in a monkey gift bag.

Ingredients:
2 cups (16 oz) coconut milk
2 cups sugar
4/5 cup margarine (I like earth balance). Note: if you're going to use smart balance use 1 full cup.
tsp of salt (only if using unsalted margarine)
1 cup corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Fleur de Sel for sprinkling.

1. Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment and grease the parchment with some oil or margarine.

2. In a large pot over medium-high heat combine the sugar and corn syrup. Using a candy thermometer, monitro the temperature of the sugar and corn syrup. Cook the sugars just until 310 F.

3. While the sugar is caramelizing, heat the coconut milk, margarine, and optional salt until the margarine is completely melted.

4. When the sugar as reached 310, add the coconut milk and margarine. Stir like crazy to combine the sugar and milk/margarine.

5. Bring to a boil and then to 245 degrees (soft ball state). This may take a while. Stir frequently.

6. Pour into parchment lined pan and sprinkle with fleur de sel (make sure to get the edges and corners!).

7. Allow to set overnight and then cut into chunks using kitchen sheers or a good knife. If it's particularly hard to cut, you can heat up the knife edge over the flame of a gas stove. That will help you get a cleaner cut as well. Wrap in wax paper or cellophane and enjoy!

Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Cornbread Biscuits

2010-01-31T12:45:00.000-08:00

We initially were going to make Isa Chandra Moskowitz's crepes, but I didn't read the fine "let sit for an hour" print and I (as well as cjr) was hungry so we opted for something much quicker. These biscuits were perfect, took about 5 minutes to assemble and only 14 minutes to bake! That's under 20 minutes start to plate.

Again, we halved the recipe (which was supposed to make 20-22 biscuits) and so we only ended up with 12.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 cup stone ground cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons + 2 tsp of canola oil
1/2 cup almond milk (or other nondairy milk)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 Serrano or jalapeno pepper, diced finely (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients (including the sugar). Then add the remaining ingredients and mix just to combine.
3. Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, dole out onto baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between biscuits.
4. Bake for 12-14 minutes. The tops of the biscuits will not brown, but they will become firm. They are done when the tops are firm and the bottoms are lightly browned.

Potato Salad [Vegan]

2010-01-31T12:15:00.001-08:00

Here my version of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Potato Salad that subs out the mayo for a more delicious (and healthful!) avocado dressing. You can peel your potatoes if you like, but I leave them on. They're full of good for you fiber anyway.

I halved the recipe and added more lemon juice & some cilantro. I decided to leave out the tomato because I don't like refrigerating tomato and I just knew this would be too much for us. This is enough to feed at least 4.

Ingredients:
1 pound fingerling potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch pieces.
1 ripe avocado
Juice of 1-2 limes or lemons (to taste)
1 small red onion, finely diced (or half of a larger one)
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
1 small cucumber, peeled and diced into 1/4 inch cubes
Cayenne (optional, to taste)
Salt (to taste)

1. Boil the potatoes in a large pot of salted water for about 15 minutes until the are fork tender. Remove and drain.
2. While the potatoes are cooling, put the avocado and lemon juice in a blender or food processor and blend until very very smooth. Once blended, add the cilantro and onion and pulled just to combine, but not too chop up very much.
3. In a large bowl, mix the potatoes and the avocado dressing. Here's the time to add more lemon juice, cayenne, and salt to taste.
4. Enjoy ASAP (like I need to tell you that...)

Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch, good for any time really.

2010-01-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

Recently I picked up a copy of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan Brunch: Homestyle Recipes Worth Waking Up For on a semi-impulse. This the "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" woman, so it can't be bad. I was a little concerned that it would just be strictly "brunch" foods but actually there are tons of any-time veggie recipes for well beyond the afternoon. There are also some nice recipes for vegan sausage so you can finally make your own. I suppose her recipes are a bit heavy on the items such as "nutritional yeast" which are probably way more common in a true vegan kitchen than my vegetarian kitchen for people who (unintentionally) eat mostly vegan foods but also have a bad cheese habit.

So far, I've made two things and they've both been excellent. I made her cornbread biscuits as well as an awesome potato salad that subs out mayonnaise (my most hated food) for avocado (possibly my favorite food in the world). The potatoes were really quite uniquely delicious. Think potato salad crossed with guacamole.

I'll post both the recipes. They are both very simple and take almost no time to prep. Get to it!

Gluten Free Graham Crackers & Nainamo Bars

2010-01-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

This months daring bakers challenge was gluten free graham crackets that then get used to make gluten free Nainamo bars.

The grahams where really good with a nice honey taste. They were awesome dunked in tea and really taste like the normal, gluten-y versions. Give them some room to breath when you bake them though, they spread out more than you expect.

The nainamo bars were better chilled (too sweet to be enjoyed room temp) but were still really nice. Couldn't locate any Bird's Custard Powder in time so I just used vanilla pudding mix, which turned out fine. I kind of wish I'd used more cream-to-butter in the middle layer as I think I would prefer soft and fluffy to hard and buttery.0

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

Coconut Milk Fleur de Sel Caramels [Vegan]

2010-01-14T10:26:00.000-08:00

Coconut Milk Fleur de Sel Caramels [Vegan]

I'm visiting a friend in Austin and I wanted to bring along a special treat, but this friend doesn't eat dairy so I had to improvise. I found a well reviewed, promising vegan caramel recipe and i decided to give it a try replacing soy milk with coconut milk.

I used Chaokoh brand coconut milk, which is quite rich (150 calories/third of a cup) so I wouldn't try this with a "light" coconut milk. This was more of a 'coconut cream'.

Also, your candy mixture will spend a long time at about 212 degrees (the boiling point of water) as the water evaporates out, that's okay. But just know that once it gets > 212 degrees it will rapidly approach 245.

Use a LARGE pot (I used my dutch oven). As the mixture gets to boiling it will bubbly quite a bit.

Next time, I think I might try caramelizing the sugar and then adding the remainder of the ingredients, as my caramels came out somewhat light. Another option would be doing 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown. If you don't have coconut milk lying around a soy-based creamer (or just soy milk) should suffice. Don't know about Almond milk, but if you try it, let me know.

The end taste was caramelly with notes of coconut-y toasted marshmallow. Really fabulous. Different than conventional marshmallows, but in a good way. Makes a good 75-100 caramels depending on how you slice it.

Other ideas: enrobing in chocolate is always nice. Lavender buds add a nice aromatic kick as well...

Ingredients:
2 cups (16 oz) coconut milk
2 cups sugar
4/5 cup margarine (I like earth balance). Note: if you're going to use smart balance use 1 full cup.
tsp of salt (only if using unsalted margarine)
1 cup corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
Fleur de Sel for sprinkling.

1. Line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment and grease the parchment with some oil or margarine.

2. In a large pot over medium-high heat combine the coconut milk, sugar, margarine, corn syrup, and (optional) salt. Insert a candy thermometer to check temperature.

3. Bring to a boil and then to 245 degrees (soft ball state). This may take a while (30 minutes or so). Stir frequently.

4. Pour into parchment lined pan and sprinkle liberally with fleur de sel (make sure to get the edges and corners!).

5. Allow to set overnight and then cut into chunks using kitchen sheers or a good knife. Wrap in wax paper and enjoy!

Sufganyot, Hannukah Doughnuts

2009-12-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

Once a year, I buy 2.5 liters of veggie oil and I make Sufganyot for all my friends. Sufganyot are Hannukah jelly doughnuts filled with jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. This recipe calls for lots of orange zest and fresh yeast (usually sold in the refrigerated section -near the butter -of most supermarkets in ~ 17g packs).

I tend to make mine very small so people can have a few and sample different jams, but the traditional ones are about ~ 3 inches in diameter.

Yes, that is 6.5 cups of flour! This recipe makes enough for about ~50 2 inch doughnuts (so probably about 2-3 douzen 3 inch ones). This year, we made 3 batches!! And yes, we had a lot of doughnuts (though we managed to get rid of all but three). A word of advice, you'll want to start making them about 3-4 hours before anticipated serving. You want to serve them as soon as possible because they cool/degrade quickly and are best served warm. If you're going to keep them beyond a day (not advised) heat them for a few minutes in a warm oven to re-crisp them.

Sufganyot

Ingredients
60 grams fresh yeast (sound in little cubes)
6 tablespoons sugar
1-1.5 cups warm milk
6.5 cups (780 grams) of all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
3 eggs + 2 egg yolks
150 grams margarine (or butter)
2 tablepoons brandy
1 tsp vanilla
about 1/4-1/2 cup orange zest (about the zest from 2 large navel oranges)
2+ liters of vegetable oil

1. In a medium size bowl, break up the yeast cake and sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar + 1/2 cup of warm milk and set aside.

2. In another bowl, combine the flour and salt.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the remaining 4 tablespoons of sugar, eggs, margarine, brandy, vanilla, and zest and combine well.

4. When the yeast is bubbly, add it to the sugar/egg mixture and combine well. Slowly begin to incorporate all the flour into the wet mixture. Once (more or less) combined, begin adding small amounts of milk until the dough becomes a soft ball. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place (near the stove is good) for at last an hour.

5. When the dough has risen, turn it out onto a very very well floured surface and sprinkle with more flour (I found you need to add lots of flour as you go). Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness and use a 2-3 inch diameter biscuit cutter to cut out circles from the dough. Place onto a cookie sheet to rest until you're ready to fry.

6. In the meantime (and heating a lot of oil takes a long time) heat up the oil in a heavy pan (I use a dutch oven). You'll need a thermometer for this step since good temperature management is important to doughnuts. 365-375 F is optimal for frying.

7. When your dough is nicely puffed and rested and your oil is hot, put a few doughnuts into the oil and allow to cook until brown on one side, and then flip to the other side to cool the other side. Make sure not to crowd the pan (5 doughnuts should be plenty) as that causes the temperature to drop and your doughnuts to absorb oil. Also, it's important to make sure that your temperature isn't so high that your doughnuts brown before being fully cooked.

8. Using a (metal) slotted spoon or spider, remove the doughnuts and place on a plate line with paper towel or a cooling rack set over a cookie sheet lined with paper towels to get rid of the residual oil.

9. Fill or serve with your favorite jam (raspberry is traditional, but this year I served mine with some homemade canned jam from the summer/fall: apricot, blueberry cinnamon, peach serrano, an cranberry apple.) Sprinkle with powdered sugar for the full effect.

What's on my table for Thanksgiving?

2009-11-25T10:27:00.000-08:00

Here's more of a 'roundup' post of what I plan to bring to a friends 'pot luck' thanksgiving.

1. "Cranberry Sauce". No one volunteered for this and when someone suggested "the can" I caved and decided to 'ad lib' a cranberry sauce. Basically, I took a cup of apple-cranberry jam from 101 Cookbooks that I had already canned. Then, In a food processor, I blended a good hunk of ginger with about 1/2 cup to a cup of orange juice - processed well, strained (squeeze the pulp well, keep the juice, ditch the pulp), and then added the ginger/orange concentrate (to taste) to the jam. I also added a pinch of cinnamon, some more orange juice, zest of one large orange, and a touch of powdered sugar (all of these 'to taste' -- this is by no means an exact recipe!). I ended up with about 1.5 cups of "sauce" which should be plenty for the 6 or so expected guests.

2. Parmesan Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes. I love this recipe as an alternative to the super-buttery mashed potatoes of yore. Nice and light. Perfect with chives.

3. Sweet Potato and Swish Chard Gratin. This was meant to be. I happened to have these ingredients from my last trip to the market, so I just had to make it. I hope my hosts won't mind a bonus dish! One of two smitten kitchen recipes making the trip. A real post about this to come?

4. Dessert! Yum. I'll be bringing along some of my Brown Butter Pumpkin Pecan Dulce de Leche Ice Cream. Along with some homemade dark chocolate magic shell!

5. Last but not least, I'm going to make Smitten Kitchen's Cranberry Caramel Almond Tart. But with a slight twist. We've made this before, and had some leftover filling and tart dough so we cut out shapes (think large sugar cookies) and baked the dough and filling separately. Then, just before serving, we scooped some filling onto the tart dough cookie and had a 'deconstructed' tart. This meant I could accurately gauge the baking of the tart dough and the filling without using anything fancy like pie weights. Plus, it will likely travel better this way. Last we made this, was for cjr's boss's tenure party and it turned out adorable (cjr's boss loves dinosaurs...)

I look forward to sampling all of the other guests homemade goodies. Especially more pie. Oh, how I love pie. No turkey for me though. I never liked the stuff anyway :)

Ginger Lime Concentrate for Tea or Soda

2009-11-14T18:43:00.000-08:00

So I'm sick. Could be some flavor of the flu, but that's unconfirmed.

In the meantime I'm spoiling myself with pea soup and mac'n'cheese, but I'm also considering my health. Aside from drinking far to much pedialyte (so much better than gatorade for dehydration! Mix unflavored pedialyte + italian soda syrup -- I like cherry -- for a much more effective electrolyte beverage) I'm also taking my mother up on her advice that I eat some ginger.... So here's something pungent to kick my cold.

Ginger Lime Concentrate
Two or three pieces of medium sized ginger, peeled.
Juice from 3 large, juicy lime (about 3/4-1 cup of juice)
1/4 cup water

1. In a food processor, process all the ingredeints for about five minutes. Stop frequently to scrape down the blade.

2. Strain the mixture into a bowl and discard the remainig pulp.

3. Store in the fridge for up to a few days (hopefully your cold willl subside by then!).

Ginger Lime "Tea"
8 oz boiling water
Honey (to taste)
Cayenne Pepper (optional)
1-2 tablsepoons Ginger Lime Concentrate (to taste)

1. Mix all the ingredients together. Sip and enjoy.

Ginger Lime Italian Soda
1-1.5 cups Chilled carbonated water (or soda water + ice). I use pellegrino.
2-4 tablespoons Ginger Lime Concentrate (to taste)
Sugar, simple syrup, honey, or agave nectar (to taste)

1. Mix all ingredients, add sweetener to taste, enjoy.

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

2009-11-13T13:33:00.000-08:00

Hot Chocolate is not just for children anymore. In fact, many have touted chocolate milk's role as a "cheap" recovery drink after a particularly strenuous workout (it has the right ratio of carbs/protein)

Now, I've written about Hot Chocolate before but I wanted a more convenient (and less calorie-laden) version while I'm away from home.

The little cafe in my office building actually makes a delicious, frothy hot chocolate but even though $2 is not that steep for a hot chocolate, the convenience of having it on hand and making it on a whim without having to go outside is enticing (and yes, saving some money here and there).

I went into the supermarket today on the lookout for a good mix, but what I found was that most of them cost something like $4/box and had only 8 or so servings! Besides, they were loaded with ingredients that read more like something I'd find in the stock room of Tan Hall* then what I would want to put in my body.

Instead of cocoa mix, I left the supermarket with a box of powdered nonfat milk. Judging by the back of the labels it seems like the other basic ingredients of cocoa mix I already had: good cocoa powder, sugar, and whatever other delicious flavorings I had.

Besides, think of the DIY possibilities for the holidays! Make a bulk amount of the hot cocoa mix, and send it off to friends in cute tins with instructions.

For the basic template I used Alton Brown's recipe with a few modifications.

I think it's best to attempt this if you either have a sifter, food processor, or decent blender. Otherwise your ingredients won't incorporate together well and you'll get an uneven mix that doesn't dissolve readily in hot water. Also, don't leave out the corn starch. It's acts as a thickener and the mix will just turn out watery if you omit it.

Basic Ingredients

1.5 cups powdered sugar
1 cup good quality cocoa powder
2.5 cups powdered milk
1 tsp salt (salt + chocolate = winning combination!)
1 tbsp cornstarch

1. In a blender, food processor, or using a hand sifter combine all of the ingredient until well blended and the texture of flour. If you are using a sifter, you may have to sift the ingredients together several times to achieve this consistency.

2. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

3. To make a cup of hot cocoa add about 8 oz (1 cup) of boiling water to 3-4 tablespoons of cocoa mix. Stir well, enjoy. If you want your cocoa a bit creamier, use heated (but not boiling!) milk instead of water.

Variations:

Process a few candy canes into a powder and add them to the mix to make a delightful "Peppermint Hot Chocolate"
Add a few pinches of cayenne pepper and a tsp of cinnamon to make a "Mexican" hot chocolate.
Other flavorings to consider: ginger, nutmeg, & cardamom.
Hot cocoa mix + instant coffee mix = convenient mocha (or just sub out the 8oz of water for 8oz of coffee!).
Sending them off to family with some homemade marshmallows is always recommended, though a truly delicious (homemade) vegetarian marshmallow eludes me (even though I know it's - deliciously - possible).
Of course you can play with the ratios/ingredients. Add more sugar or more cocoa. Or replace the nonfat powder with full fat milk powder. More cornstarch = thicker final product. Or, try soy milk or even goat's milk powder! [Disclaimer: I have no idea how this will play out, but it might be worth a test batch?]
Oh, and homemade whipped cream (heavy cream + pinch of sugar + hand mixer, mixed until whipped cream consistency) never goes out of style!

*Tan Hall is where the UC Berkeley chemistry department's stock room is. The only time I go in there is if I've run out of highlighters or kleenex tissues.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Pecan ice cream with Dulce de Leche Surprise

2009-11-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

Okay okay, so this is really just a variation on the Brown Butter Pecan recipe I posted, but it's festive, so it counts.

This recipe does take some planning. Here's a reasonable timeline for serving on (let's say) Saturday evening:

Thursday evening: "make" the dulce de leche, toast the pecans, and make the ice cream base.
Friday evening: churn the ice cream and add the pecans/dulce de leche as per instructions that follow and then allow to set in freezer overnight.
Saturday: enjoy the ice cream!

If you must, I suppose you could do the following:
Friday evening: dulce de leche/pecans/make ice cream base
Saturday morning: churn ice cream/add pecans & dulce de leche and set to freeze.
Saturday evening: enjoy the ice cream.

I highly recommend the dark chocolate magic shell to accompany the ice cream.

Brown Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Ingredients
1 cup butter (2 sticks), cut into cubes
1 cups milk
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar (divided)
7 yolks
1 tsp salt
2 cups chopped, roasted pecans (recipe follows)
1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz)
1 can dulce de leche (recipe follows)

1. Place the butter in a deep pan over medium heat and begin heating the butter, stirring or swirling often. The butter will start to foam and bubble but keep watching just as it starts to brown and smell nutty remove it from the heat. The process should just take a few minutes. If you 'over brown' your butter, just strain out all the brown bits.

2. Put your 6 yolks + half the sugar in a blender or food processor (you need a volume of about a quart + in the blender or food processor so to make sure you have enough room for all the liquids).

3. When fully combined, leave the blender or food processor running. Then, slowly pour the (strained) hot brown butter into the yolk/sugar mixture and keep blending until fully combined (if you don't blend while adding, you'll cook your eggs!).

4. Rinse out the pan you used for your brown butter and place the rest of the sugar, salt, and milk (but NOT the cream) in the pan over medium heat. Allow the mixture to get to a simmer and then cut the heat.

5. Again, while blending, add the sugar/milk mixture into the egg/brown butter mixture.

6. When all the yolks have been fully incorporated, poor off the liquid into a large bowl. Add the cream and pumpkin puree and mix to combine.

7. Allow to chill in freezer overnight.

8. Freeze as per manufacturers recommendations on your ice cream maker.

9. In the last few minutes of churning (or afterwords if your ice cream maker doesn't set your ice cream too stiffly) add in the chopped pecans.

10. Pour a 1/2 inch layer of ice cream into a lidded, wide container and then place 1-2 tsp size dulce de leche globs onto the layer, spreading evening, pour another layer into the container and repeat the dulce de leche glob process until all the ice cream is used up (or the container is full!) . Place a piece of parchment paper over the surface of the mixture (this will stop the leathery freezer burn-yness that tends to form on top of ice cream). Seal the container with the lid and place in the freezer to set fully. Enjoy in a few hours.

Pan Roasted Pecans
If you have another method you prefer for roasting nuts, go with it. (For example, in the oven on a sheet pan). This one is fast and easy (especially to watch so it won't burn).

Ingredients
2.5 cups raw pecans

1. Place the pecans in a dry pan over medium heat. Stirring constantly until a roasted smell starts to waft over you and the pecans just start to change color. Pour into an open countainer and allow to cool on the counter (do not seal the container as the water in the air may condense and fall onto your pecans causing them to 'wilt'). When they are cooled completely, close the container and store at room temperature until use.

No fuss Dulce de Leche
Do not be afraid of boiling a can! It's magical! While you're at it, I recommend boiling several cans at once since you might as well. You can just stash them on a shelf at room temp as long as the seal hasn't be compromised on the can.

Ingredients
1 can sweetened condensed milk

1. Remove the label from the can (this is an important step) and place in a large stock pot/canning pot. Cover with water and allow to come to a simmer. Make sure there is plenty of water covering the can and check on it periodically, adding hot water as needed.

2. Allow to simmer for 3 full hours. After 3 hours, cut the heat, remove the can (canning tongs are useful here, but household tongs should do the trick, otherwise just let it cool in the water) and allow to cool overnight. When you open the jar you'll find the easiest Dulce de Leche you've ever made!

Daring Baker's October Challenge: French Macaroons

2009-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macaroons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I was so excited to make this month's challenge : french macaroons. But mine came out terribly. The macaroons were chewy not light and crispy.

Also, I made an effort to make a 'tahini' filling (a la peanut butter buttercream). I mixed it with powdered sugar and it looked promising, until I thinned it with milk and it became glossy and tacky not smooth and creamy.

In the end they were OK but not really good enough to keep eat and we only managed to eat a couple before giving up on the disaster... ugh.

Brown Butter Pecan Ice cream with Homemade Dark Chocolate Magic Shell

2009-10-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

I recently spotted a Brown Butter ice cream recipe and thought how intriguing it sounded.

That first recipe used corn starch to thicken the recipe, which I've done before (a la Mark Bittman) but never loved as much as the egg yolk based "frozen custard" type recipes. So I went in search of a new recipe.

I found one that sounded delicious at Chez Pim but I decided to add a little bit more with some pan roasted pecans.

And just for fun, I added some dark chocolate homemade magic shell. mmmm...

We actually divided our churned ice cream in two and only used 1 cup of pecans in half the ice cream. You can do what you like with this information.

Brown Butter Pecan Ice Cream

Ingredients
1 cup butter (2 sticks), cut into cubes
1.5 cups milk
1.5 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar (divided)
6 yolks
1 tsp salt
2 cups chopped, roasted pecans (recipe follows)

1. Place the butter in a deep pan over medium heat and begin heating the butter, stirring or swirling often. The butter will start to foam and bubble but keep watching just as it starts to brown and smell nutty remove it from the heat. The process should just take a few minutes. If you 'over brown' your butter, just strain out all the brown bits.

2. Put your 6 yolks + half the sugar in a blender or food processor (you need a volume of about a quart + in the blender or food processor so to make sure you have enough room for all the liquids).

3. When fully combined, leave the blender or food processor running. Then, slowly pour the (strained) hot brown butter into the yolk/sugar mixture and keep blending until fully combined (if you don't blend while adding, you'll cook your eggs!).

4. Rinse out the pan you used for your brown butter and place the rest of the sugar, salt, and milk (but NOT the cream) in the pan over medium heat. Allow the mixture to get to a simmer and then cut the heat.

5. Again, while blending, add the sugar/milk mixture into the egg/brown butter mixture.

6. When all the yolks have been fully incorporated, poor off the liquid into a large bowl. Add the remaining cream and mix to combine.

7. Allow to chill in freezer overnight.

8. Freeze as per manufacturers recommendations on your ice cream maker.

9. In the last few minutes of churning (or afterwords if your ice cream maker doesn't set your ice cream too stiffly) add in the chopped pecans.

10. Pour into a lidded container and place a piece of parchment paper over the surface of the mixture (this will stop the leathery freezer burn-yness that tends to form on top of ice cream). Seal the container with the lid and place in the freezer to set fully. Enjoy in a few hours.

Pan Roasted Pecans
If you have another method you prefer for roasting nuts, go with it. (For example, in the oven on a sheet pan). This one is fast and easy (especially to watch so it won't burn).

Ingredients
2.5 cups raw pecans

1. Place the pecans in a dry pan over medium heat. Stirring constantly until a roasted smell starts to waft over you and the pecans just start to change color. Pour into an open countainer and allow to cool on the counter (do not seal the container as the water in the air may condense and fall onto your pecans causing them to 'wilt'). When they are cooled completely, close the container and store at room temperature until use.

Homemade Magic Shell

The real 'secret' to magic shell is coconut oil. Coconut oil is a liquid at room temp, but a solid at ice cream temperatures meaning that you can pour it on, but once it hits the ice cream it hardens forming a delicious, thin shell. Mmm. This version is so simple you'll wonder why you ever purchased a bottle from the store!

Ingredients
75 grams dark chocolate** (I used 72% dark)
50 grams refined coconut oil*
pinch of salt.

1. Chop the chocolate and place in the microwave. Heat for 30 seconds and then remove, stir. Heat for another 30 seconds and then remove, stir. By now, the chocolate should be completely melted. Add the coconut oil and salt. Mix to combine.

2. Store in a glass container at room temperature (NOT in the refrigerator) if the magic shell hardens because it's cold (winter time) just place the glass container in the microwave for a few seconds until it melts.

*If you use unrefined coconut oil your magic shell will have a 'coconutty' taste to it which some people (including myself) like.

**You can use any chocolate you like, we've even had success with white chocolate.

Old Time-y Cranberry Orange Coffee Cake

2009-10-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

thekitchn.com sent me the "Best of the BAKE-OFF Collection" a collection of recipes from the Pillsbury bake off that was first published in 1959 (with adorable old-time-y illustrations and flavors) for being one of the first to enter their quick weeknight meals contest.

When I saw fresh cranberries at the market, I knew I had to grab them. I came home with an idea about a cranberry cobbler or cranberry coffee cake and I decided to take a peak in the book to see if there was anything like that. Sure enough: Cranberry Crisscross Coffee Cake! PERFECT.

I prefer using a 9x13 casserole dish to the 8x8 dish suggested by the recipe so I multiplied all the ingredients by 1.5. Also, I added some orange juice to the cranberry orange mixture and a brown sugar/cinnamon topping at the end. I also swapped the shortening for butter. Mmm butter.

This cake was really moist and delicious, a more interesting take on a standard coffee cake. Really delicious!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
For cranberry mixture:
3 cups (12 ounces) fresh cranberries
Zest from 2 oranges, and juice from one.
1/2 cup walnuts, ground [I used pecans, because I could]
1 1/8 cup brown sugar
1.5 tablespoons flour

For cake batter:
2 1/4 All Purpose Flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) butter, softened
1 egg + 1 egg white, beaten
1.5 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup milk

For topping:
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter
2 tsp cinnamon

0. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a food processor or blender, pulse the cranberries to break them up. Move into a medium size bowl and add the orange rind, orange juice, walnuts, brown sugar and 1.5 tablespoons flour. Set aside.

2. In another medium bowl, sift the remaining 2 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter. Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter/sugar mixture.

4. To the butter and sugar mixture add in alternating installments the milk and the dry ingredients. The batter will be VERY thick.

5. Line a 9x13 casserole with parchment paper or aluminum foil and grease.

6. Spread half of the cake batter in the bottom of the dish.

7. Spread half of the cranberry mixture on top of the cake batter (don't worry too much about neatness).

8. Spread the remaining cake batter on top of the cranberry layer.

9. Spread the remaining cranberry ontop in any pattern you like (I did criss cross). It's best to leave at least a little of the batter exposed in the middle so that you can test more easily with a tooth pick.

10. Bake in the oven for 30-45 min until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Note, the cake we baked did not brown. Take cake out of oven and turn oven to "broil"

11. In the meantime, mix the 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, and 2 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl. When cake is done baking, sprinkle on top of cake, trying to coat evening.

12. Put the dish back under the broiler for 3-5 minutes until the top is nicely browned.

13. Allow to cool and enjoy!

Dessert for Dinner Butternut Squash Purée

2009-10-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

As a vegetarian, I'm always looking for good sides to bring to any thanksgiving I attend to ensure that I'll have something to eat. This is one of my favorites, that always wins over the hearts of vegetarians and carnivores alike. In my college days, I would often use store bought frozen butternut squash puree which does make this recipe a whole lot easier. If you're going to make the swap, just buy two standard size (12-16 oz) boxes of frozen butternut squash puree and heat as per the directions on the package and follow from step 5.

Serves 6-8

2 butternut squashes (about 4 lbs at the market)
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
vegetable oil for spraying
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons butter

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Cut squash in half, lengthwise. Scoop out sides and fibers surrounding seeds. Spray or coat lightly with vegatable oil and sprinkle cut side with salt. Place on a cookie sheet, cut side down, and roast for about 30-45 minutes until squash is fork tender and cooked through.
Remove from oven and allow to cool. When squash is cool enough to handle, scoop out flesh from skin and place in a food processor or blender.
In a food processor or blender, blend squash pulp until large chunks have disappeared. Make sure to allow some of the texture to remain. Think slightly chunky mashed potatoes not carrot soup.
Place the pureed squash in a large bowl and mix the pulp with the cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup.
At this point, you can store the mixture until you are ready to serve.
About 45 minutes before serving time, Preheat oven to 350 degrees again.
Pour squash mixture into a casserole dish and smooth the surface. Place in oven and heat until warm throughout (a good serving temperature) this time will vary depending on how cold your mixture started. You don't want to cook it, just to heat it back up. To save time and oven space, this step could also be preformed in a microwave.
When the squash mixture is warmed through, remove it from the oven or microwave and set the oven to broil
Pinch off pieces of the butter and distribute butter bits along the surface of the casserole. Don't worry too much about perfect distribution, just try the best you can. Sprinkle the brown sugar liberally over the top of the buttered casserole. You may need more brown sugar depending on the dimensions of your casserole dish (and home much crunchy, sugary topping you enjoy!)
Broil the squash dish for about 3-5 minutes until the butter has melted and the surface begins to bubble and brown. The top should set to be slightly crunchy, like the surface of a good crème brûlée. Serve immediately.

I posted this to food52 in hope of submitting it for their 'fall vegetable puree' contest. How can sugar and maple syrup laden vegetables not be appealing???

Almond, Cinnamon, Cranberry Rice

2009-09-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

For the Jewish New Year my mother usually prepared her stand-by rice dish: almond and raisin rice flavored with cinnamon.

I cannot stand Raisins.... but I love dried cranberries. If you must, you can switch back to Raisins or Currants.

Here's my take on my family's simple classic:

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 cup dried cranberries, chopped (or raisins, currants)
1 cup slivered almonds (the flat kind are better than the long skinny kind)
2-3 tablespoons cinnamon (to taste)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of salt.

1. Cook the rice as per package instructions.

2. In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the cranberries and cook for about a minute or two. Then, add the brown sugar and almonds.

3. When the cranberries are crisped and the almonds begin to brown, cut the heat. Mix in the cinnamon and a pinch of salt.

4. Enjoy with an extra sprinkle of salt for a nice sweet-salty combination.

5. Serve by sprinkling the cranberry/almond/cinnamon topping over the rice.

....Now if I could only find some photographs!

Vote for me? Again?

2009-09-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

I entered the "quick meals" contest with my Quinoa Tabouli. I need all of your support!

Figs: Go Eat Some*

2009-08-27T00:30:00.000-07:00

*A friendly reminder from a lax contributor.

Dobos Torte!

2009-08-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Daring Bakers Challenge this month was a Dobos Torte, which was a layered sponge cake with chocolate butter cream, hazelnuts, and some caramelized cake pieces.

My caramelized cake pieces were wayyyy too hard/candy like, probably heated too much? Perhaps some heavy cream in the caramel to make a kind of milkier caramel would be better?

Here's a recipe link from the host!

The fine print:

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Vote for Me

2009-07-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

My cupcake is up for the Iron Cupcake Earth challenge and I, you know, for those of you who actually read this, thought maybe you might vote for me? Please?

Thanks!!

If you don't remember... it's these guys up for the vote.

Buttermilk-Free Whole Wheat Yogurt Pancakes

2009-07-27T22:48:00.000-07:00

Much like the Banana Cake and it's sour cream substitution, I don't keep around buttermilk -- but I do keep around yogurt. So when I get a craving for homemade pancakes I have to make the swap. Luckily, it's not just me who does this swap and lots of people have tried it before.

I used this recipe since it had some nice praises sung about it.

I couldn't tell the difference between these pancakes and normal buttermilk-y ones, so this was clearly a successful swap. I did end up doing half pastry flour (white) and half whole wheat since I didn't have any whole wheat pastry flour.

Makes enough to fill me & cjr very happily.

Ingredients
1/2 cup (white) pastry flour + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour OR 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used 2%, nonfat is fine)
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt (I used Greek yogurt -- nonfat is fine)
1 cup blueberries, sliced strawberries, sliced bananas, or basically any other fruit you like in pancakes (optional)
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1. Mix the dry goods (flour, baking soda and baking powder).

2. Mix the yogurt, milk, and egg in a separate bowl.

3. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir to combine. Do not beat out all the lumps! Leave the batter lumpy as it will give you a less 'runny/thin' pancake.

4. Over medium-high heat, heat up a griddle or frying pan and butter it or spray it with canola oil. Pour a small amount of batter onto pan or griddle (enough to make a 3-4 inch diameter pancake) and allow to cook on that side until bubbles start to appear in the center of the pancake. Flip at this moment. Allow to cook another 30 seconds to a minute and remove from heat. Store in a warmed oven (about 200 degrees) until ready to serve - which should be almost immediately after preparation.

5. If you want to add fruit or chocolate, do so after you pour the mixture onto the griddle/pan. I always just add a few blueberries as it's cooking and then when it flips the blueberries burst into their warm gooey goodness.

Frozen Greek Yogurt

2009-07-27T16:18:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm done with my marathon, I can't go around eating cherry pie, banana cake, and Mallows willy-nilly so sometimes I opt for a less-bad-for-me treat. I absolutely adore Greek Yogurt. I eat the nonfat kind almost every day for lunch so I figured frozen greek yogurt would be even better. I opted for a very simple preparation of mixing 3 cups 2% Greek Yogurt (I used the Trader Joe's kind which comes in 1 pint containers). You will need an ice cream maker here.

This is a nice - but basic - recipe with minimal ingredients. You an always doctor it up with toppings (fruit salad? chocolate sauce? MAGIC SHELL?).

Also, as long as your ice cream machine is ready, no need to stash the yogurt mixture in a fridge overnight as it should already be refrigerator cold as long as your yogurt has been stored in the fridge up until its use (and I would hope so!).

Also, it's easy to experiment with more interesting flavors. Fresh fruit is an obvious choice. Puree some fruit and put it in there adjusting the sweetness to account for the added fruit sugar. Or, replace the honey with preserves (which contain more or less an equivalent amount of sweetness). You could even add some peppermint extract, say about a tsp, and throw in some chocolate (melt the chocolate and drizzle in as your ice cream is churning). Or even some frozen cherries (roughly chopped) and chocolate (same deal was the peppermint kind). Make sure to "sample" your creation before churning and remember -- things don't taste as sweet when frozen so err on the side of "slightly too sweet" rather than "slightly not sweet enough".

Ingredients
2 cups (1 pint) Greek Yogurt*
50 grams honey [about 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon of honey]
1/4 tsp of vanilla (optional)**

1. Mix the ingredients together. Taste, if you want it more sweet, go ahead add some more honey.

2. Freeze as per the directions of your ice cream maker.

3. Serve immediately (soft serve) or after about an hour in the freezer. You really don't want to let it freeze all the way... Frozen Yogurt doesn't freeze as well as Ice Cream since it's likely to contain less fat and sugar.

*Note on Yogurt: I used the 2% variety but I'm sure no one will complain if you use full fat. I'm not sure how the texture would work with non-fat but if someone wants to try it and report back, that's fine by me.

**Note on Vanilla: Adding too much vanilla will make your yogurt start tasting more like "vanilla" yogurt rather than honey yogurt, so if you don't want that, just skip it.

Lavendar Jasmine Green Iced Tea with Mint Infused Simple Syrup

2009-07-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

I once had plans to use some lavender for the Iron Cupcake Earth Herbs challenge, but in the end, I decided on my lovely Sage recipe and lost interest in the lavender. The poor lavender stalks were in a vase by my window without water and of course dried up. But all is not lost, now I have a nice stash of dried lavender leaves to use for my diabolical plans.. I mean... to make tea.

Lavender Jasmine Green Tea "Concentrate"

Ingredients
About 4 Tablespoons (Jasmine) Green Tea (loose) (See note re: Bags)
1/4-1/2 tsp dried lavender leaves (See note to follow)
1 quart water

1. Boil a quart of water, pour over loose leaves - I don't use a tea ball here because its way too much tea and the tea expands. A large French Press does the job beautifully.
2. Steep for 3 minutes
3. Strain off the leaves
4. Stash in fridge to cool.

Tea Note:
If you don't have loose you can use regular the tea bags (I'd use about 6), just get a large bowl and let the tea bags float in there with the lavender. When the tea is done steeping, just fish out the bags and then strain off the lavender.

Lavender Note:
You have two options 1. Purchase fresh lavender if you can find it or 2. Buy some dried lavender (plenty of online sources). Either way make sure you're buying CULINARY lavender as the other stuff is often treated with nasty not-for-eating chemicals.

To Dry Your Own Lavender:
Let it sit out near a window or in a dry hot place until dry - take about a week. I just put mine in a vase without water and just let it hang out. Remove flowers/buds from the stems and store in tightly sealed container.

Mint Infused Syrup

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
A few stalks of fresh mint leaves (About a quarter to half a bunch is more than enough usually)

1. Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan just until the sugar dissolves completely. Cut the heat.
2. Add the fresh mint and let it sit for 30 minutes. Remove the mint.
3. Store and use to sweeten whatever you like. For me, I often use it in tea. Green tea + mint infused syrup makes a pretty fast "Moroccan Mint Green" tea.

Note on Storage:
I put it in the fridge, though I doubt anything this sugary will sustain life... the fridge may encourages crystallization so I always get a layer of rock candy on the bottom of my container.

Tea Assembly
Your "tea" mixture is going to be very strong so dilute it to your liking. Usually, I use 1/3 cup tea concentrate and add another 2/3 cup water to dilute. You may find that you prefer 1/2 cup concentrate + 1/2 cup water -- Always best to start less dilute, taste, and then continue to dilute if you think it's still too strong. Then add your desired amount of syrup. I usually add about a half to a tablespoon of syrup for each cup of tea I end up with. Again, always add less and then add more as you taste to find your optimal sweetness level.

Roasted Banana Bread Sheet "Cake" with Honey Cinnamon Frosting

2009-07-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

Oh the humble sheet cake, once reserved for lazy days when all you want is cake but all you have is a box of betty crocker mix and a tub of funfetti frosting!

No more, I say, bring the sheet cake back! It's so simple, every bit as delicious as cupcakes, and has a higher surface area for frosting and no need to pre portion out how much cake everyone gets, you decide how big or small a slice you want.

I am of the belief that good cake recipe makes a good cupcake and the other way around, so when I saw this Banana cake recipe in Martha's book I decided it's time for the 9x13 pyrex pan to come out. Also, I don't have sour cream, but I did have lowfat greek yogurt which I used in it's place.

And sure, you can make cupcakes out of this if you like. Makes about 16 cupcakes or one sheet cake.

Banana Cake

Ingredients
3 ripe bananas
2 cups cake (not the self rising kind) or pastry flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup low fat yogurt (I used 2% greek)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pecans, toasted in a pan and chopped (optional)
Honey-Cinnamon Frosting [Directions to follow]

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Place the bananas on a cookie sheet and roast for about 15 minutes (they'll get pretty dark). When the bananas are done roasting, remove them and allow to cool before attempting to peel.

3. In the meantime, grease a 9x13 baking dish with some canola oil or butter.

4. Mix the cake flour, baking soda and powder, and salt.

5. Cream/Mix the butter and sugar until pale and fluffly. Add the egg yolks, one a time, to the mixture and mix until fully incorporated.

6. Peel the (cooled) bananas and remove the inside and mash the insides (discard the black peel!). Add the bananas to the butter/sugar/egg mixture.

7. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 3 batches. Alternate between adding a batch of flour and a batch of yogurt.

8. Add in the vanilla.

9. In another bowl, whip the eggs until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the rest of the batter to lighten the batter. Then, fold in another 1/3 of the egg whites before adding in the last 1/3.

10. Fold in the pecans (optional).

11 .Pour into the greased 9x13 inch glass dish and spread out evenly. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the edges begin to brown and a toothpick inserted into hte middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting (recipe follows).

12. Use an offset spatula and frost the sheet cake. Or, cut into bars and allow people to frost their own slices so they can decide how much or how little to take (trust me, there will be A LOT of frosting).

13. For bonus point presentation, drizzle top with a bit of additional honey and a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened and at room temperature
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons honey
1.5 cups powdered sugar.

1. Mix/Blend all the ingredients together until well combined. I used my trusty hand held mixer to do the job.

Sour Cherry Slab Pie

2009-07-27T13:48:00.001-07:00

Smitten Kitchen gets me everytime. The moment she posted her recipe for "Slab Pie" (kind of like a cross between pie and a pop tart) I decided I needed to, no, HAD to find me some sour cherries ASAP!

Well, low and behold, they're not really grown in CA. Shucks. But they are grown in Idaho! And the Berkeley Bowl seems to get them (shh don't tell my locavore friends! like you've never eaten a mango people....). Idaho isn't far, right?

Well, either way, I snatched up 2 lbs of these guys (and I needed every last one for this recipe!) and the plan was in motion.

You can also use this to make a regular, circular pie. But keep the filling amount the same and multiply all the ingredients of the crust by 2/3.

First things first, dough time. I used Smitten Kitchen's dough recipe.

Pie Dough for Slab Pie (1.5 x normal pie dough recipe).

Ingredients
1.5 cups of water
4 or 5 ice cubes
3.75 cups of flour
1.5 tablespoons of sugar
1 tsp of salt
3 sticks of VERY COLD butter (1.5 cups) in 1/2 inch cubes

1. Place the ice cubes in the water and allow to chill out.

2. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a very large bowl or in the workbowl of a food processor.

3. If you are using a food processor, pulse until the butter is in pea size pieces. Otherwise, use a hand held pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour until the pieces are pea size. Avoid using your hands as it will heat up the butter. Larger irregular sized pieces are better than smaller fully incorporated ones.

4. Start adding the ice cold water (without the ice please!) by adding a cup to the flour/butter mixture and combine either in the food processor with a few quick pulses or using a rubber spatula if by hand. Keep adding small amounts (a few tablespoons at a time) of water until the mixture comes together. You may need your hands to 'stick' the clumps all together.

5. Divide the dough into two equally sized pieces, wrap in plastic wrap, form into 6 inch disks and stash in the fridge for at least 1 hour though 2 hours is better. You can also keep the dough ready for about a week in the fridge or freeze it for longer term storage -- just add some bonus layers of plastic wrap or Aluminum foil to seal it shut.

Now... the filling!
Ingredients
2-3 lbs of cherries (or 6 cups of cherries, pitted -- pitting instructions follow)
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
juice of half a lemon
pinch of salt
one egg, beaten with a table spoon of water.

1. You'll need to pit the cherries and I have no use for a unitasker like a pitter. I do, however, have a round piping tip which has an opening the exact same size as a cherry pit. So, to pit the cherries, I got out a cutting board and put the piping tip large side down (small opening up) like a little teepee. Then I took a cherry and placed it upside down (the part that attaches to the stem down) and with pushed it halfway down on the tip and twisted it to release the pit. You should be left with a scooped out looking cherry, minus the pit but still completely in tact! No smashing with the back of a knife required. There are other ways too, Martha has a one involving a paper clip.

2. Now the hard part is done! Mix the rest of the ingredients together with the pitted cherries and set aside.

Assembling the pie
Extra ingredient: One egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water.

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a RIMMED cookie sheet with parchment.

2. Take one of your two dough packets and roll it out until it's a bit larger than the bottom of the cookie sheet. You'll want to generously flour your surface, top of the flour, and rolling pin to do this. And to turn the dough often to make sure it doesn't stick, if it starts to stick, it's time for another sprinkle of flour! When your dough is large enough, roll it up onto your rolling pin and transport it to the cookie sheet where you can roll it out again into the cookie sheet. Allow the dough edges to hang over the edge.

3. Dump your filling into the center and spread out as evenly as possible.

4. Prepare the second piece of dough just like the first. Move it ontop of the filling and bring the bottom crust over hang up and over the top crust and pinch shut.

5. Brush with the egg/water mixture and prick all over with a fork to let the steam out.

6. Bake for about 40-50 minutes until the crust is a nice golden brown color.

7. Allow to cool fully, then prepare the glaze (recipe follows) and drizzle on top.

Glaze
Ingredients
1 cup powdered sugar
1+ tablespoons of water

1. Mix the sugar and the water until the consistency of a glaze (just slightly thicker than honey) is achieved. You shouldn't need much more than 2 tablespoons if that.

Daring Bakers Challenge July: Mallows!

2009-07-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

My first Daring Baker's challenge! Mallows! This really was a challenge for me because I had to try to get a vegetarian version of the mallows going, which is no small feat!

Anyway.....

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

So what is a "Mallow" well it's kind of like a cookie version of a s'more. You take a biscuit, add some marshmallow, and dip in chocolate. There was a decent recipe for a veggie marshmallows that had the right texture but not quite the right structure, so I had to improvise on technique and ended up with square instead of circular mallows. Also, I think this recipe would've been better off with a different cookie bottom. For example, I bet smitten kitchen's graham crackers would've been perfect. The cookie base in this recipe was a bit to 'eggy' for my taste. Also, the cookie recipe makes WAY TOO MUCH. So I've scaled it down to a third of the original amounts.

Okay, here's the recipe:

Mallows(Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies)

Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Ingredients
1 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 egg, whisked
Some butter/canola oil to grease pan.
Marshmallows, recipe follows
Chocolate glaze, recipe follows

1. Combine the dry ingredients and mix.

2. Using a handheld or stand mixer (paddle attachment), put the dry ingredients in the bowl of the mixer (or whatever you have) and add the butter just until sandy.

3. Add the egg and mix.

4. Form into a disk, wrap with plastic wrap/parchment and stash in fridge for 1 hour or up to 3 days.

5. Before baking, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Here is where my method departs from the posted recipe:

6. Line a casserole dish [9x13 pyrex dish for example] with parchment paper (cut out the shape of the bottom of the dish].

7. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness in the exact shape/size of the parchment sheet you just cut out in step 6.

8. Transfer to the dough into the casserole dish and bake for 10-20 minutes or until light golden brown. Note, the center will take longer to cook than the edges, so turn the pan frequently. If you have some cake strips, this would be the time to use them.

9. When you remove the cookie from the oven you will need to score it. Using a knife/pizza cutter/pastry cutter 'score' the cookie into 1inch squares. [Scoring means making cuts into the cookie without separating the cookies from each other think the lines on a chocolate bar that allow you to break it apart easily] Let cool to room temperature.

10. When the cookies have cooled completely, make that marshmallow mixture. Grease the sides of your pan with the cookie bottom with some butter or vegetable oil spray (marshmallow sticks to everything!) and pour the marshmallow mixture on top of the cookies and stash in the fridge overnight until "set".

11. When the marshmallow have set, go ahead and prepare the chocolate glaze. Line a cookie sheet with parchment so that you have a place to put the glazed cookies.

12. Go ahead and "break apart" your cookies, It may be hard to dig underneath to get the first one, but if you scored well they should be easy to separate. Then, dunk the cookies into the chocolate glaze and coat well (a fork is handy for this).

13. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.

14. Place on the cookie sheet and put back in the fridge to set (the marshmallows will get runny if left out!) until the coating is firm, about an hour.

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients
12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
2 ounces vegetable oil or cocoa butter

1. Melt the 9-10 ounces of the chocolate and the vegetable oil in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water. Once melted, remove from heat and add remaining chocolate and mix until all the chocolate is melted (give it some time!).

Marshmallows [Vegetarian]
*Note, I've doubled the recipe from what I used because I think it could use more marshmallow-y goodness.

Recipe from: Demolition Desserts

Ingredients
120 mL water
1/4 tsp of cream of tartar
510 grams sugar
510 grams light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp extract
170 grams egg whites (about 6 egg whites)
10 grams Xanthan Gum (Bob's Red Mill makes a good one)
If making actual marshmallows and not just mallows from above
LOTS OF CORNSTARCH

1. Grind Xanthan with 2 tablespoons of the sugar and set aside.

2. Caveat: you will need a candy thermometer! Gently heat water, cream of tartar, remaining sugar, corn syrup, and the vanilla until it reaches 120F.

3. While the mixture is heating, use the balloon whisk of your stand mixer and beat the egg whites to soft-to-stiff peaks (somewhere in between is best). Slow the mixing down and add the hot syrup slowly. Sprinkle in the Xanthan gum and crank up the speed of the mixer. Continue mixing until the meringue pulls away from sides of bowls and starts creeping up the whisk.

4. Proceed from step 10 of Mallow recipe.

ALTERNATIVE STEP 4: (if you want to make actual "Marshmallows").
Get out a 9x13 baking dish and grease with butter/canola oil and then sprinkle with cornstarch (liberally to coat). Next, pour in the marshmallow-y mixture. Sprinkle the top with some more cornstarch and then stash in fridge to set. Cut using a knife that's been greased and dipped in cornstarch and then roll cut pieces in some more cornstarch to store. Stash in fridge. [These marshmallows have a tendency to 'spread' when left out at room temp... trust me, I learned this the hard wash]

Staples

2009-07-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

The things I try to keep on hand at all times!

Here's a sampling of my favorites that I find myself using over and over again:

Lemons: I don't keep salad dressing, but I do keep lemons. Lemons + Olive Oil + Salt is what I grew up on. Good for, you know, everything else I make. As a kid, going to sleepeovers I'd have dinner at my friends' houses and I would be shocked that they had no fresh lemons for their salads. Sometimes, your semi-foreign-ness sticks out like a sore thumb.

Canned tomatoes: I don't buy the jarred sauce, too much money, not enough flavor. But a can of diced/whole/crushed tomatoes and you're basically 5 minutes away (or your pasta cooking time) away from "homemade" sauce. Saute some minced garlic in olive oil, add the tomatoes, some salt and cook down. In the final moments through in some chopped basil and you're good to go. Also, wonderful for adding some body to soups and stews!

Quinoa: cooks faster than brown rice, tastier, better for you, and almost impossible to mess up. Use it wherever you'd normally use couscous, rice, bulgur, barley, etc... You just might have to adjust the cooking time/method.

Tahini: Good for some impromptu hummus or mix with some olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and thin with water and you've got yourself a mighty fine salad dressing!

Cumin/Paprika/Coriander/Cayenne Pepper: One of my favorite classic Moroccan spice combinations. I use these so much more often than dried basil/oregano/garlic/onion which is probably what most people are used to. Use it to make Harissa, any kind of meat, most fishes, in Hummus, stews... mmmmmm.

Honey: I guess most people have some on hand, but I go through it like crazy. I mix a bit of honey + lime or lemon juice and pour it over fruit salad. I sweeten most of tea with the stuff, I mix it with ricotta to make a delicious frosting.

Frozen fruit: Great to make Mark Bittman's Pseudo-Sorbet or just to eat in a bowl (microwave until unthawed!) when they're out of season. One of my favorite things is taking a bag of almost any kind of berry and turning it into berry sauce for pancakes or french toast.... so easy but you always look like the hero!

Fresh Spinach: I don't like salads made of JUST spinach, but spinach is so good at 'hiding'. I mix it 50:50 with mixed greens for my salads and I almost never notice it, I add it to my pasta sauces, stews, and soups. I sprinkle it on my omelettes. Healthy and you can hardly tell it's there! Sometimes I just take some baby spinach and put it in a skillet with some feta cheese until the spinach wilts and the cheese melts and just eat I like that! Like a spanikopita minus the phyllo dough.

Frozen Gnocchi: Ok, I'm not perfect. I don't make everything from scratch. I've tried and failed at making my own Gnocchi (or rather, it's just never as good as the Trader Joe's kind). Sometimes I'll add some chopped spinach into Trader Joe's Gnocchi Alla Sorentina and call it a meal!

Egg Whites: The kind in the carton. I prefer them for eating (never cared for yolks) and they're perfect for making swiss meringue butter cream because they're pasteurized so they don't have that nasty salmonilla problem! Great for baking.

Peach and Blueberry Vodka Pops

2009-07-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

On a particularly hot day I decided to make these particularly refreshing Popsicles. The original recipe has Tequila too, but I didn't have any so I swapped Vodka. They didn't set entirely solid, so I I decided to reduce the vodka a bit in this recipe. Makes enough for about seven 1/4 cup volume pops [i.e. it makes makes 1.75 cups of popsicles mix - measure your pops by filling with water and then dumping into a measure cup so you now how many pops to start by taking 1.75 cups and dividing by the volume that your pops can hold.]

Ingredients
Peach layer
2 large peaches
3 tablespoons sugar
5 tsp vodka
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Boil water deep enough to blanch the peaches. When the water is boiling, add the peaches and turn after 30 seconds just until the skin is coming off. Remove from water, and peel. Remove the pit and cut into chunks.

2. In a food processor, process the peach chunks with the remaining ingredients. You can leave this layer chunky if you like [my preference] or attempt to pass through a fine sieve if you like it more smooth.

3. Get out the number of popsicles you've calculated that you need. and fill one quarter full (for 1/4 cup popsicle molds that equals 1 tablespoon) and put in freezer to set the first layer. Do not put in the popsicle sticks yet.

Blueberry layer
1 pint blueberries
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tsp vodka
2 tsp lemon juice

1. Puree all the the blueberry layer ingredients in the food processor until smooth and then pass through a fine sieve [you don't want those gritty seeds!].

Assembling the layers

1. Once the first layer starts to set (about 20 min) add another 1/4 amount of the blueberry puree (1 tablespoon). Again, allow another 20 min to set.

2. Repeat, alternating with another peach layer followed by another blueberry layer. Allow each layer to set for 20 minutes before pouring in the next one. Finally, put in the popsicle mold sticks and allow to freeze until set for a few hours. Remember, the popsicle sticks need to get in there before the thing sets completely so don't wait too long between layers.

Endnote, to be honest, I found the layers a bit fussy. I think next time I will just pour individual blueberry and peach popsicles.

Red Kidney Bean Dip [in the style of hummus]

2009-07-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've tried to make hummus from canned chickpeas, and I don't know why, but it never works. But I love using other beans from cans so I thought I'd give it a try.

Some notes: I present here the simplest possible recipe. Also, I like to omit the garlic because it starts overwhelming the flavor when left in the fridge but if you feel so inclined, just before serving mince a clove and mix it in. Also, I've omitted things like cilantro, parsley, cumin, paprika, etc.. because well that would be fussy. I leave those as optional "to taste" ingredients. The only things you absolutely must have are: a can of beans, lemons, salt, olive oil, and tahini or peanut butter. You will also need a food processor or a good blender.

Ingredients:
1 can (15 oz-16 oz) red kidney beans -- or whatever bean you have around.
juice of 1-2 lemons, to taste
2 tablespoons tahini (or peanut butter)
1 tablespoon olive oil + more for garnish
salt, to taste
(Optional) 3 cloves garlic minced
(Optional) 1/4 cup minced cilantro or parsley
(Optional) tsp cumin
(Optional) tsp paprika, sweet or smoked

0. [Optional] If you're adding the garlic in the beginning, I recommend putting the cloves in the food processor first, pulsing them to mince and then moving on to the next step. I use the smaller bowl that fits inside the larger one of my food processor for this dish.

1. Drain and rinse the can of beans. Place the beans in the food processor (Again, I have a small bowl that fits into the larger one that was the right size for this task). Add juice of one lemon along with the tahini or the peanut butter and process until very smooth.

2. To serve: mix in optional clove of garlic, and then spread a layer onto a plate and then drizzle
some olive oil on top along with a small pinch of salt and a sprinkle of paprika or cumin if you like.

Martha's Cherry Almond Tea Cakes

2009-07-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

For my Birthday, my good friend from from childhood got me Martha's Cupcake Book. Which is a wonderful addition to my small (but growing) collection of cookbooks and baking books. Since it was cherry season around here I decided that these little almonds tea cakes were too cute to pass up. The recipe was much more fussy than I like [it required grinding unblanched almonds] so I just went out and bought some Almond meal which made it so much more simple! And yes, the stems and pits remain on the cupcakes so best to feed these to adults and children who can handle the pits. They are best consumed warm when the cherry has that bit of cooked cherry give to it and stored at room temp for up to a 2-3 days.

Makes about 30 mini cupcake size cakes

Ingredients:
1.25 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, plus more for buttering the cupcake pan
1 cup all-purpose flour, and more for coating the cupcake pan
1.25 cups almond meal [or ground up unblanched almonds, you can leave those skins!]
1 cup sugar
1 tsp coarse salt [or 1/2 tsp regular salt, remember always use less table salt than course]
5 egg whites [I use the ones in the carton so as to not make yolk waste]
4 tsp kirsch (cherry brandy) or regular brandy if you don't have any kirsch [I used regular]
At least 30 sweet cherries, stems attached

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Butter up your mini muffin tin and coat it with a fine layer of flour, shaking off the excess.

2. Brown the butter: in a small saucepan on medium/medium-high heat melt the butter. Swirl occasionally until the butter is just slightly brown. Before removing from heat, skin off any foam on top.

3. Combine the flour, almond meal, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Once combined, whisk in the egg whites and continue to mix until smooth.

4. Add the kirsch or brandy followed by the browned butter [leave those burnt bits in the bottom of the pan, you do not want that in your food - bleh]. Allow your batter to rest for at least 20 minutes.

Now you have two options, option 5a is the way I did it [cherries showing] option 5b is the way Martha does it [cherries covered]

5a (if not using 5b). Fill the mini cupcake tray tins about 3/4 of the way with batter. Lightly press a cherry [stem up!] into the center so it's just slightly submerged [think buoy in water, about halfway] and bake for 12-15 minutes until a toothpick goes through the cupcakes [on their sides, not through the cherry] and comes out clean.

5b (if not using 5a). Fill the mini cupcake tray tins about halfway with batter. Next, press a cherry into the middle of the cupcakes and then pour some more dough on top just enough to cover the cherry [make sure the stem is still poking through!]. Bake for 12-15 minutes until a toothpick goes through the cupcakes [on the side or just before hitting the cherry] clean.

6. Allow to cool for 10 minute and then run a knife around the edges to loosen them and then flip them over and out of the pan and enjoy!

Heirloom Tomatoes with Deconstructed Pesto

2009-07-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

First off, let me start by saying that I have never enjoyed pesto. For a long time this remained a mystery to me. I mean, I adore basil... and what's not to like about Parmesan cheese and olive oil? Not until I got a bit older did I find out the culprit: pine nuts. I just don't like them. So still no restaurant pesto for me, but that doesn't stop me from creating pesto and home [w/o nuts] and making one of my favorite simple summertime salads.

And, as a public service announcement do not refrigerate tomatoes! They will be mealy and very not tasty in this dish. If you think you hate tomatoes but you've only had the cold gross kind, buy some [good/local], leave them out and then consume! I have never looked back...

This will probably serve about 3-4 people depending on what it's served with.

Ingredients:
About 10 medium to small sized heirloom tomato - various colors, washed.
1 bunch basil, roughly chopped/minced
1/2-3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
Olive oil for drizzling
Pinch of salt [sea salt/regular salt/whatever you've got]

1. Cut tomatoes big chunks. I just cut them into quarters and then cut the quarters in half again for reasonably small tomatoes. Lay the tomatoes down on the plate in a single layer and sprinkle a pinch of salt on top. Salt really brings out that delicious fresh heirloom tomato taste.

2. Add the basil in a layer on top of the tomatoes

3. Sprinkle the cheese on top of the basil

4. Sprinkle a bit of olive oil [say a tablespoon or two] and then one more pinch of salt [if you like].

That's it! Such a beautiful, simple presentation that really only requires good quality tomatoes. Of course, to make it more pesto-y you could go ahead and sprinkle some (chopped) pine nuts on top. But that's just not my style...

Peach cupcakes with Sage infused homemade ricotta and honey frosting

2009-07-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

It's iron cupcake time again! And this month's 'secret ingredient' was herbs. I thought about a traditional mint or basil route [delicious!] or even something a bit different like lavender [Think: jasmine green tea cupcake with lavender icing] but then my friend jsk (from kyotofu and NY adventures fame) reminded me of these delicious little open faced sandwiches we'd once had with ricotta, honey, and sage. The mellow sage behaved beautifully with the honey and the creamy ricotta and I knew I had a winning combination on my hands.

As an added bonus, I've been looking for an excuse to make my own ricotta forever! It's so simple, and it takes about ten minutes to do.

To get the sage flavor into the cupcakes I decided the best thing to do was to steep the milk as I'm making the ricotta. It added a more subtle infusion of flavor instead of a traditional 'mince sage dump in frosting' time preparation [would work, but wouldn't be as fun!]. If you're going to use homemade ricotta, obviously you can omit the sage completely or you can replace the honey with a homemade simple syrup that's infused with sage. Or you could probably blend up some sage with a touch of water and sugar in a food processor/blender until it's smooth and creamy and mix that into the ricotta. Pick your poison. As for my method, I found that just dropping in a nice size sage stick into the milk as it's boiling works like a charm [as does the giant-tea-ball bouquet garni method of mincing up the sage and putting it inside a tea ball/tied up cheese cloth and fishing it out later].

I added some candied sage leaves [very simple!] to the top of the cupcakes to remind people what they're tasting and add to the preparation. I went with a basic peach cupcake because I just love peaches, honey, sage and cream as a flavor combination. I simplified the peach recipe because it had nutmeg and orange zest in and I thought that might just be too much. At the end of the day, it's a white cupcake with peach chunks but it's a mighty fine classic.

Homemade Sage Infused Ricotta
Makes about 10 oz [nearly 2 cups]
1/2 gallon whole milk
1 cup cream
2 decent size sprigs fresh sage (kept whole)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tablespoons lemon juice [approx juice of one medium size lemon]

On standby:
A strainer/colander lined with cheesecloth and set on top of a large bowl [just in case your cheese clothes gets away from you, the extra bowl will act as 'insurance' in case some of your cheese curds fall through your sieve - and yes, I learned this the hard way].

1. Over high heat, put the milk, cream, salt, and sage in a nonreactive pot to boil.
2. When a boil is reached, reduce heat to medium and add lemon juice. Your mixture will start to curdle almost immediately.
3. Continue to cook for two minutes and then pour into your colander/strainer and allow to drain (you may need to empty the liquid from the bottom of your insurance bowl as you go so that your mixture keeps draining!). This should take about an hour or so. Check on it ever so often to pour off any liquid that runs off.
4. Store your ricotta in the fridge until you're ready to use.

Peach Cupcakes [Adapted from 52 Cupcakes]
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1.25 cups sugar
1/2 cup (One stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cups milk
2 peaches blanched [submerged in boiling water for 30 seconds to soften peel], peeled, and then diced into tiny 1/4 inch chunks.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Cream butter and sugar using stand mixer or hand mixer.
4. Add eggs one at a time to the butter/sugar mixture.
5. Add vanilla to eggs,butter, and sugar
6. Add one third of the flour and mix. Then add one half of the milk and mix. Add another third of the flour and mix and then the remaining milk followed by the remaining flour.
7. Fold in the peaches.
8. Pour into cupcake liners and bake for about 25 minutes [until starting to brown and passing the 'toothpick through the middle = clean' test] if using full size cupcakes or about 10-15 min for mini size.
9. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Ricotta Honey Frosting
10 oz sage infused ricotta [recipe above]
4-6 tablespoons of honey [to taste]

1. Mix the ricotta and 4 tablespoons of honey and combine well until ricotta is very creamy. Taste and add more honey as needed. You will be adding more honey later on as a garnish, so stick towards the 'less sweet' side.

Candied Sage Leaves
24 medium to small-ish size sage leaves [or big if you like] whole.
1 egg white [I used the kind in the carton that's been pasteurized]
Finely granulated sugar [have at least a cup handy].

1. Dip the leaves in the egg white and drip off any excess. Next, coat them evenly in sugar and place them on a wire rack or baking sheet to dry. Flip them over after they start to dry and make sure to place them either on a different baking sheet or on a spot that is dry [you can just put all the first round on one half of your sheet and use the other half of the baking sheet or wire rack for the flip]. Takes about an hour.

Assembling cupcakes

1. Rustically spread some frosting onto the cupcakes using an offset spatula. Drizzle a little bit of honey on top and then carefully lay a candied sage leaf on top for garnish. Enjoy!

Transportation tip: Don't drizzle the honey/add the candied sage until just before serving. Transport with just frosting and have a bottle of honey handy. Transport the candied sage leaves in single layers with wax/parchment paper separating each layer.

Nitty gritty of iron cupcake earth:

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:
A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
A delicious treat from CIRCLEMONKEY http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5335273
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!
Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

Wheat Berry GREEN Market Salad

2009-06-28T13:37:00.001-07:00

So, we went to the farmer's market today and, as always, we hadn't managed to finish off the stuff we bought last week! So, of course, we made a fruit salad, some blueberry water melon agua fresca, and we made a great summer wheat berry salad with the remaining veggies/herbs we had in our refrigerator. Feel free to improvise as much as you want and remove ingredients you don't like. It's a very free form salad. The wheat berries are more of an accompanying roll than a star player, but it's a nice nutty note to the salad. Feel free to use whatever pantry whole grain you have -- quinoa, bulgar, barley, couscous, or even (brown) rice. Adjust cooking time/method accordingly.

Makes A LOT of salad, Probably enough for 5-8 people to eat as a 'main' course. So, it makes lots of leftovers good for the week. This is the reason I keep the 'main' salad separate from the topping (which won't keep as well together).

For wheat berries
1 cup dried wheat berries
3.5 cups water
1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients for base salad [Can be made ahead]
2-4 cups roughly chopped fresh spinach or arugula [do NOT use a food processor!] -- To be honest, I just used as much spinach as a had, probably a lot more than this!
1 bunch cilantro (and/or parsley), minced [use a food processor if you have one]
1/2 bunch mint, minced [food processor]
1 small onion, chopped [food processor]
1 bell pepper diced small [do NOT use a food processor!]
1-2 small cucumbers, diced small [no food processor]

"Toppings" [Prepare right before serving]
1/2-1 cup (cherry) tomatoes, halved
1-2 avocados, diced into 3/4 inch cubes
4-6 oz (french) feta or goat cheese, crumbled
juice of 1-2 lemons [to taste]
2-4 tablespoons of olive oil [to taste]
salt [to taste]

1. Put the dried wheat berries, water, and 1/2 tsp salt into a large pot over medium high heat and allow to come to a rolling bowl. Then lower to a simmer, cover, and cook for about an hour. If some of the water won't cook out after the wheat berries become soft, uncover and then allow the water to evaporate off. Stash the wheat berries in the freezer or refrigerator to cool off.

2. While the wheat berries are cooling, chop and mix all the ingredients for the base salad. When the wheat berries are cool/lukewarm, add them to the base salad and mix.

3. When ready to serve, mix the avocados, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt. If you are only serving a portion of the recipe (and stashing the rest for later), I recommend halving the topping amounts.
-For two people eating I would go with about 2 dozen cherry tomatoes, 1/2 of an avocado, 2 ounces of feta cheese, juice from half a lemon, and a tablespoon of olive oil.

4. On a large-ish plate, put a ladle full of the main salad. Next, add some of the avocado [reserving the liquid for later], about a dozen cherry tomatoes [halved], a half to an ounceish of crumbled feta cheese [1 inch cube, crumbled], and then drizzle a spoonful or two of the reserved avocado/lemon/olive oil juice on top of the salad as a dressing.

[Vegan] Coconut Ice Pops

2009-06-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

It's SOOO hot here in the Bay Area, so I had to make a nice frozen treat. I have yet to receive what I believe is an ice cream attachment for my new kitchenaid standmixer [birthday gifts, did I mention it's my birthday today?] so I had to settle for ice pops! Don't feel bad for me though, ice pops are mighty delicious.

I saw a recipe for coconut ice pops, and I knew I just had to try to make some. [Note, I discovered them by using tastespotting which has become one of my new obsessions.]

cjr doesn't do so well with the milk so I decided to make them with soy, but you can make them with evaporated or regular/nonfat milk as well. This recipe makes enough for just over 12 small popsicles [my popsicle molds hold only 1/4 cup each -- tested by filling the mold with water and then pouring into a measuring cup]. It will obviously make more/less depending on the size of yoru molds. It makes just over 3 cups of popsicle mix. I'll leave the math up to you guys!

Ingredients:
1 14 oz can (light) coconut milk
12 oz [1.5 cups] soy milk, regular/lowfat/nonfat milk, or (fat free) evaporated milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar* (to taste)
1/2 cup sweetened coconut**
2 tsp vanilla or coconut extract

*if you want to use agave nectar, I think you could probably get away with using about 1/5-1/4 cup (to taste) here. Just make sure to mix it in really well so it dissolves. Do not use granulated sugar, it will produce a granulated texture. If you want to use something like sucanat you'll probably be best warming the mixture enough until the sugar dissolves in it, make sure not to boil though -- scalded/burnt milk is bad news.

**we actually used unsweetened coconut, so we upped the sugar to about 3/4 cup.

Instructions [SO EASY].

Mix all the ingredients well, pour the liquid into the popsicle molds [leave a teensy bit of room for expansion!] and freeze overnight. ENJOY!

A note on sugar in frozen treats: things taste less sweet when frozen, so as you test your popsicle mixture, you might want to take that into account and prepare the mix on the just slightly sweeter than you like side.

Tasty Travels: NYC Food Map

2009-06-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

I also made a NYC food map of some of the places I tried, some of the places I meant to try, and some of the places I just love.

View NYC Treats in a larger map

Bay Area Food Map

2009-06-25T10:35:00.001-07:00

Besides baking, I do "occasionally" eat out.

I've made a map of the places I've grown to love or want to try.

You can subscribe to the rss feed by adding this to your favorite rss following-thingie [I like google reader].

View Bay Area Treats in a larger map

Monkey Bread [better for you Banana Bread]

2009-06-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

Once again, I ended up with some overripe bananas, so, as always... when life hands you almost bad bananas, make banana bread!

Despite the whole wheat flour, this cake is wonderfully light and moist and I totally forgot it was not white flour (most Banana Bread is so dark colored that it's easy to hide whole wheat flour in there!)

I started with this basic recipe from cooking light found here and added some of my own twists
Key differences
-No raisins, dark rum, or apple juice.
-White flour -> Whole Wheat Flour
-Walnuts -> Pecans (I prefer them, but I like them both).
-Buttermilk -> Yogurt (didn't have buttermilk)
-Brown Sugar -> Turbinado Sugar
-Everything is multiplied by 1.5 because I had 3/4 cup banana not 1/2 cup.
-Topping includes spices instead of just plain powdered sugar

Ingredients:
1.5 cups whole wheat flour (all-purpose is fine too)
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons turbinado or brown sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup mashed banana (about 2 medium overripe bananas)
1/4 cup + 0.5 tablespoons nonfat plain yogurt [I used the greek variety]
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
3 large egg whites [I used the ones in the carton]
1/2 cup chopped pecans [or walnuts, whatever you like]
Cooking spray

For topping combine:
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
OR
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a small bowl combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and mix to combine.

3. Using a mixer, cream the sugar and the butter together until uniform consistency is reached. Next, add the banana, yogurt, vanilla, and egg whites. When that is well combined, add the flour mixture slowly and on low mixer speed until combined. Finally, add the nuts and mix into the batter.

4. Spray a 9x11 glass baking dish with cooking spray and add the batter. Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. When cake is cool (otherwise the topping will melt into the cake!), cut into about 24 squares and sprinkle [I use a small strainer to do this] the powdered sugar + spice mixture on top.

Final notes:
1. Like the Blueberry-Banana muffins that came before them, these would make lovely (mini) muffins! Just lower the baking time to 10-15 minutes if you go with this option.
2. This recipe is kind of a triumph of substitution. I removed two ingredients, switched the sugars, used yogurt instead of buttermilk, swapped walnuts for pecans, and made the flour into whole wheat and it still came out delicious and lovely. What have we learned: it's okay to stray from recipes if you do it with proper substitutions.

Apricot Preserves

2009-06-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

To make my Rainbow Cupcakes I needed some apricot preserves so I decided to make some.
I used the SFGate Recipe from about 4 years ago. Here is a scaled down version of the recipe for those of us who don't plan on canning and want to use our preserves in a more immediate fashion.

Makes about 8-12 ounces of preserves.

Ingredients:
1 pound apricots [the weight is AFTER removing the pits]
1 pound sugar (or an amount equal to the weight of the apricots without their pits).
Kernels from 2 or 3 apricot pits [wrap some pits in a tea towel, and take a hammer to them to get out the little almond-like kernal in the center]* (Optional)
Juice of half a lemon

*Note on Kernels: Don't eat them. They contain trace amounts of cyanide (not really enough to kill you but I wouldn't take this chance!).

1. Heat the sugar in a 250 degree oven in a oven-safe container or cast iron dutch oven.
2. Next, place sugar, apricots, and lemon on stove on medium/high heat and stir frequently. Add the kernels to flavor the mixture (you can do this by placing the kernels in a small tea ball and letting it 'steep' or by just putting them in directly and fishing them out later).
3. Continue to stir frequently to avoid scorching.
4. In the meantime, place a few saucers in the freezer for the 'gel' test.
5. When the apricots start to break up (after 25-30 minutes), place a small dollop on one of the 'frozen' saucers. Place back in freezer for two minutes, if it comes out of the freezer runny, keep cooking. If it sets up nicely, you are done. Place your apricot preserves (fish out those kernels!) in the freezer and store for about a month.

What to do with preserves?
-Make my rainbow cupcakes!
-Use as a topping on greek yogurt.
-Use as a topping for pancakes, waffles, or french toast.
-Make a vinaigrette out of it by mixing it with balsamic vinegar (and some olive oil if you like).
-Use it to make a meat marinade (if that's your thing...).

Rainbow Cupcakes.

2009-06-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

What could be hiding behind this inconspicuous ganache topped, black lining wrapped mini cupcakes???

Color!

I wanted to make a cupcake based on the traditional 7 Layer Cookie I used to eat at Italian bakeries as a kid. It worked remarkably well and while these cupcakes are certainly not as easy as pouring batter and topping with frosting, they are probably easier than making the traditional 7 Layer Cookie. [Note, mine only have 6 layers since they don't have any chocolate on the bottom!]

I didn't know how much the original recipe would make so I ended up making about 100 cupcakes! Here's a more scaled down version of my recipe.

Note on Almond Paste: Almond paste is not the same thing as Almond filling or marzipan. You can use the paste that comes in the 7oz tubes or the ones that come in the 8oz cans, just make sure to avoid "Almond Filling" and "Marzipan".

Rainbow Cupcakes
Makes about 24 mini cupcakes.

cupcake ingredients:
1 large egg, separated.
1/4 cup sugar
2 oz of Almond Paste
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp almond extract [optional]
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
6 drops red food coloring
6 drops green food coloring
1/4 cup apricot preserves [heated and then strained, if you like]
1/4 cup raspberry preserves

ganache ingredients (adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Moskowitz & Terry Romero):
2 oz dark chocolate (chopped)
2 tablespoons soy milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup or agave nectar

Preparing cupcakes:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add 1 tablespoon of the sugar to the egg white and continue to whip until glossy stiff peaks form. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl, beat almond paste and remaining sugar until combined. Next, add the butter and cream the mixture for about 3 minutes. Then add the yolks and extract (if using) and continue to beat. Finally, add the flour and salt and mix.

4. Take half of the egg mixture and fold into almond paste mixture. Gently fold the remaining half into the batter as well.

5. Split the batter into three equal parts [I used a scale for this]. One will be for the 'green' dough, one for the 'red', and one for the white.

6. In the green dough bowl add the green food coloring and fold into mixture. Repeat in the red green dough bowl with the red food coloring.

7. Line a mini muffin/cupcake tin with liners. Add a small (1/2 tsp) size dollop of green dough to the bottom of the cupcake liners. Using a toothpick or with the aid of something like a nyquil dosage cup and spread (or smoosh) it out to cover the bottom of the liner. Next, add an even smaller dollop of raspberry preserves right in the center of the green dough [maybe 1/4 tsp or smaller if possible]. On top of this dollop, add about the same amount of white dough as the amount you added of green dough. Again, try to spread it out best you can with a toothpick, but don't worry too much about this. Next, add an equally small dollop of apricot preserves and then, finally, add another layer of red dough. Try your best to spread it out with a toothpick.

8. Bake the cupcakes for 10-15 minutes until they spring back when you press on their tops (the toothpick test is useless when your cupcakes are filled with gooey preserves!).

9. Cool the cupcakes completely. Once the cupcakes are cooled, prepare the ganache.

10. To prepare the ganache, heat the soy milk (either in a microwave or a small sauce pan) until it starts to boil. Pour the hot soy milk over the chocolate and mix (keep mixing!) until the chocolate has fully melted. If the chocolate refuses to melt completely, put the mixture in the microwave for a few seconds (<20 seconds at a time) and stir after each heating until all chocolate is melted. Add the maple syrup or agave nectar and mix.

11. Using an offset spatula, "frost" the cupcakes with a thin layer of chocolate ganache and then store in the refrigerator to set.

Some notes for the future:
1. Filling the cupcake molds would probably be better done with some sort of piping bag/syringe/squirt bottle. This would help even things out a bit, but it requires at least 3 pastry tips of approximately equal size (which I don't have).
2. You can use any jam, all raspberry or all apricot even. Raspberry+Apricot is just the most traditional.
3. I really wanted to add some Orange Blossom Water to the batter to add a little extra something, but I decided to stick with the traditional cookie because that's the kind of gal I am.

I've decided to enter these cupcakes into the Iron Cupcake: Earth Summer Berries Challenge. In doing so, I must tell you about the prizes I'm competing for and the sponsors:

Our June ETSY PRIZE-PACK is from artists:

A sweet cupcake ID bracelet by INSANEJELLYFISH, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5021935
A groovy linocut piece from BLOCKHEAD PRESS http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6108705
a sweet surprise from Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Cupcakery, http://www.acupcakery.com/
PLUS, IronCupcake:Earth can not forget our good friend, CAKESPY, http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5243382, who is now going to be doing a piece for our winner each month until further notice - sweet!

And the sponsors:
Last and certainly not least, don’t forget our corporate prize providers: HEAD CHEFS by FIESTA PRODUCTS, http://www.fiestaproducts.com, HELLO CUPCAKE by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, http://blog.hellocupcakebook.com, JESSIE STEELE APRONS http://www.jessiesteele.com; TASTE OF HOME books, http://www.tasteofhome.com; a t-shirt from UPWITHCUPCAKES.COM http://www.upwithcupcakes.com/. Iron Cupcake:Earth is sponsored in part by 1-800-Flowers, http://www.1800flowers.com .

But what do you ACTUALLY eat?

2009-06-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

So you readers [and surely there must be some readers out there?] may be thinking that a girl cannot subsist on peppermint patties and cupcakes! You may even wonder, "What do you actually eat?"

This is a good question, while I do enjoy a good baked good at least once a week [I cannot resist Bake Sale Betty, especially the Lamingtons!] I try my best to eat reasonably - especially during the week.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, is what I typically eat.

Breakfast: Kashi Go Lean Cereal [protein!] + whole milk OR egg whites (remember, I actually dislike the yolks!).

Morning After Workout Snack: Banana

Lunch: Greek Yogurt [more protein!] + Cocoa Powder + a bit of sugar. Baby Carrots, Celery, Fruit (whatever is in season, these days it's cherries & stone fruit), some kind of carby-pretzel-y snack like Trader Joe's Pretzel Slim's. calcium chew. and fruit leather. not just any fruit leather, these guys.
[Note: this may seem like a lot, but actually it's a really small portion of everything. I am one of those variety over quantity people so I feel happier when I've eaten different things rather than a lot of one thing].

Afternoon snack: Edamame and/or half of a Clif Builder's Bar (depending on if I'm going to run/swim after work). Plus, the bars are a wee bit expensive, so I try to eat only half at a time. I also really enjoy the Luna white chocolate macadamia bar but I don't eat them that often.

Dinner: This is where I have the most variety in my day [ie not the same thing everyday]. Usually, if I'm not feeling too lazy I'll make a salad of mixed greens, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado [I need the fat!] balsamic vinegar, and some kid of sweet interesting thing [like strawberries, a cut up peach, or some dried fruit] . I'll usually pair that with a half cup to a cup of brown rice which I drizzle some lemon juice/olive oil on top. Or we'll break out a bag of gnocchi and add some spinach to it. [Note, that is NOT me in that video!].

After dinner snack: I really like a 1/3-1/2 ounce piece of dark chocolate and some peanut butter. Or my new favorite: Torta de Aceite

Throughout the day I drink cups of tea (with a touch of honey or sugar in the raw) and water. I don't drink soda because I prefer to eat my calories rather than to drink them. Cupcakes >> Coke.

I notice that I don't really eat enough fat during the day so I try to sneak it in whenever I can (see: after dinner snack). I highly recommend tracking what you eat (portions too!) for a few days because it's useful to see where you're lacking nutrition wise. I learned that on an avg day I would normally eat 10g of fat when I really should be getting 30g! (Oh no, poor me, I guess I'll have to eat some more peanut butter!) Also, I eat wayyy to much sugar.

In season fruit salad [or Farmer's Market Fruit Salad]

2009-06-14T17:37:00.001-07:00

Our Farmer's Market is brimming with all kind of delicious fruits it's hard to know what to get. Here's a basic recipe that you can really change anyway you like, add different fruits as the season changes [even apples and oranges in fall!]. This amount serves about 2-4 depending on how much you want.

I've covered my basic stone fruit salad before, but I think it's the time to remind everyone just how delicious it is.

Ingredients
1 nectarine, diced
1 peach, diced
1 pluot or plum, diced
1/2 cup blueberries
12 cherries pitted (use the flat part of a big chef's knife) and roughly chopped

"Dressing"
1 tablespoon [21 grams] honey.
Juice of one lemon (or lime)
fresh mint, minced (optional)

1. Combine all the ingredients and mix.
2. Enjoy. (Make sure to get some of the precious dressing at the bottom of the bowl!)

Other things you can do: serve with ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream on top.

Or, if you're into the crunchy, you can add some slivered almonds and a dash of flax seeds!

Mini Blueberry Banana Muffins

2009-06-14T16:33:00.000-07:00

I really wanted to try Fatfree Vegan's Banana Blueberry Bread but I didn't want to make a whole loaf [12 servings of bread] so I decided to make a third of the recipe (just 1 banana) and use my mini cupcake/muffin tray to make 16 mini muffins. I also used cream instead of soy milk because that's what I had in my fridge (and because I'm not a vegan).

Ingredients:
1 large banana
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tablespoons (30 g) of Vanilla Soy Milk, Regular Milk/Cream, or Apple Sauce
2.5 tablespoons (40 g) agave nectar or honey
2/3 cup (80 g) white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat flour)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup rinsed blueberries
Pam or butter for muffin tray.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. If you're using soy milk add the lemon juice to it and set aside to curdle for a few minutes. Otherwise, add it to the banana in a bowl and mash it with a fork. Add the agave nectar to the banana and then add the milk/cream/apple sauce to the banana bowl.
3. In a separate bowl mix the whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and pinch of salt.
4. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and combine (mixture will be thick). Fold in the blueberries.
5. Spray the muffin tray with pam or butter and then distribute in about 16 mini muffin slots [I had 8 empty on the tray].
6. Bake for 10-15 minute until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean.

Harissa

2009-06-14T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is a spicy Tunisian pepper sauce [though we enjoyed it in our family and we're Moroccan...]

You'll have to find some good quality dried chili peppers. Anchos are good or New Mexico chilis if you can't find those.

This recipe comes from Joyce Goldstein's "Saffron Shores" cookbook.

Ingredients:
3 Dried Ancho Chili Peppers Soaked in Hot Water for 1 Hour
3 Garlic Cloves, Minced
2 tsp Cumin Seeds, toasted and ground (or just use 2 tsp ground cumin)
1 tsp Caraway Seeds, toasted and ground (or just use 1 tsp ground caraway) [Optional]
1 tsp Salt
Cayenne Pepper to taste
Olive oil for covering in jar

1. Remove stems and as many seeds as possible from the peppers.
2. Place chilis, garlic, and seasoning in blender or food processor and process into a paste
3. Place into a glass jar [preferably sterilized] and then cover with a half cm of olive oil.
4. Store in fridge for a few weeks [6ish?]

What to do with it?
1. Put it on food that you want to make spicy? Meats would be good. Falafel is pretty standard. Pretty good with omelets and any steamed/grilled veggies that need jazzing up! Don't take my word for it, take theirs.

Foods I Love/Hate

2009-06-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

Perhaps from reading this blog (or for knowing me at all) you've already surmised there are some foods I love, and some that I hate. I kind of covered this when I went through America's most hated foods.

Here's a brief run down of things you may/may not see on my blog.

Foods I Hate:
1. Mayonnaise. No really, nothing compares to how much I hate this substance. It's an emulsion of fat and fat what more can I say? I understand the whole "moisture barrier for sandwich" idea, but really, I much prefer avocado. Tastier and more nutritious!

2. Egg yolks. I don't know, I just never liked the taste. As a kid I'd ask my mom for 'sunny side up' eggs and eat around the yolks. When I learned as a grown up that I could have JUST the egg whites, it was one of the best days of my life. Yes. I'm the person ordering the egg white who actually PREFERS the egg whites. My hate of egg yolks gets in the way of a lot of cookie recipes. I find many of these to be way too eggy for me.

3. Sour Cream. It tastes like rotten cream to me. [Seeing a trend?]

4. Pears. They are gritty. They remain the one fruit/vegetable that I really don't like. They're ok in baked goods I guess, but I can't eat them raw.

5. Raisins. I like grapes and I even like other dried fruit, but not raisins. As a child I once binged on raisins so bad that I threw up. I no longer eat them. Also, they look like chocolate chips, but are not. Yuck.

6. Doughnuts. They have a weird aftertaste. I'm ok w/the homemade kind. I think store bought has some weird old oil taste I can't stand.

7. Cheesecake. Cheese and cake? One or the other! Make up your minds! [Though I reserve a special place for tiramisu.. marscapone is only barely cheese!]

8. Coffee. It smells weird and tastes bitter. Not something I really want to acquire a taste for anyway.

9. Bacon. Technically, I've never had it, but the smell is just horrid and makes me ill.

10. Gelatin/Lard -- more of a peeve than anything else. Lots of candies and baked goods are made w/these ingredients when they could be made perfectly well w/non animal sources. This is on the list out of my frustration more than anything else.

Things I love

1. All fruits/veggies that are NOT pears. Seriously, all of them.

2. Egg whites! I really love these.

3. Sour candies. I adore citric acid.

4. Lemon! On EVERYTHING. You name it, I'll put lemon on it.

5. Greek Yogurt. I eat this almost every day during the week for lunch. So much protein! And delicious!

6. French Toast. Who doesn't love french toast?

7. Tea. Black, Oolong, Green all are great. Herbal teas are hit-and-miss and I usually don't like those berry flavored herbal ones -- a bit tart for my taste.

8. Honey. Honey is superior to sugar.

9. Almond-flavored-anything. Almond Italian Soda, Marzipan, Amaretti cookies, if it has almonds, I love it.

10. Anise-flavored-anything (that isn't licorice). A good anise biscotti is not to be meddled with. My grandmother's Ri'fat (think: Moroccan Biscotti) will always seal the deal for me. I don't mind Licorice to be honest, I just don't think it really belongs on my favorite thing list.

Homemade Peppermint Patties

2009-06-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

I saw a link to this recipe and since I had recently procured some peppermint oil, I decided I should give it a whirl.

I cut out the shortening [because I'm not too worried about how 'shiny' my chocolate is... if you really care a lot, you should probably just temper your chocolate and that's that]. Also, I traded the extract for oil [what I have]. Also, I didn't add the vanilla. They still turned out great.

Here's the recipe as I used it:

2 cups powdered sugar
1.5 tbsp softened butter
1/4 tsp peppermint oil [or 2 tsp peppermint extract]
2 tbsp cream
10 ounces (about 1-1/2 cup) dark chocolate, chopped [I actually used 6 oz of dark and 4 oz of white chocolate so I could make some white ones]

1. To make the centers: in a blender, mixer, of food processor [I used the latter] mix the sugar, butter, extract/oil, and cream until well combined, smooth, and slightly tacky.
2. On a parchment lined cookie shoot, roll out the centers using a tsp sized measure spoon. Use your fingers to flatten them out a bit into 1-1.5 inch discs.
3. Allow to chill in fridge or freezer for at least 20 minutes.
4. For the coating: while centers are chilling, chop your chocolate and melt 3/4 of it in a metal bowl placed over simmering water [or a double boiler, you remember these]. Mix with a spatula and remove once completely melted. This should get your chocolate pretty close to tempered.
5. Add the remaining chocolate and mix until that is melted as well. (Keep mixing, it will melt!)
6. When centers are chilled, use a spoon to dip the centers into the chocolate, enrobing completely, and then return to wax lined cookie sheet. Note: do not try to be clever and place on wire rack. Chocolate will stick to rack. Use the wax paper/parchment paper lined cookie sheet method, it works best!

Store these in the fridge. That bit of cream and butter means they'll go bad if left out.

Tasty Travels: Vegetarian Dim Sum & Buffalo Wings

2009-05-31T19:11:00.001-07:00

Some of my favorite restaurants in NY happen to be vegetarian restaurants.

Two of those include Red Bamboo and The Vegetarian Dim Sum House.

1. Red Bamboo 140 W4th Street New York, NY

This is the place jk took me too when I was in college that made me fall in love with fake meat. More specifically, their veggie barbecue buffalo wings. Yum. They even put little sticks in it so it's like a 'bone'. Also, this is the only barbecue sauce I've found whose smell doesn't make me nauseous.

2. The Vegetarian Dim Sum House at 24 Pell St New York, NY

This is my dim sum dream. Going to dim sum, ordering random things off of a menu without asking "does this have meat/pork/fish/shellfish in it?". They have a little dim sum check off menu as well as a real menu. I'm sure the real menu is fine, but the dim sum [small plates for cheap] is the real prize. We got six dishes which turns out to be way too much for two people. I'd go with 2 dishes/person (especially if not TOO hungry) and share.

Don't ask me what we ordered, just know it was delicious. Though I will say, if you make it here make sure to get the sesame balls. mmmmm. This place is really in the heart of 'real' china town (not the Canal street fake purse market) and it's a much nicer experience. Stop in at Green Tea Cafe or Quickly if you're around for some bubble tea afterwords! Also Aji Ichiban for any-kind-of-preserved-fruit-you-can-think-of-and-random-Chinese(and some Japanese/Korean)-candies is also always fun.

I think these had red bean in them.

Sesame balls! Inside paste was almost peanut butter-y as one would expect from sesame paste.

These had lots of stuff in them. I think they had something to do with monks or buddha?

Some kind of gelatinous rice with kale. It was okay, the least interesting of the bunch though.

I think these were the 'treasure balls'. They were mostly potato with some filling in the middle. Think deep fried mashed potato croquets.

Some kind of dumpling?

Tasty Travels: Grey Dog's Cafe, Banh Mi, and Pretzel Croissants

2009-05-31T19:06:00.001-07:00

1. Grey Dog's Cafe on 33 Carmine Street New York, NY.

We spent a lot of time at Grey Dog's.
a) It's very close to my dad's apartment
b) They have free internet!
c) They make some tasty coffee and food.

On one of our several trips there, we opted for some breakfast. We shared a nice breakfast quesadilla with egg whites. Mmmm...

The real highlight though was the 'home fries'. Nice and thinly grated and crispy. Very nice addition to our otherwise healthy breakfast.

2. Banh Mi at Baoguette 120 Christopher Street New York, NY

New York is experiencing a surge in Banh Mi restaurants. Basically they are Vietnamese sandwiches. I had a really great veggie one. It came on a nice crispy bun with some tasty pickled daikon/radish/carrot type stuff and the faux meat was really tasty. The only downside is there was mayo (which was not listed no the menu but I should've asked about) so I had to eat around that. The online menu doesn't list the veg option, but it was there when we went.

3. Pretzel Croissant at City Bakery on 3 West 18th Street New York, NY

In the wintertime (well, really year round) you can get the richest tasting hot chocolate, but seeing as my visit was filled with 85+ degree days, I decided to keep it on the cool side opting for refreshing iced teas. But that didn't distract me from the real prize here: pretzel croissants. Flaky and lovely on the outside but crispy and salty on the outside. This is a must have snack if you're in the neighborhood.

Tasty Travels: Kyotofu Dinner

2009-05-31T19:03:00.000-07:00

One of my first evenings back in NY I went to dinner with two of my best college friends, jk and jn. We decided to go to kyotofu because it it was on our 'lists' of places to try (and it was convenient for after work time for jk and jn).

Kyotofu - 705 9th Ave (between 48th and 49th) NY, NY 10019

The place itself is not very large. There was a graduation party going on in the back so all us walk-ins were crammed in the front part of the place. We had a nice spot on the bar which the host was very kind to clear out for us.

I had the tofu salad which came with a nice big heap of silken tofu. It was a bit strange since silken tofu has the texture of pudding, but a savory/not sweet taste. It took some getting used to. Otherwise, a nice refreshing salad with some tasty dressing.

Now, don't let the name fool you, just because it has 'tofu' doesn't make it vegetarian. jn had the tofu sliders which were adorable and came with some very cute lotus root chips.

jn opted for the curry puffs (which look similar to the sliders). A bit too curry-y for me, but then again I can't stand turmeric.

Of course, we all just had to have dessert. I went with a cobbler which was lovely - crisp on top and fruity with a nice minty ice cream.

jk opted for some sort of chocolate tofu pudding which was very tasty as well. The little shortbread cookies that came with it were also excellent.

jn went with the strawberry shortcake which had strange jello-y squares in them (which I didn't particularly care for). It also came with some sorbet!

All in all a cute place for a small party to get a bite in Midtown. The take away baked goods were really nice too (I took some minicakes home to share with my family).

Tasty Travels: High End Street Food...Pizza and Falafel

2009-05-31T18:30:00.000-07:00

Ever since leaving NY I've been missing pizza, bagels, and falafel. Especially falafel. I made sure to get my fill while at home.

1. Pizza and Una Pizza Napoletana @ 349 E. 12th St NY, NY 10003

I've been meaning to try this place ever since they were featured on chow and I made the mistake of trying to go there on a Wednesday when they are clearly only open from Thursday to Sunday. I tried again on Thursday. They only have four pizzas. no salads. no pasta. Just four pizzas and drinks. My friend and I opted for the Filetti and it was lovely. Not unlike my beloved Pizzaiolo in Oakland. The pizza serves two -- but not to total fullness. If you need something more, I recommend Chikalicious just a block away!

2. Falafel at Azuri @ 465 W 51st St NY, NY 10019

My dad's favorite falafel place in the city, and I can see why. Apparently the owner makes everything on the premises - including the pita. Sadly, the pita was the one thing that I didn't find absolutely delicious. It was a bit too 'crispy' for my liking. The falafel itself was perfect. I think a good idea is to get the falafel 'platter' style (w/o the pita).

3. Falafel at Taim @ 222 Waverly Pl NY, NY 10014

This is the falafel I've been craving since moving away from New York. Soft thick pita, nice crunchy falafel, and a nice tang from the pickled cabbage. Oh and extra tahini. I can't say I've ever had a better falafel in my life. If you go to NY and go to one falafel place, make it this one. It's the real deal.

Tasty Travels: Truck Food

2009-05-31T17:36:00.000-07:00

NYC has many trucks roaming the city feeding people with some kind of high end food actually. Here are the few that I sampled.

1. Belgian Waffles at Wafels & Dinges

I had a plain Liege Waffle (soft) and cjr had the Brussels Waffle (crunchy, more like the American ones we're all used to) with Speculoos Spread [gingerbread-y spread that has the consistency of peanut butter]. They weren't as good as the ones we had in Vancouver, but those are some serious standards. These waffles are still quite worth finding if you're around.

2. Treats at the Treats Truck.

I grabbed a mexican brownie ("spicy") and a sandwich cookie for cjr. We actually found the Brownie tasted a lot like our Mark Bittman brownies that we baked for our smores brownies. Cjr found the cookie quite buttery but he was happy with this suprise snack.

3. Ice cream and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Truck

We went to an event at BKLYN Yard along the Gowanus canal called Parked! where we thought there would be a bunch of food trucks parked awaiting us with tasty treats. Sadly, the only interesting one was the Ice Cream truck which I'd been looking for all week. I went with Pistachio and it was lovely. My friend went with Vanilla, which I've never been a fan of, but she enjoyed. The truck can be a bit elusive, but if you find it... make sure to stop.

Tasty Travels: Cake Edition

2009-05-31T16:25:00.000-07:00

Cjr and I went off for a week to NYC [our hometown, give or take 30 miles] and the place where we met. We [I] had a lot of tasty treats while I was there. Here's the cake sampling of my adventure.

1. Cupcakes and Oat Cake @ Sweet Revenge in the West Village at 62 Carmine Street NYC, NY 10014

The cupcakes were pretty good, but the cake portion was a bit muffin-y. The frosting is nice and rich though. We sampled the "Pure" (vanilla) and "Strawberry". The Strawberry frosting was good, but the vanilla was the best all around. The Oat Cake was a nice breakfast treat though. Though potentially too rich for breakfast?

2. Dulce de Leche cake @ Momofuku Milk Bar in the East Village at 207 2nd Ave NYC, NY 10003

This cake was way too rich. The frosting was delicious, but the cake way too dense. I only got through the first of three layers. I will say that the cookies are supposedly the real winners at this place and I probably should've stuck with the plan and gone with the Arnold Palmer cake. We also had some Atomic Fireball soft serve which was quite interesting and tasty.

3. Caramel Cupcake @ Chikalicious Dessert Club in the East Village at 204 E. Tenth Street NYC, NY 10003

This was the best of the bunch.... by far. The cake was delicious and moist. The frosting was velvety and the caramel filling was a welcome surprise. And it was the least expensive! The premium cupcakes, while not huge, were only $2.25 and the regular ones only $1.60. Much better than the $3+ ones we had at Sweet Revenge.

Caramel Cupcake & Smores Cupcake

4. Mini Cupcakes @ Baked by Melissa in SoHo at 529 Broadway New York, NY 10012

These cupcakes are absolutely tiny. A nice little pick me up if you can manage to only eat 2 or 3. Just don't do the 'but they're so small' and inhale a million.

White Chocolate Dulce De Leche Fudge

2009-04-30T10:56:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite food blogs, Room for Dessert, is written in Hebrew (occasionally also in English).

Yesterday, she posted a lovely fudge recipe that I just had to try (cjr loves white chocolate, and, according to my wordle, so do I!).

I'll take the liberty of translating the recipe here.

You'll need some Dulce De Leche. There are a few options here 1. Buy some yourself. 2. Make some yourself (not so hard).

If you're going for option 2 you have yet a few more options. You can go with the microwave version which works well but you really have to monitor it constantly as mine boiled over several times, or, the oven version which was much less fuss (even if it took a longer time in the end).

Or something totally nontraditional, go with Alton Brown's version (no condensed milk necessary!)

Once you've got that down, the rest is easy!

Ingredients:
500 grams white chocolate
150 grams (1/2 cup) dulce de leche
80 mL (1/3 cup) milk
100 g (1 cup) chopped pecans (or walnuts/whatever nut you like)

1. Over a double boiler (or a metal bowl placed over a pot of simmering water) melt the white chocolate, stirring constantly making sure not to burn.
2. When melted, add the dulce de leche and the milk, stir with a wisk trying your best to minimize the formation of air bubbles.
3. Remove from double boiler and fold in the pecans.
4. Pour out onto a parchment lined 9x9 baking dish (smaller = better, you can always use a loaf pan and just cut smaller pieces later). The thing you want to avoid is something with a lot of surface area -- fudge will be too thin.
5. Allow to cool overnight in refridgerator (or for 2 hours in the freezer).
6. Cut/serve as you see fit.

EDIT: for the extremely time crunched/lazy I bet a nickel you can make this in your microwave in one bowl (assuming you have the dulce de leche prepared). Melt the chocolate in the microwave on low power (carefully! slowly! mix after every 30 seconds and the large chunks will dissapear) add the milk and dulce de leche when melted and whisk. Fold in pecans. Proceed from step 4.

Food / Travel Dispatches

2009-04-30T01:29:00.000-07:00

JDC and I are about halfway through our several-week trip to New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris. Due to the frustration at not getting many good food recommendations in Berlin, I have decided to document what we've learned for the good of future epicurious / vegetarian travelers who will be visiting the lovely city.

In addition to that, I also have to document:

-Many falafel shops in several cities
-Anticipated chocolate/candy-shopping in Paris
-An absinthe shop
-General mediocrity yet cheapness of food in Berlin

Anyway, for now, my quick comment this morning: despite having no expectations whatsoever, my supermarket eggs (organic) that I picked up in Berlin were amazing. They had the brightest orange yolk I've ever seen. In the US I usually buy Judy's Organic Eggs, which have a very nice yolk. But these organic Berlin eggs (not even from the farmer's market!) beat Judy's hands-down.

Fresh Fava Beans!

2009-04-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

We found some great fresh fava Beans still in their pods so I decided to bring some home. I have this simple fresh fava bean salad recipe (which according to my Israeli cookbook comes from Egypt).

You have to shuck the beans (remove the pod) before weighing for the recipe. Also, make sure not to overcook the beans, they don't do well overcooked. The weight for the beans is after shucking. You'll need 3-4 lbs of unshucked beans to get it right. Or, you can just just halve the recipe since it makes enough for 4-6 people.

Also, one more note, if you're going to prepare this ahead, I'd hold off on adding the garlic until just before serving. Garlic likes to take over things in a really bad way. It is good, however, to let the fava beans soak in the rest of the mixture/marinate until it's time to serve.

Ingredients
1 lb shucked fava beans
3-4 sprigs of cilantro or parsley, minced
1-2 cloves of minced garlic
Juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt, Pepper to taste.

1. Place the fava beans in a pot with enough water to cover (wider pots are better) and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat until tender -- about 15-20 minutes.

2. In the meantime, prepare the dressing by mixing the parsley/cilantro with the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, and garlic (if serving immedietly).

3. When finished, drain the beans. If you prefer to serve cold, you can rinse them with cold water.

4. Mix the beans with the dressing and serve. You can serve either hot or cold. My favorite application is add to some greens with tomato and cucumber and use the fava beans and fava bean dressing as a 'salad dressing'. Mmmm

S'mores Brownies

2009-04-22T10:42:00.001-07:00

I saw the post for S'mores brownies on Joy the Baker's blog which inspired me to make my own version of the brownies, inspired by her post (and my recent acquisition of vegan marshmallows).

First a note on the marshmallows.. I don't eat the regular type because of the Gelatin but I found this great supplier of vegan ones that taste just like the real thing. The size is a bit strange (about 2x the size of mini marshmallows or about half the size of the big kind) but cut in half they work perfectly in this recipe (I just used some kitchen sheers). If you want to get some go here. Note, they don't often have a good supply so DO sign up for the alert when it becomes available and buy them as soon as you hear from them. You'll need about 1.25 bags for this recipe. (12 oz).

Basically, all this recipe is: Graham Cracker Crust + Brownie (with 6 oz folded in mini marshmallows) + 6 oz mini-marshmallow topping. Really, you can use an crust/brownie recipe that you like here. It really doesn't matter. You could even use a prepared pie crust and/or boxed brownie mix and it would still be delicious!

Graham Cracker Crust (a la Mark Bittman).
3 cups of graham cracker crumbs (think bread crumbs). I used Trader Joe's Cat Cookies so any cookie will work here.
8 tablespoons (one stick) melted butter.
72 grams brown sugar. (6 tablespoons).
pinch of salt.
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon (optional)

Brownies (again, a la Mark Bittman, but use whatever recipe you like here)
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
16 tablespoons (2 stick) salted or unsalted butter
2 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt if you use unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
6 oz mini marshmallows (or large marshmallows cut into mini marshmallow size - vegan dandies cut in half)

Topping
6 oz mini marshmallows (or large marshmallows cut into mini marshmallow size - vegan dandies cut in half)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line a glass baking dish (13x9 in my case, half the recipe if you're using a pie plate -- I bet this would make a great brownie pie!) with Aluminum foil.

3. Next, prepare the crust. In a food processor or blender, process the crumbs and add the sugar, salt, and optional spices. Next, add the butter and process until full combined. Press the mixture into your glass dish evenly coating the bottom. Bake for about 15 minutes until the crust sets up.

4. In the meantime, begin making the brownies. Melt the chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over LOW HEAT just until melted. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the vanilla and then add the eggs one at a time. Next, add the salt to the flour then add the flour mixture to the brownie batter and combine until no remnants of flour are visible. Fold in 6 oz of the marshmallows. Once crust has set, pour mixture on top of the crust and bake for 30-40 minutes until the brownies have set and firm even through the middle. Make sure they are done, my brownies were removed a bit early and were a bit 'runny' in the middle because of it.

5. Once the brownies are done, sprinkle the remaining marshmallows on top and broil for about a minute until just browned. Note that it may seem that the marshmallows don't fully cover the top of the brownies, but they will expand and collapse onto the brownies so it will be pretty good coverage in the end.

6. Remove from oven, allow to cool completely, and cut into small squares and serve.

I made a wordle!

2009-04-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

Passover Recipe Round Up

2009-04-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Here are some good passover recipes, two that I'm tried and one that I'd like to try.

First, here's the one that I'd like to try:

Chow's Passover Orange & Strawberry Angel Food Cake.

And here's one I've tried that's worked GREAT:

David Lebovitz's Caramelized Matzo Crunch With Chocolate

A few words on that last one, to make a standard cookie sheet's worth:
I would use 1.5-2x the brown sugar, butter, and chocolate (no more than 1.5 times on the chocolate).
You can also get away with about 1.5x more nuts. I used pecans/walnuts (chopped, dry toasted) and they were delightful.
Don't skip on the sea salt, if you don't have any you can substitute Kosher salt.

And here's one from my Israeli Cookbook "Israeli Flavors" by Pascale Perez-Rubin (translated from Hebrew):

Moroccan Charoset
300 grams 'pureed/finely chopped' dates
6 tablespoons water
1/2-3/4 cup sweet red wine (I used Manischewitz)
1/2 cup ground walnuts
1/2 cup ground almonds
10 ground chestnuts (roasted, pre-roasted/packaged is obviously fine).
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground cloves

1. Cook the dates, water, and wine on low heat and mix until a uniform consistency is reached no big dates chunks).
2. Remove from heat, mix in the remaining ingredients until a uniform consistency is reached.

Makes enough for at least 8-10 people. (Possibly more).

Strawberry Vinaigrette

2009-03-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

Think of this as "Macerated Strawberry Dressing"

Ingredients:
6 large-ish strawberries
2-3 teaspoons good olive oil (to taste)
1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (to taste)
pinch of salt
leaves from two sprigs of mint

Cut up the strawberries (removing tops) and mince the mint leaves. Put all ingredients in a food processor or blender and combine until liquefied.

Enjoy on a delicious spinach salad.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Variation

2009-03-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy the Hershey's chocolate chip recipe with a few of my own 'alterations'.

Basically, I always use chopped chocolate from a thick bar of good (or at least decent) quality MILK (yes MILK) chocolate to create a sort of 'chocolate chunk' cookie instead of using cheap, low-quality chocolate chips. Also, I add chopped walnuts. Chopped walnuts go really well with the sweetness of milk chocolate.

Also, and perhaps you all find this terribly obvious, if you don't have a food scale, you can always check the weight on the entire bar of chocolate and figure out the fraction needed for baking. For example, if you have a 'pound-plus' bar of chocolate (mine are about 17 oz) you'll need to use 12/17 of it (or about 70% of it).

Here's my variation based on Hershey's. Makes about 3-4 dozen 'large' sized cookies.

Ingredients:

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 oz chopped milk chocolate (I use Trader Joe's pound plus as my go-to bakers bar).
1 cup chopped walnuts

1.Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Combine the following ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt. Next, cream the butter, both sugars, and vanilla. Add eggs to creamed butter mixture, one at a time, and combine well. Next, add the flour mixture in batches until fully combined. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips. Using tablespoon sized rounds, drop onto ungreased, parchment lined cookie sheet.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes until cookies begin to brown. Allow to cool slightly before removing from cookie sheet and then allow to cool completely.

Israeli Chocolate Balls

2009-03-02T16:01:00.001-08:00

These simple treats are so easy to make that Israeli children make them by the dozens. They are super tasty, like a nice truffle with a bit of added texture. The recipe makes about 2 dozen chocolate balls.

Ingredients:
250 grams petit beurre/tea biscuits (or any sort of vanilla wafer would work).
100 grams dark chocolate, chopped (or chips)
100 grams white chocolate, chopped (or chips)
100 grams butter (just under one stick)
1/2 cup milk
Fun sprinkles, shredded coconut, or finely chopped nuts for decoration.

1. Crumble the biscuits until a kind of floury powder is reached. It's okay to have a few 1/2 cm or less chunks here and there, it adds a nice texture. If you prefer a more homogenous treat, use a food processor until you get a sort of crumbly flour.
2. Melt the dark chocolate, white chocolate, and butter in the microwave just until the mixture is melted completely.
3. Combine the chocolate mixture, the crumbled biscuits, and the milk in a bowl.
4. Stash the mixture in the fridge for 2-3 hours until firm.
5. Form into 1 inch balls and roll in colorful sprinkles, coconut, or nuts of your choice.
6. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve. Enjoy!

2009-02-24T11:37:00.000-08:00

Mark Bittman, my family has been making a very similar salad for years!

Besides, been there, done that.

(Though I might just try to add in some fennel/anise seeds to the mix, any excuse to add fennel seeds!)

Sour Middle Eastern Cabbage Soup

2009-02-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

This is a soup my mother often made on cold wintery days. But our current rainy spell will certainly due. Besides, I'm not too sure how many 'wintery' days they really had in Morocco/Israel. I suspect this recipe to be of some sort of mixed jewish origin (eastern european perhaps?) but the addition of the 'baharat' is a distinctly middle eastern touch.

It will seem like A LOT of cabbage when you cut it all up, but don't worry, the stuff cooks down (not unlike chard or spinach). If you can find some, add some baharat (though you can omit it as well) it's a spice blend with paprika, coriander, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, and a bunch of other stuff. Or, you can make your own.

I like it sour, so I always serve with an additional lemon wedge (which also makes for a nice presentation). It's also a very simple recipe which requires mostly pantry staples (excluding the cabbage).

Ingredients:
2 Heads Green Cabbage, sliced thin into about 3" strips.
2 small onions, chopped
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
3 oz (half of a small can) tomato paste
2 cups of vegetable stock
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 tsp baharat (optional)
juice of 2-3 lemons (to taste)

1. Saute onions in a large pot with olive oil until translucent.
2. Start adding the cabbage in stages until it cooks down and becomes very tender. should take up to 20 minutes (this is the majority of the cook time). add the salt now to aid in this process.
3. Add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste along with the sugar and stir.
4. Add the cinnamon, pepper, baharat, and lemon juice.
5. Add the stock. You want the soup to be thick, not watery, but you can adjust the amount of stock to personal preferene.
6. Heat through and enjoy!

I figured out the nutritional information and it goes like this:

Serving size, 1/6 of the recipe
Calories: 136
Fat: 1.1 g
Sat Fat: 0.2 g
Total Carb: 29 g
Fiber 8.6 g
Sugar 15 g
Protein 6.5 g
Vitamin A 25%
Vitamin C 198%
Calcium 17%
Iron 14%

Swiss Chard, Leek, and Lemons

2009-02-15T16:28:00.000-08:00

This is a variation on a pasta dish. Except here, I've left out the pasta and make only the 'sauce'. This goes great on pasta or just as is as a side dish.

If you're going to use it for pasta, you can still look it in advance. Just heat it up in a skillet and stir in almost-done-cooking (whole wheat?) pasta (in approximately equal proportions to the 'sauce') and allow to cook together for another minute or two until the pasta has had a chance to finish cooking and absorb some sauce. Top with about a tablespoon of Parmesan cheese and lemon wedge for garnish (and some fresh basil if it's around!) and you have a delightfully different pasta dish.

Notes:
1. Leeks can get dirty in between the layers. Try to rinse as best you can. I like the chop and then rinse method.
2. Same goes with chard, rinse rinse rinse! No one likes sandy sauce.
3. Yes, it's a lot of chard, but it cooks down and it's good for you!
4. You can replace chard with any leafy green of your choosing: Kale, Spinach, Beet Greens, and Mustard Greens would be nice.

Swiss Chard, Leek, and Lemon Pasta Sauce/Side Dish

Ingredients:
3 leeks, chopped.
4 bunches swish chard, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt to taste
1/4 cup lemon juice + zest of one lemon (this about the juice of two good size lemons)

1. In a large pot (think 8 quart cast iron if you have it) heat the olive oil, when hot add the leeks and a pinch of salt. You want to leeks to sweat, not brown, so keep the heat low stirring often.
2. When the leeks are almost done, add about 1/3 of the chard and allow to cook down a bit. When there's enough space, add some more chard. Keep going until all your chard has cooked down sufficiently (wilted and deep green in color is a good indicator). Add lemon juice and zest and salt to taste. When the mixture is all nice and hot throughout cut the heat. You are done!
Serving suggestions:
1. As is.
2. As is + red pepper flake and/or parmeson cheese sprinkle.
3. On top of an equal volume of whole wheat pasta (or whatever kind of pasta you like). Again, if you want to do this I suggest heating up the 'sauce' in a skillet and then adding nearly done pasta to the mix to finish cooking.

Enjoy!

Italian Hot Chocolate

2009-02-15T10:04:00.001-08:00

I still have dreams of my delicious hot chocolate experiences in Florence, so when I stumbled across a recipe for Italian hot chocolate, I jumped at the chance to recreate it.

I made a few alterations to the recipe (reducing the sugar, adding some dark chocolate, adding a touch more cornstarch). Also, it says it serves 2. But this stuff is so rich, I'd say it could serve up to four (smaller) servings.

We used 2%, but any kind should do. The thickness comes from the chocolate and cornstarch so you don't really need to add richness with milk here. You could even try to make it vegan with some soy or coconut milk since all the other ingredients are already vegan! And, if you do, please let me know how it turns out.

This would probably go REALLY well with some churros for dipping. That is for another day...

I adding a sprinkle of cayenne/cinnamon to my cup and it was delightful!

Ingredients:
2 tsp arrowroot/cornstarch (as thickener)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1.5-2 ozs dark chocolate chopped. (1/4-1/3 cup chocolate chips)
2 cups milk
Always welcome additions: whipped cream, marshmallow, cayenne pepper/cinnamon (just a teensy sprinkle when serving).

1. Mix the cornstarch, cocoa powder, and sugar.
2. Over low heat in a small saucepan, add 1/2 cup milk and the cornstarch, cocoa powder, sugar mixture. Mix until well combined.
3. Add the remaining liquid and, while constantly stirring, allow to gently heat.
4. Once the mixture is warm enough, incorporate the dark chocolate and mix until melted.
5. Serve as desired when the mixture has reached desired temperature and when thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Enjoy!