The Spiced Life

The porting is about to begin...

2011-03-16T20:36:00.003-04:00

This is Laura's husband, who is about to start porting her blog over to WordPress (as mentioned in the previous entry). I have to be honest here: I'm not 100% sure what is about to happen. If everything goes perfectly, the old blog will be replaced with the new, and nobody who comes to it will know the difference (save for the new look of the blog).

If things go sort of OK, there will be up to 48 hours down time, and then all will be well.

If things go really badly -- well, I prefer not to speculate.

So here we go...

John

Stay tuned for big excitement at The Spiced Life...

2011-03-14T19:12:00.002-04:00

Well it is exciting for me anyway! The Spiced Life is moving to WordPress! This move is courtesy of my husband, who basically spent his spring break teaching himself both WordPress and Thesis so I could make the switch. We are 95% ready, so I hope to go live by the end of this week and I sincerely hope that no links or subscriptions are lost in the process (PLEASE let me know if it seems this is not the case!).

In the meantime I will leave you with the thought of Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies and Bittersweet Chocolate Meringue Cookies. My first foray into the world of meringue was a huge success, one that I am very excited to share. (Those are the peanut butter versions pictured above.)

Beggar's Angel Hair

2011-03-09T19:00:00.000-05:00

I realize this means very little to you guys, since when you read my posts is when you read my posts, but holy moly I made this dish tonight and here I am writing about it already! We are all healthy and I am, for the first time since before the holidays, completely caught up with my blog. Of course this means I might have nothing to share over spring break in a few weeks, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

This dish was interesting. I predicted my kids would like it and that my husband would not and my husband raved about it while my kids picked at it, especially Alex. So much for what I know. I really liked it also--I don't know if I would call it a repeater exactly, if for no other reason than we are not big on giant plates of pasta for dinner, but it was tasty and is worth trying just for the unusual factor alone.

When Around My French Table first came out this past fall, I passed it by. Not because I don't love Dorie Greenspan--I do and have several cookbooks to prove it-but because I was convinced I had no interest in a French cookbook. Well it turns out I was wrong. I have this completely erroneous notion I think of what a French cookbook should be. It should be full of cream and butter, every recipe should have 50 nit-picky steps that only a classically trained chef would bother following, it should not have evolved past what Julia Child already did, it should be xenophobically French as though the French have not been influenced by any other cultures or cuisines the past 50 years. Why I thought this I have no idea. (Although on a side note, my husband just heard me talking to myself and said: "what we had tonight was French!?!?!?!?" so apparently I am not alone.)

So anyway, to make a long story slightly shorter, I browsed the cookbook at a friend's house and realized how utterly wrong I was. I actually ordered the book that night, at my friend's house, from my phone. We were playing a game and they had to wait until I did (clearly my friends are tolerant of crazed foodie types).

This is the first recipe to jump out at me, not least of which because it is just so unusual. The origins of the dish are equally interesting, involving the word mendiant, which translates to beggar but frequently means a chocolate bonbon with nuts and dried fruit, in which each of the nuts and fruits chosen represents one of the 4 mendicant monastic orders. At a restaurant that Greenspan frequents, the chef turned the sweet savory, resulting in this dish that she then adapted for her book. I did not have any linguini, so I used angel hair. Same with Asiago for Parmesan. I added some dried sour cherries because they sounded good--but honestly it was the figs that made it. Next time I would be tempted to use all figs for the dried fruit. The original nuts to represent the monastic orders were almonds and hazelnuts, and actually next time I think I might try the hazelnuts instead of the pistachios, which I am not a huge fan of (I followed the recipe and used them for my kids who love them--ha! fat lot of good that did!). Salt and pepper are crucial--I used a good (French!) grey sea salt.

Beggar's Angel Hair
Adapted from Around my French Table, Dorie Greenspan

14-16 oz dried long, skinny pasta of choice
12 T (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/3 cup shelled pistachios or hazelnuts, chopped roughly
1/3 cup sliced almonds (or chop your own)
8 plump dried Black Mission figs, chopped (at least!)
1/4 cup raisins (I would have liked to use golden but all I had were currants)
salt and pepper to taste--freshly ground pepper and a good grey sea salt are preferable
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (I used aged Asiago because this is what I have)
grated orange zest to taste-you will not need more than one orange
minced parsley or chives to taste for garnish

Cook the pasta according to the directions in salted water. Drain it well.

About 5 minutes before the pasta is done, heat a large, deep skillet over medium high heat. Melt the butter--when the butter is all melted, add the dried fruit and nuts. Stir. Let the butter boil and bubble; you want it to brown but not burn. You are watching (and smelling) for both the color and aroma of hazelnuts.

When the butter has browned enough, add the well drained pasta with salt and pepper and toss it to get the nuts and dried fruit throughout the pasta. Remove from the heat and add the grated cheese. Toss again and taste for additional salt and pepper. Serve, garnished with orange zest and parsley or chives (as well additional cheese if the person wants it).

Steak Fajitas

2011-03-07T18:44:00.000-05:00

I am well aware this is post is going to garner me a derisive phone call from my mom and a possibly even more derisive message from my sister. And maybe even some derisive comments from you all as well (please be gentle). But still I persevere on, for your own edification as well as a note to myself not to forget all about this discovery.

Seasoned cast iron really is nonstick.

See the thing is, I always kept my cast iron pan seasoned. But I also only used it to cook bacon, so no wonder it never stuck. And before you make too much fun of me, consider that one should not cook tomatoes in cast iron (the acid causes a reaction--apparently some people disagree, but this is the rule I've always stuck to), and then think about just how many dishes I cook with tomatoes. So I never reached for it anyway.

But holy moly, I had the pan running on high gas the entire time I was cooking the onions and peppers--it would have taken gallons of oil on the stainless steel and I would have killed about 50 birds with the nonstick. Truly, it was a thing of beauty to a somewhat health conscious cook like myself. And it gave the peppers and onions the perfect sear--as did the cast iron indoor grill for the skirt steak. If you are looking to emulate chain bar and grill fajitas indoors--and normally I would not aim for emulating chain bar and grill anything, except potato skins and fajitas, 2 of my guilty pleasures--cast iron is the way to go. That and a great marinade.

One note: try to get a good flour tortilla that will not rip easily. Sadly ours did--which is why you can see my hand in the picture above, holding the tortilla roll together. The flavor was perfect, spot on, but I ended up needing to cut my fajitas up and eat them in bite sizes. I won't be buying that brand of tortilla again!

Steak Fajitas
Recipe by The Spiced Life

2 lbs skirt or flank steak
marinade for steak (see below)
2 sweet bell peppers, preferably different colors, thickly sliced
1 medium-large white onion, thickly sliced
flour tortillas
shredded cheese (I like cheddar and monterey jack)
shredded Romaine or iceberg lettuce (something with crunch)
salsa
sour cream
Mexican or southwestern style hot sauce
guacamole (we left out)

Marinade:
juice of 2-3 limes (depending on juiciness--this marinade is not precise)
1 t cumin
1 Mexican oregano
4 cloves garlic, minced

At least 1 hour before dinner, place the beef and the marinade into a plastic, seal-able bag (like Ziploc). Massage the meat with marinade and place it in the fridge. Massage and turn over ever 20 minutes--or if you start with more time, every 30-60 minutes. The lime in the acid has a cooking property, so begin marinading that day, not before.

Preheat your grill; shake the steak off to remove the marinade and sprinkle salt and pepper on each side. When the grill is quite hot, add the steak. Cook to desired doneness--I like medium rare for fajitas (flank steak will take longer than skirt steak). Remove to a cutting board and tent with foil.

While the steak is cooking, preheat your cast iron skillet on high. Get it nice and smoking hot. Add a little oil and add the onion with a pinch of salt. Toss every now and then--you want the onion to char in places (I suppose in the summer this could be done outside also on the grill in a grill basket or in the skillet on the grill). When it is partially done, add the peppers. Continue tossing and charring. I like the pepper to retain some bite but I like the onion completely cooked through. Do it to your taste.

While the onions and peppers are cooking, and after the meat has rested for 10 minutes or so, slice the meat thinly against the grain. At the table or counter, place a bowl with the shredded cheese, one each with the lettuce, sour cream, guacamole and salsa. Don't forget the hot sauce! Place the sliced steak out and as soon as the peppers and onions are done, place them out also. Warm the flour tortillas in the microwave--wrap them in a towel with a sprinkle of water and heat for 2-3 minutes on 50% power. Place this all out and let your guests or family make their own fajitas. Vow to never pay for steak fajitas in a chain bar and grill again.

Lazy Cream Bundt Cake

2011-03-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

Wow we finished this cake tonight and here I am blogging about it already! What caused me to catch up? Well Sammy and I both got sick--Sammy quite sick (she's fine, it was an ear infection but in came with a very high fever), and as a result let's just say my cooking suffered. And if you do not believe me just ask my rather spoiled eldest who complained on the phone to my parents that she was "So, so, so, so, so SO, SO, SO TIRED of [insert what I was serving--I think an Indian hash that lasted 3 nights]!!!! Mommy is not cooking very much!!!!" This was all done at the top of her lungs. Truthfully we were all getting tired of hashes--the tired and overworked parent's best friend, I think we had a Mexican one first--but methinks my daughter needs a lesson in how the rest of the world eats. Especially considering that I still found time to make this cake in the midst of it all.

This is the perfect no energy, no time, but I am craving a cake cake. It is literally the simplest cake I have ever made. No butter to soften or cream, I did it in a mixer but I bet it could be done by hand, and you don't say that about very many cakes. I have made some other butter-less cakes that used cream in its place, but in those cakes the cream was whipped separately. Not this one. Next time I might slip in a little lemon or orange zest just to make it more exciting, but actually my family devoured it so I guess plain vanilla was ok too.

Sammy chose the bundt pan we used--which surprised me given how many more exciting ones I have (from a 4 YO perspective) but perhaps the fever was frying her brain at that moment. The cake rose high above the edges of the pan, but did not drip over and deflated perfectly within 10 minutes of coming out of the oven. Keep in mind if you use a smaller bundt pan you will need to bake some of the batter separately.

Lazy Cream Bundt Cake
Closely adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes, Lauren Chattman

3 cups (378 g) AP flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
6 large eggs, room temperature
2 3/4 cups sugar
4 t vanilla OR 1 T vanilla plus 1 t lemon or orange zest (or you can add almond extract)
2 cups heavy cream, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour (or use something like Baker's Joy, which I do) a 12-cup bundt pan. Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

Mix the eggs and sugar together--Chattman instructs to use a mixer on medium high speed for 5 minutes, until pale yellow and thick, which is what I did. But if you can whip cream by hand, I see no reason why you could not do this by hand as well.

While mixing (on medium low if with a mixer), pour 1/3 of the cream into the egg mixture in a steady stream. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix just to combine. Scrape the sides down and repeat twice, until all of the flour and cream has been used. At the end beat on medium speed (or use your hand) for 1 minute to combine.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake for about 1 hour, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. The sides will also pull away from the pan. Do check the cake at 45 minutes and tent it with foil if it is getting too dark (I did not need to).

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert it onto a cooling rack (I like to do this on top of parchment paper so that the cake does not sink into the wires). Let cool completely before slicing.

Small Town Tiramisu

2011-03-01T18:40:00.001-05:00

I learned 2 things while making this tiramisu, my first ever traditional tiramisu. First, truly authentic tiramisu calls for some ingredients that are a pain in the butt to find in small towns. Second, I suspect restaurants have been making inauthentic tiramisu for forever, because my tiramisu tasted spot on for what I have been eating in various restaurants my whole life. So someday I hope to feature another tiramisu on this blog, one made with marsala wine and proper lady fingers, etc. But for now let's call this my Small Town Tiramisu.

I made this for that same supper club party as the Italian bread (which is why I did not have time to go to Jungle Jim's and get marsala wine, Italian ladyfingers, etc). I got a lot of compliments for the fact that the tiramisu was not soggy--the ladyfingers I found were pathetically soft (a true Italian ladyfinger should be quite crisp), so I only brushed the espresso syrup onto them, instead of dipping the entire ladyfinger. In *my* ideal world, I would increase (maybe 1.5X) the mascarpone part of the recipe, because I like a cream heavy tiramisu. But this is personal preference-the recipe as it is written below does not include extra of the mascarpone-cream layer.

One note about the photos: the tiramisu seems to have 3 layers because it was unclear whether the dumb ladyfingers I bought needed to have 2 cookies to form 1 ladyfinger (just trust me). I decided after it should have been 1, not 2.

Small Town Tiramisu
Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis and Gourmet

1/2 cup kahlua
1/2 cup hot water
3 T espresso powder
2 T sugar

6 egg yolks
4 T sugar
2 T sherry
1 lb mascarpone, room temperature
1 cup heavy cream, softly whipped

ladyfingers-how many depends on size of the ladyfinger, they will need to cover 2 layers of a 9 X 13 pan (I used around 36)
unsweetened natural cocoa powder

Bring the Kahlua, water and espresso powder to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Prepare the whipped cream--do not overwhip, you want it softly whipped. Set aside.

Beat the egg yolks, sherry and sugar in a double boiler or heat safe bowl over barely simmering water. Beat until pale and tripled in volume, about 6 minutes. Remove from the heat, and slowly beat in the mascarpone, a dollop at a time. Once the mascarpone is incorporated, fold the whipped cream in until they are combined completely.

If you are using crisp ladyfingers, dip each one completely in the Kahlua mixture, shake it off gently, and place it in the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish. If your ladyfingers are soft, as mine were, lay the ladyfingers out in the pan until the entire layer is covered. Brush the Kahlua mixture over the ladyfingers. Spread half of the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfingers. Repeat, ending with the rest of the mascarpone mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours and up to 8 hours. Sprinkle the top with cocoa powder before serving.

Italian Bread

2011-02-26T21:00:00.000-05:00

Alex loves The Sound of Music. Since the moment she saw me watching it, she became obsessed. She calls it "Maria" and refuses to acknowledge any other name for it. When we first started watching it Nazis were kinda hard to explain--I just left it at bad guys who wanted to force the Captain to work for them and she accepted it.

We just watched it last week as part of a sick day movie marathon (yes my kids have all the germs too this time), and suddenly it was like she had jumped a level in understanding and inquisitiveness. I feel like I am tracking her developing maturity through The Sound of Music! Are ALL the Nazis bad guys? What did the Nazis want? What did they do? And then there was: Why is Maria upset/conflicted about a man liking her? Just what is a nun? Isn't she their mommy? Oh ok, now they married--NOW she's their mommy? Yikes. All of that was punctuated by "I like the Captain; he's handsome!" (!) and, approximately 10 different times throughout the movie, proving she is still 5: "But WHY did they put a frog in her pocket, Mommy???"

I love kid brains. But I have a tendency toward brutal honesty that causes me to sometimes worry I will give them nightmares or overload their little minds.

Anyway about this bread. Some friends and I recently created a very casual supper club which meets around once a month, sometimes with kids, sometimes not, always with spouses (if applicable). We had our first meeting this past weekend, the theme of which was Italian. I immediately signed up for bread and dessert.

For whatever reason I expected this bread to be crustier, more like a French baguette. Maybe any of you who have lived in Italy can tell me whether the super basic artisan white bred (i.e., not ciabatta or foccacia or grissini, or...) is very crusty. My most perfect (to my mind) loaves had a crispiness to the crust, but they were still not super crusty. But maybe we expect all European bread to be like a French baguette and maybe Italian bread is not supposed to be so crusty?

At any rate, I made 5 loaves--the loaf that had the oven to itself was perfect (well I have no idea if it was perfectly authentic), as it had a soft interior and a crispy but not super crusty, browned exterior. All of the loaves had a wonderful, flavorful sweetness brought on by the use of a biga starter. But the 4 loaves that were in the convection oven did not develop as nice of crusts--I can only assume they were crowded. When I reheated one on convection the next day however, first wrapped in foil (stored in fridge) and then unwrapped on the rack for the last 5 minutes, it too had a perfectly crispy crust. So I guess the idea is first: try not to overcrowd your oven and second: if it turns out too soft try re-heating, wrapped in foil, at 350 F (325 F convection) for 10 minutes, unwrapped for another 5.

I am so excited about this bread because both the biga and the dough itself were super easy to work with. The dough is less sticky than the French bread dough, and as a result its supple elasticity is actually fun to knead. I am also excited because I am thinking I will try making a triple batch or so of the biga and store it in the freezer, so I can pull it out whenever I want an artisan-style loaf of bread. I realize that there are tons of methods by which to make a lot of bread dough and then bake some each day--but it does require using up a lot of bread dough in a short span of time. And it takes up so much space in your fridge! I like the idea of this better.

Try dipping this bread in a good dipping oil--I like one with cheese and herbs. It was absolutely fantastic.

I am submitting this bread to Wild Yeast's Yeastspotting. Check it out every week for the best yeast breads on the web.

Italian Bread
Closely adapted from Peter Reinhart, The Bread Baker's Apprentice

*Note: this is a 2+ day method, requiring the use of a biga. Read through the recipe before you begin to make sure you have an idea of the timing. Also note that the biga makes 18 oz, exactly what you need for the rest of the recipe, which makes 2 loaves. You can adjust the amounts up or down (halve or multiple) to make more or less loaves. See my notes above about making extra biga and keeping it in the freezer.

Day 1: Biga:
2 1/2 cups (11.25 oz) unbleached bread flour (you can sub AP if need be)
1/2 t instant yeast
3/4 - 1 cup (7-8 oz) water, room temperature

Stir together the flour and yeast--you can do this in a mixer, my preference, or by hand. Add the water--starting with 7 oz or 3/4 cup. Stir until it comes together and makes a coarse ball. Adjust the water or flour as needed, to make a dough that is neither excessively sticky or stiff. Reinhart notes that at this stage it is better to err on the sticky side.

Either by hand or using a dough hook, knead the dough for 4-6 minutes (4 minutes on medium low speed with a dough hook). The dough should be soft and pliable but not sticky. Lightly oil a deep bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until nearly doubled, 2-4 hours.

After the dough has doubled, knead it lightly to degas, and then place it back in the bowl. Cover again with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or place it in freezer bags and store it in the freezer (if you only want to bake one loaf at a time, divide the dough in half and store the 2 halves separately). Let it rest at the minimum overnight.

Day 2 (or 3 or 4): Making the bread:
3 1/2 cups (18 oz) biga (see above)
2 1/2 cups (11.25 oz) unbleached bread flour (or AP flour)
1 2/3 t salt
1 T sugar
1 t instant yeast
1 t diastatic barley malt powder, optional (I did not use as I do not have)
1 T decent extra virgin olive oil (not your pricey stuff though)
3/4 - 1 cup water (7-8 oz)

Remove the biga from the fridge 1 hour before baking (if using from the freezer, defrost overnight in the fridge and then, once thaw, remove it one hour before beginning bread recipe). Cut it into approximately 10 pieces now, while it is cold and easy to slice. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and leave to warm up.

Stir together, in a large bowl or mixer bowl, the flour, salt, sugar, yeast and optional malt powder. Add the olive oil, biga and 3/4 cup (7 oz) water and stir until a ball forms. Add more water or flour as needed to get a shaggy but fairly cohesive ball. Transfer to kneading--either by hand or with the dough hook. The dough should be slightly sticky and soft--but not super sticky. When it is where you want it, knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as needed (10 minutes by dough hook or hand). Lightly oil a deep bowl and place the dough inside it. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Gently divide the dough into 2 pieces of about 18 ounces each (for batards--you can also make torpedo rolls of about 4 ounces each). Gently--try not to degas the dough too much but also don't get too hung up on this--stretch the dough into a rough rectangle about 12 inches long. Fold the dough as though you were folding an 8X11 sheet of paper to mail--fold the bottom third up and then fold the top third down. Use your hands to gently seal the dough and increase the surface tension. Accept that your batards will not be perfect unless you are super experienced (I am not). They'll taste great either way.

If I am baking a lot of loaves, I bake them on parchment paper right on the cookie sheets that they rise on. For just one loaf, however, I place my pizza stone in the oven and I place the batard on parchment paper on a rim-less cookie sheet (or a baker's peel if you have one). Lightly spray the tops of the loaves with oil and then gently lay plastic wrap over them. Let rise at room temperature for 60-90 minutes. They will rise to 1 1/2 times their original size.

30 minutes before baking, prep your oven. Place a rimmed jelly roll pan or a cast iron skillet on the bottom of the oven. Turn the oven on to 500 F and bring a kettle or pot of water to boil.

When it is time to bake your bread, use your sharpest knife and make 3 diagonal slashes on your loaves. This is something I still struggle with; just do your best. (They have special baker's razors you can buy but I've never gotten one.)

When it is time for the loaves to bake, make sure you have several things ready before opening the oven. Have a spray bottle with water ready, and have the hot water that you boiled ready. Also have a dry towel that will cover your oven door ready. Open the oven and place your loaves inside (either on their sheets or slide the parchment off of the sheet onto a baking stone). Working quickly, cover the oven glass with the dry towel (this is important-the slightest drop of water will cause your glass to crack in that hot of an oven. Trust me, I know). Pour the hot water into the cookie sheet or skillet in the bottom of the oven. Immediately spray the sides of the oven and shut the oven door. Wait 30 seconds and open, repeat the towel and spray parts. Repeat again 30 seconds later (so you will have sprayed 3 times).

After the final spray, reduce the oven temperature to 450 F for a softer bread or 400 F for a crustier bread. Unless you have a convection oven, plan to rotate the bread for even baking halfway through. At 450 F the loaves will take about 20 minutes to finish; at 400 F it will take a little longer. Watch for the crust to become golden brown and then check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer--it should register 200 F.

Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack and let cool for 1 hour before slicing.

An Indian Feast: Yogurt Curried Fish and Orange Scented Cauliflowers & Potatoes

2011-02-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

My mom observed to me the other day that my posts had been shorter this winter. And it is true, because I seem to be perennially behind. I make a particular dish or dessert, and I fall asleep composing various observations about it in my head--but then I don't sit down to write the actual post until 1-2 weeks later, by which time all I can remember is that it was yummy. Which is hardly poetic. And it does not help that I have always, whether we are talking about high school, college, law school or this blog, done my best writing late at night. But Alex started school this year, meaning I have to haul my butt out of bed every morning way earlier than my natural bio-rhythms would like.

Are other people this thrown by their kids starting kindergarten? Although to be fair--and I have always tried to avoid this blog becoming a long litany of what new germ I am fighting off this week--it has been a rough fall/winter with the appendectomy in Sepetember followed by, as of tonight, 5 rounds of antibiotics. It has just been germy as hell around here! But anyway, when you combine the germs with the new schedule, I just seem to be behind on everything, especially things I prefer doing at night. The trip to Disney World got me a week closer to actually writing about dishes right after I make them. That puts me still a week behind.

Alas.

And the worst thing about the germy fatigue I've been fighting off is that Alex came home yesterday and announced that she no longer wanted to be a paleontologist or artist (2 long standing goals) but instead wanted to stay home, bake and take naps.

YIKES. I mean yay for baking, but stay home and take naps? I told her taking care of kids was more work than that (although it is true I take the occasional nap) and she informed me she did not need the kids, she just needed a husband. DOUBLE YIKES. Now my mom was a SAHM who took the occasional (but much less frequent) nap and loved to bake--but I don't remember ever feeling like my goal should be to have a husband who just took care of me. For now we are ignoring this insane pronouncement, but it sure gave me a jolt!

Anyway, I guess one way to catch up on the blogging at least is to give you a twofer. We had some dinner guests a week or so ago, and I made them Indian food. Indian food is very hard to do entirely in one pot for some reason. It always ends up feeling like you need a veggie that is separate from the protein even though they are both curries with a lot going on. So I made a fish curry and accompanied it with a cauliflower dish-and while both were great, the cauliflower was spectacularly unique in my experience. They both came from a new cookbook. India Cookbook, by Pushpent Pant, that I am loving so much I am going to reserve talking about it for another day, when I can give it a proper review.

Khamala Phoolkopi (Cauliflower & Potatoes with Oranges)
Adapted from Indian Cookbook, Pushpent Pant

1 small head (approx 500 g) of cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets
4 potatoes, parboiled and peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks (I used baking potatoes but I am sure you can use any, just make sure you parboil them so they are partially cooked but still firm)
1 t ground turmeric
4 T vegetable oil
4 cloves
2 green cardamom pods
1 2-3 inch cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 T minced or grated fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium-large onions, finely chopped
1 t cayenne or paprika
2 t ground cumin
1 t sugar (I accidentally left out)
3 oranges--remove the zest with a peeler (be sure not to peel the white) and then peel the oranges and cut them into bite sized segments
fresh green chile peppers, to taste, minced
salt to taste

Place the cauliflower and parboiled and prepped potatoes in a large bowl. Toss with the turmeric until evenly coated. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan over high heat. Add the cauliflower and potatoes and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, until they are lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add the bay leaves, cloves, green cardamom pods and cinnamon stick to the oil in the pan (add a little more oil if you need to). Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and fry for another 3 minutes. Add the orange peel, sugar, ground ginger, cayenne or paprika, and cumin. Toss to coat--be sure that the spices to not burn--add a few teaspoons of water if need be. Cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.

Add the cauliflower and potatoes back into the pan. Toss to mix with a pinch of salt to taste. Add 2/3 of the bite sized orange segments. Add 1/2 cup of water and mix well. Cover the lid and reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes.

About 5 minutes before the dish is cooked, add the green chile pepper ((I left out because my kids cannot take heat). Taste for additional salt. Before serving garnish with the remaining orange segments.

Dahi ki Machhali (Fish Cooked in Yogurt Sauce)
Adapted from India Cookbook, Pushpent Pant

2 1/4 lbs firm white fish fillets, cut into pieces (I used mahi mahi)
1 t ground turmeric
3-4 medium-large onions, sliced
1 T minced or grated ginger
6 garlic cloves, minced
3 2-3 inch cinnamon sticks
7 cloves
8 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom pods
1 t black peppercorns
2 1/4 cups whole Greek yogurt
3/4 cups vegetable oil (yes it is a lot of oil-this is not diet food--although you could start with less and add more as you need it)
2 t ground coriander
1 t cayenne or paprika
salt to taste
cilantro for garnish

30 minutes before beginning, place the fish in a shallow dish or container and rub all over with the ground turmeric. Set in the fridge to chill until you need it.

Place the onion, ginger and garlic into a food processor and puree into a paste (add water if necessary but I did not need to). Set aside.

Place the cinnamon, 3 cloves 3 green cardamom pods and all of the black cardamom pods into a spice grinder. Grind to make your own masala for this dish. (I accidentally used ALL of the spices and it was fine). Whisk the masala into the yogurt and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large pot (such as a Dutch oven) over medium heat with the remaining whole spices (so I skipped this). Stir fry for 1 minute, until they are fragrant. Add the onion puree and cook for 6 minutes, until it is starting to caramelize. Add the ground coriander and cayenne or paprika with some salt to taste. Add the fish and cook them for about 5 minutes.

Reduce the heat and slowly stir, by the spoonful, the yogurt mixture into the curry. Once all of the yogurt is in, cover the pot and cook for 3 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through and oil floats to the surface. Taste for salt and garnish with cilantro before serving.

Potato Chip Cookies

2011-02-21T22:00:00.002-05:00

Each semester during parent-teacher conference week, our school's PTG looks for volunteers to bake and cook for the teachers, who work through the evening hours. Given that cooking and baking is my kind of volunteering, I always try to make something, at least one dessert and one meal. After a few rounds of cookies for various functions at the school in addition to this, I feel I've established myself as a decent baker in particular--so I have decided that from here on out I am going to use them as my guinea pigs.

Sammy and I went cookie cookbook browsing, searching for those cookies that although they sounded good, would not necessarily be made under normal circumstances. Cookies we were curious about. These fit the bill perfectly, because although I think salty and sweet are a marriage made in heaven, my husband does not. And indeed he took one bite of these cookies and would not eat any more (!).

I on the other hand found them dangerously addictive, like shortbread plus potato chips and yet much better than that sounds. And if I was feeling insecure at all after John's rejection (although truly he was nice about it), I felt a lot better after a friend of mine told me that her older son's teacher had gushed to her about these amazing potato chip cookies, and how she had sneaked out at every possible break, hoping there would still be more left.

So I guess some people love them!

The recipe did not contain any guidelines about what kind of potato chips to use, so I went with our standby, Cape Cod Reduced Fat Kettle Cooked chips. The reduction in fat comes from the baking/frying method, not any weird additives. I do find them less salty than other chips though so I added a bit of coarse salt to the dough. I think I was a tad overzealous in my rolling of the cookie dough in potato chips, as I used a ton more than Krystina Castella called for. Of course one person's overzealous is another person's perfect, so just roll to taste.

Potato Chip Cookies
Closely adapted from Crazy About Cookies, Kristina Castella

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 t vanilla
1/4 t coarse salt, optional, see notes above
2 cups (252 g) AP flour
2 cups (200 g) coarsely crushed chips, divided (or more, to taste, see notes above)
coarse salt and sugar for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or silicone. Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy (add the salt here if using). Mix in the vanilla, and then the flour and 1 cup of the potato chips. Mix well to thoroughly incorporate the chips but do not overmix.

Using a cookie scoop or spoons, shape the dough into 1 inch balls and then roll them in the remaining crushed potato chips. Place on the cookie sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart ( ibaked 12 cookies to a sheet). Press on the cookie balls slightly to flatten just a bit. Sprinkle them with coarse salt and/or sugar, to your taste (I liked both).

Bake for 12-15 minutes; the cookies will not get particularly dark, just lightly browned. Let cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Riojan Potatoes with Chorizo and Chile

2011-02-18T20:25:00.000-05:00

I confess we had this as a meal--but it might be better as tapas. Not because it is not good enough to eat a big bowlful of it--oh it is--but because to me this is not a particularly healthy meal. The carbs completely outweigh the fiber and protein--and the protein is unhealthy flavoring protein (chorizo) as opposed to solid stick to your ribs protein (chicken, beans, etc).

It does not help that I have very little self control around good potatoes. (And on that note I would like to add that this year I discovered that organic potatoes blow the pants off regular ones--I highly recommend choosing organic for potatoes.)

But there it is, I wanted to make it, I did not want to fiddle with a tapas meal on a weeknight meal, so instead we had a meal that fell a little short of my usual standards. And I do not regret it for a moment.

Riojan Potatoes with Chorizo and Chile
Closely adapted from The New Spanish Table, Anya von Bremzen

1 large dried pimiento choricero or ancho chile pepper (I used the ancho), stemmed, seeded, torn into large pieces
3 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes (I highly recommend using organic potatoes--they taste SO much better)
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 medium-large onion, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 green or yellow (I prefer the sweeter yellow) bell pepper, thinly sliced
6-8 oz sweet Spanish style chorizo, sliced into rounds (if you use a particularly dry sausage, I recommend dicing instead)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 t sweet smoked paprika
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 bay leaf
approx. 2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
chopped flat leaf parsley for garnish

Soak the dried pepper in 1/2 cup very hot water until softened, about 30 minutes. Then place it in a blender and puree it. Set aside.

Chop the potatoes into bite sized chunks and place in a bowl of water.

Heat a 4-6 quart Dutch oven over medium low heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook for 3 minutes, then add the sliced peppers also. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add the chorizo and cook another 5 minutes. Add more olive oil if necessary.

Drain the potatoes and quickly pat them dry (don't worry too much about it). Add them to the pot with the garlic and cook for another 3 minutes, stirring. Add the wine, paprika and bay leaf and stir. Add the pureed rehydrated pepper along with enough chicken stock to barely cover the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to simmer.

Cook until the potatoes are tender and some are starting to fall apart, about 30 minutes. Remove several potatoes and mash them. Add them back into the pot to thicken it. Let the stew sit for 10 minutes before serving, sprinkled with parsley.

2011-02-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

2011-02-15T09:00:00.001-05:00

Cheesecake? Check. Chocolate? Check. Chocolate chip cookies? Check. Delectable graham cracker crust? Check. These babies have it all.

This is one of those over the top creations that I was honestly not sure if I would like. John, who enjoys those kinds of desserts, I knew would like it and I was pretty sure the kids would too. I was right on all counts--except for me. I was pleasantly surprised by these bars and found them to be absolutely delicious. Not at all too much. If you like cheesecake and you like chocolate chip cookies, I strongly recommend them.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
Closely adapted from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook, Elinor Klivans

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 T unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup (4 oz) mini chocolate chips

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:
5 T unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 T granulated sugar
1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla
3/4 cup (95 g) AP flour
1 cup (6 oz) chocolate chips (regular size)

Cheesecake Filling:
10 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 t vanilla

Topping:
1/3 cup chocolate chips (regular size)

First make the crust by preheating the oven to 325 F. Line and grease a 9 inch square pan with parchment paper (grease the actual parchment). Set aside.

Mix the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs until they are evenly mixed. Stir in the mini chocolate chips. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and about 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Bake for 6 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack. Leave the oven on.

Next make the dough by beating the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and vanilla until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Mix in the flour on low speed, just until incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips. Set aside.

Next make the cheesecake filling by beating the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla on low speed just until incorporated. Pour the cheesecake batter into the prepared crust. Using your hand to form clumps, drop the cookie dough onto the top of the cheesecake batter in teaspoon-sized clumps. Use all of the dough--you will cover a substantial amount of the cheesecake batter.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top feels dry and firm (the cookie dough) and the entire pan looks set if given a gentle shake. Immediately scatter the chocolate chips over the pan and then leave to cool to room temperature, during which time the chocolate chips should melt slightly and adhere to the top of the bars.

Lift the bars out by the overhang of the parchment paper; slice into desired size and store in the refrigerator. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Kefta Tagine Bil Beid (Moroccan Meatball Tagine With Tomato & Eggs)

2011-02-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

I was so excited to eat this meal that I forgot to take pictures before serving it. So picture an entire round skillet with more meatballs and eggs! This recipe is from a cookbook I got for Christmas from my parents, The Food Of Morocco: A Journey For Food Lovers, a gift which turned out to be auspicious, because I have very exciting news: John and I are planning a trip to Morocco this summer! So you can expect to see a lot of Moroccan and Mediterranean food on my blog in the upcoming months, as I explore all of the food before we go (so I can know what to look for there of course--I am duty bound to do as much research as possible via every Moroccan/North African cookbook on the market, right?).

So about this dish. It has my family written all over it because my girls love meatballs, especially Sammy, and they love eggs, especially Alex. It is savory and delicious, with a sauce that should be mopped up with bread. It is also a very easy dish, coming together quickly but tasting like it took much longer. My recipe calls for lamb-which I will no doubt try in Morocco--but here where I live it is so much easier to get beef that I usually just sub it. Use whichever strikes your fancy.

Kefta Tagine Bil Beid (Meatball Tagine With Tomato & Eggs)
Adapted from The Food of Morocco

I used my enameled cast iron skillet for this dish; a tagine is traditionally a clay pot but the instructions would be different as I believe you do not put a clay pot on the stove top (I think you would begin the dish in a frying pan but then transfer it to a clay pot and break the eggs into it, to cook in a moderate oven). Do not use plain cast iron as the tomatoes will react with it. The heavier the skillet the better.

For Meatballs:
1 1/2 lbs ground lamb or beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 T finely chopped flat leaf parsley (I did not have, was fine without if not authentic)
2 T finely chopped cilantro
1/2 t cayenne pepper (to taste)
1/2 t ground ginger
1 t ground cumin
1 t paprika
salt and pepper to taste

For the rest of the dish:
4 T extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 onion (I used large as we love onions), finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 t ground cumin
1/2 t cinnamon
1 t paprika
14 oz chopped tomatoes (canned is fine, I used frozen from last summer)
2 t harissa*, to taste
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

*I did not have harissa and did not want to make a batch of it, so I looked at their recipe for harissa, and added pinches, to taste, of: dried red chile pepper flakes, dried mint, ground coriander, ground cumin, and garlic.

Combine all of the meatball ingredients together in a large bowl. Mix gently with your hands--do not overwork the mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Form into meatballs of about a tablespoon each of the mixture.

Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and heat it. When it shimmers, add the meatballs in one layer. Cook for 8-10 minutes, until browned all over. Remove the meatballs and set them on a plate. Wipe out the pan.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and heat until shimmering over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 7 minutes with a pinch of salt. Add the garlic, cumin, cinnamon and paprika and cook for an additional minute, until the mixture is fragrant. Stir in the tomatoes and additional spices or harissa*, whichever you are using. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce the heat to simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the meatballs back into the dish and cover to simmer for 10 minutes, to cook the meatballs through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the cilantro and then break the eggs over the dish. Let the eggs cook gently in the simmering mixture, until they are done to your liking. Serve with bread to mop up the juices.

Coconut Lentil Soup with Potatoes and Peas

2011-02-10T22:38:00.001-05:00

The Spiced Life family just got back from a whirlwind trip to Disney World! John got invited to talk at a conference there and we said yes, please! 3 days nonstop parks with rides, princesses, food, princesses, fairies, princesses... So please forgive any typos or just plain incomprehensible sentences. My brain feels like Swiss cheese; we are Exhausted. Happy but exhausted.

We had great Disney World weather--which meant that it was warm, intermittently sunny and intermittently gloomy with just enough rain to deter locals but nowhere near enough to deter us. So waits for really popular characters like Rapunzel and the fairies were not too bad for us.

About the soup. This is another choice from 101 Cookbooks--only this time it turned into more of an inspiration as I strayed pretty far from the recipe. I'm not sure what happened--the soup just suddenly screamed for potatoes and peas--seriously, I could hear it in my head--or more likely taste it on my tongue. So in they went, out came other parts, and I had no regrets.

Coconut Lentil Soup with Potatoes and Peas
Inspired by 101 Cookbooks

1 cup (7 oz/200g) yellow split peas, rinsed
1 cup (7 oz/200g) red split lentils (masoor dal), rinsed
1/2 t turmeric
1/2 t paprika
1-2 T ghee or oil
1 large onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups water
1 large russet potato, peeled and diced
1 medium carrot, finely diced
2 T fresh peeled and minced ginger
2 T curry powder
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 19-oz can coconut milk
Salt and pepper to taste
one small handful cilantro, chopped
Several handfuls (to taste) fresh or frozen peas

Heat a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add 1-2 tablespoons of ghee or oil (or a combo). When it is hot, add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are caramelized, about 15 minutes. During the last 5 minutes, add the carrots and 1/4 of the ginger. Add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Add the paprika and turmeric, cook for 1 minute while stirring, and then add the lentils, split peas and water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover to maintain a simmer.

Simmer the legumes for 15 minutes and then add the prepped potatoes with the 2 cups of stock. Return to a boil. Cover and simmer until the split peas are tender and the potatoes are fork tender (the red lentils will disintegrate).

In the meantime, in a small nonstick skillet low heat, toast the curry powder until it is quite fragrant. Be careful not to let it burn. Add the tomato paste and ginger and stir to mix. Raise the heat to medium and roast the mix, stirring all the while, for about 2-3 minutes. Add this mixture to the lentils. Also add the coconut milk and salt and pepper to taste. If the mixture is not thick enough, let it simmer uncovered for a bit. Add the peas and cilantro before serving (heat the peas through).

Irish Coffee Heart Crunchies

2011-02-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

I rarely make coffee flavored desserts even though they are one of my favorites because John is not a fan. I've never liked drinking straight coffee--but mochas and all other things sweet that can be made with coffee are right up my alley. So I was naturally intrigued by these cookies from the year 1980 in The Gourmet Cookie Book (the book celebrates the best cookie from each year that Gourmet Magazine was in publication). I was extra intrigued because I also like pretty much all baked goods made with oats.

These cookies did not disappoint--me. Or Alex. However, they are not for everyone. The coffee flavor is strong, so John was not a fan, and they are not super sweet, which I think ruled Sammy out. As a matter of fact, I thought they were perfect in the mid morning with tea or coffee (well tea for me, coffee for anyone else). They are not really a great after dinner dessert, when you are craving something sumptuous and sweet.

I should also tell you that I radically changed the filling that Gourmet called for. They called for a filling made with powdered sugar and Irish whiskey. I skipped it not just because of the alcohol and my kids (alcohol that would not get cooked off, unlike the alcohol in the cookies), but also because I wanted something a little less sweet and a little more complex than powdered sugar. So I made some with a bittersweet chocolate ganache, drizzled with an espresso ganache and some with just the espresso ganache. If I were to do it all over again I would only use the espresso ganache because it was really, really good. It occurs to me now that you could also choose to skip the sandwiching of the cookies, thus making them sweeter.

Note: This is a very dry dough that must be vigorously kneaded to come together. Because of this is it is easy to roll out but also a little frustrating as it tears easily. Just patch the pieces up and proceed, it will be fine.

Irish Coffee Heart Crunchies
Adapted from The Gourmet Cookie Book

the cookie:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
2 t Irish whiskey
2 t espresso (I used instant espresso to make it)
1 t heavy cream
1 vanilla
2 cups quick cooking oats or old fashioned oats that have been pulsed in a food processor until broken up
1 cup AP flour
1/4 t salt
1 t baking powder

the filling:
3/8 cup (1/4 cup plus 2 T) heavy cream
2 t instant espresso
4 oz white chocolate, chopped (use a good white chocolate with cocoa butter)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the Irish whiskey, espresso, heavy cream and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add the oats along with the flour mixture and mix until combined. Knead to finish the mixing.

Roll out the dough 1/8-inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Using a cookie cutter of about 2 1/4-inch diameter, cut out the shape of your choosing and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone.

Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly colored. Let cool on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting. Drizzle extra ganache on top of the cookies if desired.

Algerian Tagine Of Chicken and Apples

2011-02-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

I had trouble with the color of this dish--the flavor was a lot richer and more vibrant than the pictures imply. Perhaps it would have been prettier with quince, the first choice of the recipe author (Joyce Goldstein), but I figured why hunt down a flown-in quince when I still have local apples? (And truthfully here is where I confess I have no idea what a quince even looks like.) Goldstein also recommended using pomegranate molasses to intensify the color, but I did not have any.

This tagine recipe (cooked in a Dutch oven) was taken from Saffron Shores: Jewish Cooking of the Southern Mediterranean, by Joyce Goldstein, a book my sister bought for me. Those of us who grew up with mainly Ashkenazi Jewish friends (Jews from Eastern Europe) in the post-Israel world especially forget how much Jewish culture influenced the food in North Africa. (I mention Israel because as far as I can tell after the creation of Israel the vast majority of those Jews left North Africa and moved to Israel, although active Jewish communities remain, especially in Moroccco.) If you mostly think of potato pancakes, mandelbrot and matzo ball soup when you think of Jewish food, then this book will be a pleasant surprise (not because that other food is not wonderful but just because it is amazing how much more is out there). This tagine made with quinces in Algeria is regarded as ideal Rosh Hashanah food, but I call it ideal winter food anytime and have made it with the last of this year's Fuji apples.

Algerian Tagine Of Chicken and Apples
Adapted from Saffron Shores: Jewish Cooking of the Southern Mediterranean, by Joyce Goldstein

2 lbs crisp apples, peeled, sliced, and sprinkled with apple cider vinegar to prevent browning (if you are using primarily sweet apples, then add a tad more vinegar)
1/4 cup olive oil
4-5 lbs chicken pieces (or 1 chicken cut up), bone-in and skin-on, patted dry and sprinkled with salt and pepper
3 large onions, sliced
1/2 t freshly ground nutmeg
1 T cinnamon (I used ceylon--use 2 t if you use cassia)
1/4 cup water
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Heat the oil over high heat in a medium-large Dutch oven. Brown the chicken pieces on all sides, and then remove to a bowl and set aside. Either add more olive oil as needed or drain off the excess fat--whichever you think is best (traditionally would be made with more fat but I tend to drain some off). Turn the heat down to medium and add the onions with a pinch of salt and sauté until caramelized, 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally--if they start to scorch you can deglaze with a little apple cider vinegar or water and turn the heat down a bit.

Stir in the spices and cook, stirring, an additional 5 minutes. Do not let the spices burn. Add the chicken back into the pot with a 1/4 cup of water. Bring to a boil, cover with a heavy lid and place in the oven for 30 mins.

In the meantime prepare the apples. At the end of the 30 minutes, take the pot out and add the apples to the dish. Replace the lid and return to the oven for another 15-30 minutes, until the apples have softened without becoming mushy and the chicken is cooked through and quite tender. It will not fall off the bone as though cooked in a slow cooker, however. Salt and pepper to taste, and add more cinnamon if desired. Serve over couscous, rice or potatoes.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Butterfly Cake

2011-02-02T09:00:00.001-05:00

The next few posts are full of delicious food with lousy photos. For whatever reasons, lately it feels like it's all I can do to grab a few very much not staged shots before we dig in. And not staged means you can see computers, pepper grinders, random cookbooks, phones, keyboards, hands, you name it peeking in the corners of the pictures. Alas alas.

But you trust me by now, right? So believe me when I say that this cake is really worth making, whether my pictures sucked you in or not. It is actually quite unique, in a subtle kind of way. I expected it to taste like a chocolate chip pound cake--plus the beauty of knowing it was a tad healthier. But actually the oats make a strong comment here. They are rustic, chewy and definitively present. My family went crazy for this; much like that Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Chip Cake, every last crumb of this was consumed long before it could get even a little dried out. And the kids of course got a gigantic hoot out of the butterfly pan I used. Actually, I confess, so did I. (For the record, the cake is a "snacking" cake and originally intended for a 8 inch square pan (2 inches deep)).

Note: Read the recipe through and make sure you give yourself time for the oats to cool.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Butterfly Cake
Adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes, Lauren Chattman

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking)
3/4 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups (189 g) AP flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Pour the boiling water over the oats in a heat-proof bowl. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour (or use Baker's Joy type product) your butterfly pan (or an 8X8X2 pan). Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Remove 1 tablespoon of thix mixture and toss it with the chocolate chips. Set both aside.

Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium-high with an electric mixer. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Mix in the oats.

Add the flour mixture 1/2 cup at a time, mixing on low speed if using electric mixer. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan; smooth the top level. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

New Year Noodle Soup

2011-01-30T19:11:00.000-05:00

When I was editing the photos for this dish I had the exact same visceral reaction that I did upon seeing the photos at 101cookbooks: I want that soup and I want it now. If you're a soup lover and a legume lover like me, this dish is pretty much nirvana. It's simultaneously creamy and brothy, rich and healthy, homey and exotic. It's the kind of dish where the dinner table will be silent except for slurping--and every slurp is a compliment to the chef.

The New Year's reference is for a Persian new year, so as far as I am concerned this soup should be enjoyed year round, with particular emphasis on cold weather months, vegetarian one pot meal nights, healthy meal nights, days you're feeling under the weather... you get the idea. Heidi of 101cookbooks does not explain the significance of the meal beyond noting that it is from Greg and Lucy Malouf's Saraban: A Chef's Journey Through Persia. So clearly I have another cookbook to acquire.

How you approach this dish will depend on whether you are using canned or dried legumes. For the split peas, I only recommend dried. For the white or pink bean and the chickpea, you can take either route--although I always believe your results will be superior if you cook dried. If you use dried beans, you will also then have bean broth to add to the dish. In my case I used canned chickpeas but I cooked a dried Yellow Eye Rancho Gordo bean--it was 2-tone, as you can see in the photos. The original recipe calls for borlotti according to Heidi. I did add the resulting bean broth to my dish--otherwise you would use more stock.

New Year Noodle Soup
Adapted from 101cookbooks (originally Greg and Lucy Malouf)

2 T olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced

4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1 long red chili OR green serrano, finely chopped, 0ptional (I left out)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
approx. 8 cups (see my notes above re: bean broth) chicken or vegetable stock, low sodium if using commercial
100g /3.5 oz yellow split peas

handful or 2 o rd lentils, to thicken broth
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, rinsed if using canned
2 cups/350g cooked yellow eye beans or borlotti beans (rinse if using canned)
salt to taste
120 g thin egg noodles, fresh or dried (I used Chinese egg noodles)
3 1/2 oz/100g fresh spinach leaves, finely shredded
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2 T chopped fresh dill
juice of one lime or lemon (I used lemon as it was what I had)

Toppings:
1 T olive oil
1 T unsalted butter
1 large onion, thinly sliced (if you love caramelized onions like we do you might want to double the onion and add fat to need)
sour cream (or Greek yogurt)
additional lime or lemon juice/wedges

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion and optional chile and cook until the onion is golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional 2 minutes. Add the spices and cook for another thirty seconds, then add the stock. Bring to a boil and add the split peas and lentils to the pot. Cook until the split peas are just tender, about 25 minutes (the red lentils will basically disintegrate). Stir in the cooked chickpeas and yellow eye/borlotti beans. Once the beans have heated throughout, season with salt to taste. Add more cumin if you think it needs it (I like a lot of cumin).

In the meantime, begin preparing the toppings. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt, stirring occasionally, until dark and caramelized, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle a bit more salt to taste. Set aside.

I prefer to cook the noodles separately so I can add them to the leftovers separately. If you prefer drop them into the pot about 10 minutes before serving dinner. Otherwise cook them separately in salted water until al dente. Drain and ladle into bowls before serving.

Right before serving, stir the spinach, cilantro and dill into the pot. Add a big squeeze of lime or lemon to the pot or serve wedges along with each bowl of soup. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.

Serve right away over noodles, each bowl topped with a big spoonful of caramelized onions and some sour cream (we also used Greek yogurt one night and it was wonderful too).

When Greasing A Pan Goes Wrong: Gingerbread Teacakes

2011-01-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

This is a "twofer" post--2 posts for the price of one. It is a post about the delights of baking with your children and it is a post about what to do when your cakes or muffins do not release (through no fault of your children, I might add)--resulting in 2 different desserts.

So first the actual baking... We chose these miniature gingerbread teacakes for the "formal" tea that my girls had. They were perfect except for the greasing issue--but more on that later. They have definite ginger bite and are very moist--important when discussing miniature treats. Since they are basically a quick bread they are a great recipe to do with your kids.

Yep she is stealing brown sugar.

Now I am traditionally a control freak in the kitchen. I'd love to tell you that I let my kids help with every little thing, but the truth is I struggle just to let them do what they do. I do it because I know it is good for them, so even though I wince when they dump the flour "into" the bowl and half of it goes over the side onto the counter, I (try to anway) bite my tongue. Sammy dumps dry ingredients--and the beauty of using a scale is that she can dump willy nilly into the bowl until we hit the right number. With Sammy if it is going into the main mixing bowl I usually do the scooping.

Alex helps with all of these duties as well, and sometimes with scooping, but recently Alex "graduated" to her 2 favorite tasks: turning the mixer on and off and scraping down the inside of the bowl. The first is more nerve wracking than it sounds, because it can be hard for little hands to turn the mixer onto a low speed, but if you turn it to a high speed right after adding dry ingredients you can expect a cloud in your face.

Now about the greasing. I made this recipe in 2 miniature silicone loaf pans, 1 nonstick miniature muffin pan, and one Nordic Ware teacake pan shaped like pumpkins and acorns. The recipe itself did not call for any greasing of silicone pans (!) so I lightly greased the first 2 items. The last, the Nordic Ware pan, I thoroughly greased because of the nooks and crannies in the shapes. The Nordic Ware pan is the only one that released. So frustrating after my munchkins' hard work! But this is what you do when you have a pile of tasty crumbs: you make a trifle. In this case I whipped up ground ginger, heavy whipping cream and softened cream cheese together with sugar to taste and then layered it between the mountains of gingerbread crumbs. It worked well and was happily eaten by my family.

Gingerbread Teacakes
Adapted from Bite-Size Desserts, Carole Bloom

1 1/4 cups (5.5 oz) AP flour
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 t ground ginger
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/8 t freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 t salt
1/4 cup (1.5 oz) finely chopped candied ginger
4 T (2 oz, 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup (2 oz) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup unsulphered molasses ( I had to sub some dark corn syrup which was ok but all molasses would be better)
1 extra large egg, room temperature
1/2 cup boiling water

Preheat over to 350 F. Thoroughly grease (or spray) 24 mini (2-inch diameter) muffin wells (I doubled the recipe which was why I had more than one pan).

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Add the chopped candied ginger and toss to coat. Set aside.

Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the brown sugar until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Lightly beat the molasses and egg together and then add to the butter. Mix together on a low medium speed--the mixture may look curdled but this is ok. Mix in the boiling water. On low speed, mix the flour in in 4 additions. Finish by hand with a spatula, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as you mix. Divide between the muffin wells--they should be 3/4-full. I keep extra mini loaf pans for extra batter in case my muffin pans are not identically sized. Bake for about 25 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 3 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack. Garnish with whipped cream before serving.

Meyer Lemon Thins & A Cookbook Review

2011-01-26T18:31:00.000-05:00

I am not sure I have given Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt In Your Mouth Cookies a proper review. I've now made 5 cookies from it: these, Extra Chocolatey Biscotti (they did not make it on to the blog because of traveling, but I hope to feature them soon), "Hawaiian" Wedding Cookies, Chocolate Mint Sandwiches, and Coconut & Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies, all of which have been flat out fantastic. The collection itself is encyclopedic--I don't even know how to tell you exactly how many recipes the book contains because most of the recipes come with multiple "upgrades" or alternative ways of preparing them. They are broken down by texture, which I think is a wonderful way to sort cookies. I know what kind of cookie I want is frequently determined by whether I am craving something light and crisp, dry and crunchy, rich and chewy, etc. I like to call successful recipes run don't walk recipes--well this is a run don't walk cookbook. If you like cookie cookbooks, you want this cookbook.

So about these particular cookies. Alice Medrich refers to them as Maya's Lemon Thins as her friend Maya Klein invented them, but I changed the name a bit because I specifically used all Meyer lemons when making the cookies. Because Meyer lemons are less acidic and less sour, I adjusted the recipe a bit to make the cookies even more lemony.

I served the cookies at a "formal" tea that I threw for my daughters and 2 of their friends, another set of sisters. They all got dressed up and I served mint tea with gingerbread cakes and lemon cookies. It was a total hoot--and the cookies were perfect. They are also good keepers and would make fabulous sandwich cookies with either a vanilla or citrus based filling.

Meyer Lemon Thins
Adapted from Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt In Your Mouth Cookies

1/2 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
12 T (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into several pieces
2 1/2 cups (11.25 oz) AP flour
1/4 t baking soda
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup (7 oz) sugar
zest of 2 lemons
1/4 t salt
1/4 t salt

Heat the lemon juice in a small, nonreactive pan over high heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium, and let the lemon juice boil until it reduces to approximately 1 tablespoon of lemon syrup. Watch it closely near the end so it does not burn. Add the butter and stir until melted. Set aside.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt and whisk together. Set aside.

Place the egg, egg yolk, and sugar into a large bowl and mix with a rubber spatula. Mix in the lemon zest and add the lemon-butter mixture. Add the flour mixture and stir just until incorporated. Cover and chill for at least 20 minutes--this will make the dough firmer and easier to work with.

Medrich calls for rolling out this dough and using cookie cutters, but I chose to roll the dough into 2 logs with a circle of about 2.5-inch diameter. Then chill the logs for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days,

Prepare 2 baking sheets by lining them with silicone or parchment (or grease them). Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Slice the dough into rounds--the thinner you can slice them the better. Aim for 1/16-inch. Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheets, 1 inch apart (I got 20 per sheet). Bake for 6-7 minutes, or until lightly browned at the edges. Let the cookies cool for 5 or so minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer them to a cooling rack. Cool completely before storing--tore promptly in airtight contains to maintain crispness.

Lentil & Potato Casserole with Pumpkin & Tomatoes, Topped With Phyllo Crust

2011-01-24T20:35:00.000-05:00

I cannot say enough good things about this meal. It is delicious, nutritious, interesting--but not so interesting that it would scare people away. It might be too unusual to your typical Midwestern palate to describe as proper gateway Indian food (and indeed it is not properly Indian anyway), but I would describe it as good entryway food--for folks who know they are interested in Indian flavors. People who have already stepped through the door, in other words.

I found this casserole in Crescent Dragonwagon's Passionate Vegetarian, an excellent book (see my initial review here) that has been unused by me as of late (because, ahem, I acquire cookbooks at a faster rate than I can use them). Despite that wonderful braised pork I made, the truth is that in January I start craving meatless meals (and no matter what it looks like on my blog, that pork was the first meal I made post-holidays--I am just woefully behind). So I started browsing this book, and opened exactly to "Curried Lentil-Potato Cobbler with Pumpkin and Tomatoes and Filo Top Crust."

Now tell me you would not immediately start mentally ticking off which ingredients you had? Warm and filling for January, meatless and uber-healthy for New Year's resolutions (which I, uh, resolutely do not believe in, but anyway). This is a run don't walk kind of meal. And I promise it is way easier than its long list of ingredients would have you believe. Read through the instructions before beginning, and you'll see that it all comes together pretty quickly and neatly.

A note about the lentils: Dragonwagon does not specify what kind of lentils to use, so I used all lentils du puy, which hold their shape. I was fine with this choice, but John I think would have preferred lentils that got a little mushier. If you prefer this as well, I recommend using half red lentils and half yellow split peas.

Lentil & Potato Casserole with Pumpkin & Tomatoes, Topped With Phyllo Crust
Adapted from Passionately Vegetarian, Crescent Dragonwagon

2 cups lentils (see note above), rinsed
6 cups water
1 bay leaf
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t sweet paprika (use hot chile pepper if you prefer, such as cayenne)

1-2 T ghee or vegetable oil (or a combination)
1 heaping T dark mustard seeds
1 1/2 t cumin seeds
2 medium-large onions, chopped
2 T minced ginger
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t ground cumin
1 1/2 t ground coriander
1 1/2 t turmeric
1/4 t paprika or cayenne pepper, to heat preference
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
salt and pepper to taste
4 fist sized potatoes, scrubbed and chopped into 1/2-inch chunks

1 14-0z can of chopped tomatoes (preferably with green chilies but I could not find any)
1 15-oz can of pumpkin puree (or make your own, about 1 1/2 cups)
1 T maple syrup, to taste (can also use honey)
1 1/2 cups stock--I used chicken because it is what I keep but you can also use vegetarian, low sodium if storebought

5 sheets of phyllo dough, thawed
2-3 T melted butter or ghee (or use use 50% vegetable oil is you prefer)

Lightly grease a deep 9X13 pan (or less deep 10X15). Set aside.

Place the lentils, bay leaf, 1/4 teaspoons of turmeric and paprika, and the water into a large pot. Bring to a boil and skim the foam from the top. Reduce to heat to maintain a simmer while covered.

While the lentils cook, begin the rest of the filling. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add the ghee or oil. They will pop; when their popping slows, add the cumin seeds. Roast briefly, 10-15 seconds. Add the onions with a sprinkle of salt and saute, stirring occasionally, until the onions are browning, abut 10-15 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Then add the rest of the spices and toss to coat the onions evenly. Do not let the spices burn (at any point during this process you can always add some water if the onion mix starts to scorch or stick too much).

Add this onion mix to the lentils and add the potatoes as well. Simmer for 20-30 more minutes, which you work on the sauce. Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Combine the pumpkin, tomatoes and maple syrup in a food processor or blender and puree. Add the stock to help more the mixture--it will all go in the lentils together. When the potatoes are just barely tender, pour the pumpkin-tomato blend gently into the lentils mix. Heat the whole thing through--when it is quite hot dump it gently into the prepared casserole dish.

Layer the phyllo sheets over the casserole, brushing each sheet with melted butter or ghee before layering the next sheet. Dragonwagon recommend lightly scoring the phyllo sheets with a knife before baking so I did but I am not sure it did anything. Use your best judgment.

Bake until the phyllo top is crisp and golden brown, 35-45 minutes. Serve hot with Greek yogurt on the side.

Blueberry Lemon Tiramisu

2011-01-21T19:08:00.000-05:00

This is the perfect post-holiday dessert to serve to company. On the one hand, everyone is totally done with (for a while) chocolate, nuts, mint... but on the other hand you cannot serve wheat germ cookies to company. Just because the holidays have ended is no reason to inflict your own resolutions on the rest of the world.

Which is where this rich yet tart and summery dessert comes in. With every bite you'll find yourself dreaming of July sun, August heat, butterflies, grass under your bare feet... And it's such a good dream. It's the dream that sustains us through February. But anyway it is also a sign that this dessert would be outstanding in the summer--and probably will not your grace your Thanksgiving table any time soon.

The kids and I *had* to test the dessert before serving it. Clearly no one found it lacking.

I used regional blueberries picked and then immediately frozen in the height of blueberry season (blueberries do not grow where I am but my local farmer's market gets them from Michigan and saves some for me to come get the second they arrive). I used lemon curd that I made last spring when my gall bladder got infected (I had tons of leftover egg yolks from making so many fat free desserts, i.e., angel food cakes). It came together so quickly and so scrumptiously that I could not help but wonder why I had avoided making traditional tiramisu all these years, thinking it too much work. Clearly I'm crazy. Or lazy. Or something.

The lesson being, if this sounds good to you, don't stare at the recipe for 2 years like I did. Make it ASAP!

Blueberry Lemon Tiramisu
Closely adapted from Luscious Lemon Desserts, Lori Longbotham

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
zest from lemon, removed in thin strips
7 oz package of imported Italian ladyfingers (savoiardi)
4 cups blueberry sauce (see below)
1 1/2 cups lemon curd
8 oz mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
whipped cream for garnish (the tart lemon and intense blueberries are very nicely complimented by whipped cream)

Bring the sugar, water and lemon zest to a boil. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Pour through a strainer into a small bowl and let cool to room temperature.

Cover the bottom of a 9X13 pan (use glass or ceramic) with the ladyfingers. Brush them with the cooled sugar syrup--use all of it. Pour the cooled blueberry sauce over the ladyfingers.

Using an electric mixer, whip the 1/2 cup heavy cream until it is thickened and frothy. Add the lemon curd and room temperature mascarpone into the cream. Using the whip attachment of the mixer, whisk on medium speed until the mixture is smoothly incorporated. When it is smooth, pour it over the blueberry sauce, smoothing the top. Cover and chill for at least 6 hours or, even better, overnight. Scoop into individual trifle glasses or martini glasses and serve topped with whipped cream.

Blueberry Sauce
Closely adapted from Luscious Lemon Desserts, Lori Longbotham

3 pints fresh or seasonally frozen blueberries
1 cup confectioners' sugar
6 T water
2 T fresh lemon juice

Cook the first 3 ingredients together over medium heat in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally. Cook until the blueberries are softened and the liquid is saucy, about 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice. Set aside to cool until needed for recipe--you can also make ahead and store, covered, for up to one week in the fridge.

Braised Pork Shoulder in Caramelized Soy Sauce

2011-01-17T22:20:00.000-05:00

Everywhere I look food blogs are featuring savory, healthy dishes. The glut of the holidays has overwhelmed most people, and their thoughts have turned away from desserts and rich dishes and to healthy meals. Now in some ways I am no different. Although I am backed up for what I am posting (i.e., I made this dish almost 2 weeks ago now), the entire last week was completely vegetarian for us. I too feel that glut. But on the other hand there are 2 things you should know about me: I am NEVER tired of dessert and if I see a dish that calls out to me strongly enough in a cookbook, I'll make it even if I am supposedly trying to be healthier.

Ergo this meal. The minute I got home after receiving the cookbook, I was digging through my freezer looking for pork shoulder. It is from that cookbook I've been raving about, The Spice Merchant's Daughter, that my sister gave me for Christmas, and I started obsessing on this dish the first time I browsed through the book, while I was sitting there with other unopened presents on my lap. There is something about the word caramelized in a savory dish that instantly gets my attention. I served it with those Penang Pickled Veggies in an effort to be somewhat healthy, but don't kid yourself. This is succulent and rich, every bit as satisfying as your mom's best pot roast.

This dish is also a great example of the fusion-y nature of the cookbook. The soy--both sweet soy sauce and regular--in the dish is redolent of S.E. Asia, but the curry leaves are, to my mind anyway, quite Indian. The whole spices are a good example of how Indian cuisine has traditionally influenced S.E. Asian cuisine and would be found in any S.E. Asian's household, not just an Indian one.

Braised Pork Shoulder in Caramelized Soy Sauce
Adapted from The Spice Merchant's Daughter, Christina Arokiasamy

3 lbs pork shoulder, with or without bone, cut into 2-3 pieces if it is too big to brown as a whole piece
3 T vegetable oil
4 inch knob ginger, peeled and minced
8-10 cloves garlic, minced
20 fresh (or frozen) curry leaves
3 2-inch cinnamon sticks
3 whole star anise (4 if you really like star anise--I reduced the amount as I do not like it to dominate)
3 medium-large onions, thinly sliced
4 medium sized tomatoes, cut into quarters
4 T double black soy sauce (can sub superior dark if need be)
6 T kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1/2 t freshly ground white peppercorn
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 275 F.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Brown the pork shoulder on all sides and remove to another bowl. Drain the excess oil off (leave about 1 tablespoon) and add the whole spices to the pan. Let them roast, over medium low heat, until fragrant. Turn the heat up to medium and add curry leaves to the pan--stand back as they might splatter. Add a handful of the onions to the pan--and add some water if the pan is starting to scorch. Turn the heat up to medium high and cook until the onions are starting to turn brown, then add the ginger and garlic. Adjust the heat if the it starts to scorch. Continue cooking until the onions are completely caramelized and then add the tomatoes. Cook for about one minute. Then add the soy sauces and stir to incorporate. Let cook for one minute to meld the flavors.

Add the ground white peppercorn and mix. Return the pork with any juices to the pan. Turn the pork over so that it is coated with the sauce. Cover with a heavy lid and place the pan in the oven. Let cook for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, turn the heat up to 300 F. Take the pork out, turn it over in the pan and then cover the pork with the rest of the onions. Replace the heavy lid on to the pan and return to the oven. Cook for another hour. Take the pot out--if the pork and/or onions are not cooked enough (the pork should be falling apart and the onions should be sweet, not astringent), return to the oven and increase the heat to 325 F. Check after 30 minutes. Taste for salt and serve with jasmine rice.

Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Chip Cake

2011-01-12T09:00:00.000-05:00

When I was at my parents' house right after Christmas, for our annual sibling holiday gift exchange, I was craving a chocolate chip cake. Absolutely craving. So simple and homey yet delicious after a season of making more exotic or more Christmasy baked goods. But I felt fairly certain it would be disappointing to a decent number of my family, so instead I tried a fancy mascarpone dessert from The Silver Spoon for our Italian-themed meal.

Bad idea.

The dessert--whose recipe came with absolutely no pan size suggestion--exploded in the oven despite being at least an inch under the rim. And I mean exploded--2 inches would not have rescued this baby. My mother's brand new oven was a blackened mess and the only reason fire alarms weren't screaming the entire time is because my parents have an old home and you can shut the door to the room with the fire alarm. The smoke was astounding--at least 2 windows if not more were opened despite the near freezing temperatures. And at one point we could only barely see each other across the kitchen. After all that, no it did not taste good either.

Alas. That's what happens sometimes when you go for untried and fancy over simple, homey, tried and true.

Now this cake did not turn out perfectly in appearance--which I will explain in a moment--but its flavor was spot on. It was super moist because it used oil instead of butter, and my family devoured every last crumb of it. Which is a little unusual--often when I make a cake just for the 4 of us toward the end interest flags, it gets dried out and stale, etc. But not this cake. Alex especially asked for it every night and I am anticipating disappointment tomorrow night when she realizes it's truly gone.

As for the appearance, the recipe called for the glazed cake to be studded with mini chocolate chips. Now I love chocolate, but that is the kind of busywork "landscape cookery" that Nigella Lawson rails against--and I agree. I don't have enough time on my hands to stud an entire bundt or tube cake with standard chocolate chips--let alone mini ones! But I should have realized that the "glaze" would be much thicker to support the weight of all those chips. Don't get me wrong, the glaze is delicious, but in appearance it is a little gloppy and thick. I think if I were to make the cake again I might try eliminating the butter from the glaze--so that is how I wrote the recipe. If you try it let me know how it works.

Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Chip Cake
Adapted from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook, Elinor Klivans

The cake:
3 cups cake flour (I used an AP/cornstarch sub)
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup regular olive oil (or any other vegetable oil)
1 T vanilla
1 cup sour cream (I used a mish mash of what I had around of low fat sour cream and no fat Greek yogurt plus some heavy cream)
1 1/2 cups (9 oz) mini chocolate chips

The glaze:
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, optional (see notes above)
2 T light corn syrup
6 oz semi sweet (60% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped
2 cups regular or mini chocolate chips for studding onto outside of cake, optional (see notes above)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Thoroughly butter or spray a 9 1/2-10 inch bundt or tube pan (I used a 9 inch pan and made one extra mini loaf). If using a tube pan, line the bottom with buttered parchment, but I was ok with my holiday tree bundt pan and nonstick spray, I just used a lot (I was lazy with my silicone loaf pan and only sprayed lightly and it did indeed stick so do be generous).

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and then whisk thoroughly. Set aside. Remove 2 tablespoons of the mixture and toss the mini chocolate chips with it.

Use an electric mixer to beat the eggs and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer running on low, add the oil and vanilla until it is just blended. Add the flour mixture and sour cream, alternating, beginning and ending with the flour mix, in 3 and 2 additions respectively. Mix to incorporate. When there very little flour streaks left, add the floured chocolate chips and fold until everything is incorporated with no flour streaks.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top and place it in the oven. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs attached (ignore any melted chocolate from hitting a chip), about 1 hour. If you use a smaller pan, as I did, set the timer for less and watch the cake as it may be done early.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack lined with parchment paper (to prevent indentations and sinking). Let the cake cool completely before glazing.

For the glaze, combine the cream and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat. If you are going to stud the outside of the cake with chocolate chips, also add the butter. Mix over the heat until the mixture is hot, the butter melted, and is forming tiny bubbles at the edges. Do not let it come to a true boil (if it does, pour it over the chocolate through a sieve). Pour it over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute. Then stir the chocolate--it will become a melted, smooth ganache.

Klivans instructions call for setting the ganache aside for 20 minutes to let it thicken. I suspect (see my notes above) you should only do this if you are pressing chocolate chips into the cake. Otherwise let it cool for about 5 minutes. Remove the parchment under the cake. Place wax paper under the cooling rack. Pour the glaze over the cake, being sure to get the inside and outside. Using a second piece of wax paper to catch additional drips, remove the original wax paper and use it to pour the chocolate that dripped down back over the cake. If desired, press chocolate chips onto the exterior of the cake.

Let set completely before slicing.

Red Gold Winner & Penang Pickled Veggies

2011-01-09T17:00:00.000-05:00

Congrats to Carol from Wires n Pliers for winning the Red Gold tomato media kit giveaway. She was randomly chosen (using numbers) by Sammy.

I have a dilemma when I cook SE Asian celebration food. By celebration food I mean rich, meat-heavy dishes, and I call them celebration food because while they might your or my idea of SE Asian food, in SE Asia itself they are probably reserved for celebration because of all of the indulgent meat involved. Anyway, back to the dilemma--what veggies to serve? I mean sure they have veggies in them, but you need a true veggies dish. And other than Som Tom, I have never found a salad or veggie dish that made me happy. Also, let's face it, although Som Tom might be my favorite food in the world next to chocolate, it is neither convenient (finding green papaya) nor easy (shredding all that green papaya). But much like the goodness of Som Tom, I want fresh and refreshing, crisp, juicy, sour... I want something that counterbalances the unctuous yet delicious richness of SE Asian curries (with or without coconut milk).

This pickle is perfect. I found it in what is quite possibly my favorite new cookbook from the holidays--and one I had never heard of, to boot! My sister got it for me, The Spice Merchant's Daughter, by Christina Arokiasamy, an American who grew up in an Indian household in Malaysia. What a fabulous fusion of recipes--Indian and Mayasian! I LOVE this book!

So it was the first I used after the holiday festivities ended--even though the main dish was rich, I did not care I had to try it now. I made a braised pork dish (delectable--recipe to come) and served it with these Penang Pickled Vegetables. The vegetables are a perfect accompaniment to a rich braise with SE Asian or Indian flavors. They are crisp, sour, a little sweet, crunchy with peanuts and sesame seeds. If you want they can also be blazingly spicy--although I of course skipped that part in deference to Alex's palate. They are also super flexible--I believe they could be made with any crispy vegetable (i.e., don't use tomatoes or winter squash, for example). Of the ones we tried, my favorites were the red onions, cucumbers and carrots.

Penang Pickled Vegetables
Adapted from The Spice Merchant's Daughter, Christina Arokiasamy

1 hothouse cucumber
1/2 t salt
8 oz carrots, cut into 2 inch long pieces and sliced vertically if super thick
1 cup sliced Napa cabbage
1 sweet bell pepper, sliced
1 red onion, thickly sliced
fresh red chile peppers, to taste (she suggests 3-4, I used 1 jalapeno seeded), seeded and chopped
8 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
4 T sugar, or more to taste
additional 1/2 t salt
1 cup roasted, salted peanuts
4 T sesame seeds
3 1/2 T oil
1 1/2 cups white distilled vinegar

Slice the cucumber into quarters lengthwise and then slice into 2-inch pieces. Do not remove the skin. Place in a colander and sprinkle with the 1/2-teaspoon salt. Set aside.

Bring the vinegar to a boil with an additional 1 cup of water. Press as much water as possible from the cucumber pieces, then add them to the pot. Blanche them for 2 minutes and then remove from the water with a slotted spoon. Place in a large colander to drain further.

Bring the vinegar mixture back a boil and repeat the blanching process with the remainder of your veggies. Blanch the cabbage and pepper for 2 minutes each; blanch the carrots for 3 minutes. Place all veggies on top of each other to drain in the large colander.

Combine the garlic, chile pepper(s), sugar and 1/2-teaspoon salt in a small food processor and blend to a paste. Scrape out into a bowl. Add the peanuts to the food processor--do not bother cleaning it--and process the peanuts to a fine mince. Do not let them turn into butter. Set aside in a separate bowl.

Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat (nonstick will make your life easier). Add the spice paste and cook for 10 minutes, until oil appears on the surface. Stir occasionally. Add the peanuts with 1/3-cup water. Cook until the mixture thickens and seems glazed. Taste for more sugar (she recommends if it is too spicy, which will depend on the chile peppers you've used). Remove from the heat.

Transfer the blanched veggies to a large bowl. Add the hot peanut mixture and the sesame seeds. Toss to coat the veggies evenly. Let the mixture cool completely. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Serve at room temperature or a little cool from the fridge. The longer the pickles sit, the stronger and therefore tastier they will get.

Massaman Braised Beef Curry

2011-01-07T13:00:00.000-05:00

When I make Thai curry paste I always try to make extra and freeze it. Except for the making of the paste, Thai curries are ridiculously simple, and there is something so indulgent and wonderful about being able to just grab some paste and whip up a really tasty curry. I do try not to keep the paste for too long, maybe 6 months tops (which is short by my standards since I tend to lose things in the freezer).

Anyway you may or may not remember the chicken satay I made back in August, which uses a Massaman curry paste. I froze extra, waiting for the weather to get colder because I was certain that Massaman curry would make the best braise ever.

And I was right. This is succulent, rich, spicy... it will make the non-braised Massaman curries you've had pale in comparison. (I actually had the idea because I was served a Massaman braise at a Thai restaurant once, so the idea certainly does not originate with me.) You will find the actual curry paste recipe with the chicken satay recipe.

Massaman Braised Beef Curry
Recipe by The Spiced Life

2 T vegetable oil
3-4 lbs braising beef (I used a combo of bone-in chuck and short ribs, any tough, fatty cut will work), patted dry and sprinkled with salt and pepper
2 lbs baby potatoes, washed
2 sweet bell peppers, sliced
2 large onions, sliced
approx. 1 cup massaman curry paste
1 19-oz can coconut milk, full fat, separated as best you can (the fat from the water)
1 15-oz can coconut milk (I used light here because of the fat from the beef)
2-4 T fish sauce, to taste
2-4 T palm sugar, to taste (may sub brown sugar)

Preheat the oven to 300 F.

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large Dutch oven. When it is shimmering, brown the beef on all sides, which will take a good 20 minutes or so. When it is brown, remove the beef to a large bowl. Drain the excess fat off of the pot and add the coconut fat to the pot. As soon as it melts and starts to separate, add the curry paste. Mix it together and fry--scrape the bottom of the pot to deglaze. You want the mixture to separate, where you will see the curry paste fat separating from the rest of the mixture. When this happens, add the rest of the coconut milk with 2 tablespoons each of fish sauce and palm sugar. Mix. Return the meat to the pot, coating it on all sides. Cover the pot with a heavy, secure lid and place in the oven.

What temperature and how long to cook the dish at first depends on the amount of time you have. If you are starting in the morning, treat it like a slow cooker and start at 275 or even 250 F. If you are starting after lunch (for serving around 5:30), start at 300 F.

2 hours before serving the curry, remove it from the oven and add the potatoes. Turn the heat to 300 F if it was not already and return the lid to the pot. Return it to the oven for an hour.

1 hour before serving, sprinkle the onions and peppers all over the curry. Replace the lid, return it to the oven, and increase the heat to 325 F. If you are working on a tight schedule, check the curry after about 45 minutes to make sure the potatoes and onions are getting tender enough--if not, increase the heat to 350 F. If you are laid back, just let time do the work for you.

Before serving, taste for additional palm sugar and fish sauce; by my standards you will almost certainly need some, especially the fish sauce. Serve with jasmine rice and sambal oelek for those who like it spicier.

Cranberry Pecan Orange Coffee Cake

2011-01-05T09:15:00.002-05:00

In past years I have served a more loaded, protein-rich breakfast on Christmas morning, but I have realized that is kind of foolish given how late we get up. Also, my in-laws were with us this year for Christmas, which meant I made a more involved Christmas Eve dinner which meant in turn that I wanted a really low effort breakfast. So anyway, I decided I was going to make a coffee cake out of one of my new cookbooks, Lou Seibert Pappas' Coffee Cakes: Simple, Sweet and Savory.

I chose the Cranberry Pecan Orange Coffee Cake, because the orange and fresh cranberries is a celebration of early winter. I also chose it because it is heavy with a lavish crumble topping--and I love crumble toppings. This cake is also flexible--it worked well for Christmas morning, but it would work well for any morning. It is not too complicated or elaborate.

Don't forget to leave a comment entering my Red Gold Tomato kit giveaway here by midnight, Friday, January 7.

Cranberry Pecan Orange Coffee Cake
Closely adapted from Lou Seibert Pappas' Coffee Cakes: Simple, Sweet and Savory

the cake:
4 T unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 t vanilla
1 cup AP flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/3 cup thawed, undiluted orange juice concentrate (from the freezer section)
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
1/3 cup (1 1/2 oz) finely chopped pecans

the streusel*:
1/2 cup (63 g) AP flour
4 T cold, unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 9 inch round pie or cake pan (Pappas calls for a pie pan but I did it just fine in a cake pan). Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to incorporate. Mix in the flour mixture and the orange juice concentrate alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, in 3 and 2 additions respectively. Stir in the cranberries and pecans. The batter will be thick. Spread it into the prepared pan.

Using a mixer, food processor or your fingers, cut the cold butter into the sugar and flour for the streusel topping/ Mix in the nuts. Set aside.

Place the cake in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove it from the oven and quickly sprinkle the streusel over the top, pressing it lightly and evenly into the cake. Return to the oven for 30-35 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and a cake tester comes out with a few crumbs attached.

Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, and then carefully but quickly unmold to cool right side up on a cooling rack. You may slice it warm or let it cool, wrap or cover, and serve the next morning.

Red Gold Tomatoes Giveaway & African Peanut Chicken Stew

2011-01-02T19:45:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! What a week (or 2, or 3, or...)! I don't know how parent bloggers stay active over the holiday--ultimately it just proved beyond me. It's amazing how much more chaotic the holidays are with a child in school. Add to that one set of grandparents here for 5 days and then being at the other set's house for 4 days, and it was pretty much nonstop cooking, baking, gifting, and visiting. And no I did not remember to take any pictures of anything I made!

Which is a shame because I made an outstanding Italian roast pork with sweet and sour onions this past weekend. I am hoping to recreate that--only with sliced onions because I've had enough of peeling cipollini onions for a very long while. I promise to share as soon as I do.

But this post is actually about a dish I made several weeks ago. And I made it with Red Gold tomatoes, a tomato grown and canned here in the Midwest. They sent me a media kit this fall, complete with various "flavors" of canned tomatoes (tomatoes canned with other veggies or herbs or spices), a re-usable grocery bag, even a keychain! Their tomatoes are quite tasty and I love the fact that they are grown regionally. And if you leave me a comment telling me what your favorite dish or dessert you made this holiday season was by midnight, Friday, January 7, I will enter you into a random drawing to receive the same media kit I got. Please be sure to include a way to contact you (a blog link or email address).

I used the canned tomatoes (the "plain" ones) to make this African Peanut Chicken Stew, where I made a fantastic discovery. For some reason I have always been iffy about mushrooms in stuff with peanut butter. I don't know why, no good reason, just one of those culinary hang-ups.

Well I'm over it. This was fantastic. John and I practically wanted to lick our bowls and the girls loved it too.

African Peanut Chicken Stew
Recipe by The Spiced Life

approximately 4 lbs chicken pieces of choice (I used bone-in skin, with skin breasts and boneless, skinless thighs), patted dry and sprinkled with salt and pepper
2 cups peanut butter (I used creamy Jiff)
1-2 T vegetable oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 lbs crimini mushrooms
2 sweet bell peppers, chopped
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t cinnamon (cassia)
2-3 T tomato paste from a double strength tube (use a bit more if from can)
2 15-oz cans of diced or whole tomatoes--if you use whole, gently squeeze each one to help break it up
4 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
apple cider vinegar to taste
white rice for accompanying the stew

Preheat the oven to 300 F.

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the oil and brown the chicken in batches until it is lightly browned. Remove from the pot and set aside.

Put the onions in the pot with a pinch of salt. If more liquid is needed to deglaze the pot, add a splash of cider vinegar. Brown the onions, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute. Add the paprika, cumin and cinnamon and toss for 30 seconds. Then add the mushrooms with a pinch of salt and cook until their liquid is released and they are browning.

Add the tomato paste with the peanut butter and cook, stirring, until the peanut butter melts and mixes in with the vegetables. Pour the stock into the pot and stir to mix. Then add the chicken back in and bring to a boil. Cover and place it in the oven to cook for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Taste for salt and pepper before serving. If the stew tastes dull or too heavy, add some cider vinegar to wake it up. Serve over basmati or Texmati rice.

Merry Christmas!!!! (and a winner announced)

2010-12-24T12:41:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, everyone!! I feel certain that the next 2 days are going to be too hectic for me to finish my new post on African Peanut Stew with another giveaway (stay tuned), so I just wanted to wish everyone a fabulous Christmas.

I also wanted to announce that Alex picked the winner (randomly) of my Muir Glen giveaway, and the Muir Glen tomato media kit will be headed out to Dena of Oh! You Cook! Congratulations, Dena!

Coconut & Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

2010-12-20T19:08:00.001-05:00

Oatmeal raisin cookies have never done much for me. They are my mom's favorite cookie, so I ate them plenty growing up, but I never lowed the raisins and the overall cookie I found blah.

Enter Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy, my new favorite cookbook. I have not made one dud yet out of Alice Medrich's new cookie book--check out the "Hawaiian" Wedding Cookies and Mint Chocolate Sandwiches for other examples. So I went browsing while looking for a slightly less unhealthy cookie for my daughter's kindergarten class (which ironically they never got to try because Sammy came down with the stomach flu). I was contemplating the oatmeal raisin cookies when I noticed Medrich's suggested "upgrade" of coconut in place of the nuts. Now that intrigued me--and made it nut allergy friendly. I swapped in dried cherries for the raisins, and a new favorite cookie in this household was born. Sammy got sick, I did not want to send any cookies in for fear they were germy, and I figured they'd go to waste among the myriad of other Holiday cookies around.

Nope. John and I especially devoured them. The slightly tart edge of the cherries compliments the coconut and cinnamon perfectly. These cookies are, in a word, addictive. We actually ate all of them before any of the other cookies. (P.S. Don't forget that December 22 is the last day to enter my Muir Glen giveaway!)

Coconut & Dried Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup water
1 cup AP flour
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (5 1/4 oz) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) granulated sugar
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1 large egg
1 cup coconut chips (shaved)
1 cup chopped dried tart cherries

Place the oats in a small bowl and sprinkle them with the water. Set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.

Cut the butter into chunks and met it in a large saucepan over low heat. When it is melted, remove it form the heat and stir in the sugars, vanilla and salt. Add the egg and stir it briskly. Stir in the flour mixture until it is mostly moistened. Then stir in the oats, coconut and cherries. Cover the dough with wax paper (press down) and chill for 2 hours, or, even better, overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. If you are baking 2 sheets at a time, position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

Do not line your cookie sheets with anything nonstick--if you prefer not to use the sheets bare line them with foil, dull side up.

You can bake these cookies up large (about 2 tablespoons of dough) or small (1 tablespoon). I would count on 12 small cookies per sheet or 6 large. I did small because they were for small kids. Bake for 12-15 minutes for large cookies and 10-12 minutes for small cookies, until the cookies are golden brown on top. If baking 2 sheets at a time, rotate from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Cool the cookies for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack (longer if they don't hold together).

Chocolate Mint Sandwiches

2010-12-15T23:50:00.003-05:00

These cookies have been every bit as much of a revelation as Scottish shortbread, another holiday cookie I came to late in life but have since adopted as my own tradition. This is actually the first time I have ever made sandwich cookies, and I cannot imagine a better one for the holidays than these. They keep in a tin, unlike many buttercream filled cookies that need refrigeration. They are made with delightfully crispy wafers which once again will keep in a tin without going soggy or stale. And last, but certainly not least, they are peppermint chocolate, quite possibly my favorite holiday flavor.

The first time I made these cookies I made them with peppermint bittersweet chocolate that was slightly softened by the addition of butter. The second time I used peppermint white chocolate with no butter. Both cookies are excellent, just different. The bittersweet chocolate cookies tasted more strongly of chocolate and less of the mint--not surprising. They also were more crispy and less crunchy, because the chocolate in the middle did not harden as much as the chocolate without the butter (which in turn allowed the texture of the cookies to shine). The ones made without butter were a little more brittle, but still very good--I only notice the difference because I made both. I personally found both absolutely delicious. My kids love both but prefer the bittersweet. John preferred the white chocolate strongly because he wanted more mint.

Chocolate Mint Sandwiches
Closely adapted from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy

To make this recipe you will need to make chocolate wafers and then sandwich them with a chocolate mint filling. Filling options will be addressed at the end of the wafer recipe.

Chocolate Wafers 3.0
Closely adapted from Alice Medrich

1 1/2 cup (6.75 oz) AP flour
3/4 cup (2.4 oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup + 2 T (7.875 oz) sugar
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
14 T (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
3 T whole milk (I used 1/2 T cream plus 2 1/2 T 1%)
1 t vanilla

Place flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a food processor and process for a few seconds to blend thoroughly and remove any lumps from the cocoa. Cut the butter into chunks and add it to the processor. Pulse several times. Combine the milk and vanilla, and then pour it into the processor while the blade is running. Process until the dough clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl. Transfer the dough to a clean surface and knead briefly, much as you would scone dough, to make sure it is evenly mixed. (I doubled this recipe, which was difficult in my processor, so after processing briefly, I finished the mixing by more extensive kneading, which worked fine).

Form the dough into a log approximately 14 inches long and 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and then place in a paper towel roll that has been sliced lengthwise (this last step is not necessary but it will help you to get rounder slices). Place in the fridge to chill until firm, a minimum of 1 hour and up to 3 days (I chilled overnight).

Preheat the oven to 350 F. I chose to only bake 1 sheet at a time on a center rack, but if you do 2 be sure to place the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Slice the cookies extremely thin, about 1/6-inch (for wafer cookies that will not be sandwiches, slice them a scant 1/4-inch), and place them on the prepared cookie sheet, 1 inch apart (I baked 20 per sheet). Bake for 12-15 minutes (be sure to rotate halfway if doing 2 sheets); the cookies will puff and then deflate; Medrich notes they are done about 1 1/2 minutes after deflating but I never managed to confirm this. Mine were done at 15 minutes--she does say if the cookies are at all chewy to bake them for additional time, otherwise they will not crisp properly.

Assembling the mint sandwiches:
Adapted from Alice Medrich

chocolate wafer cookies (from above)
peppermint oil, to taste (start with a few drops only; I find that white chocolate can take more peppermint)
8 oz finely chopped chocolate, bittersweet or white chocolate
2 T unsalted butter, optional (my house is cool--the cookies made without the butter are undeniably crunchier as the chocolate filling is much harder)

Melt the chocolate and butter (if using) in 30 second intervals in the microwave at 50% power until it can be stirred smooth. Add the peppermint oil to taste--the cookies I made with bittersweet chocolate were less minty and much more chocolatey. The white chocolate I made quite minty. Remember when adding it that the cookies have no mint at all.

Using a 1/2 teaspoon, dollop a small amount of mint chocolate onto the top of one cookie. Use the bottom of the spoon to spread it nearly to the edges of the cookie, but not quite (see photos). Place another cookie of similar size, top-side-up, onto the filling and press together. Set aside to set completely before storing.

Hunter Chicken Stew & A Giveaway

2010-12-13T09:00:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again, when packages of canned tomatoes start showing up at my door. I love my job as a blogger! This year I actually got packages from 2 companies, Muir Glen and Red Gold. I am excited to try the Red Gold, a regional canned tomato company, but I started with the Muir Glen because this year they sent me a fire roasted version of one of their limited edition single variety tomatoes.Muir Glen's Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes are the most used canned tomatoes in my pantry. It is true I have switched over to using a lot of frozen tomatoes, but there is still use for canned tomatoes, and there is especially use for their fire roasted canned tomatoes as a shortcut to bringing that smoky, deep, intense tomatoes flavor to something.

Obviously I usually use their regular fire roasted tomatoes, and since I was using 2 cans, I taste tested the regular with the Meridian Ruby limited edition 2010 tomatoes. They are both excellent but the Meridian Ruby was indeed more intense. But the only way you can try it is to join their Connoisseur's Club or to leave me a comment describing what you use canned fire roasted tomatoes for--and maybe I'll draw your name out of a hat so you can receive the same kit I did, including samples of their grocery store line and samples of their Meridian Ruby tomatoes. (**Note: be sure to leave an email address with your comment so I can track you down if you win! I will draw a name Thursday, December 23 so be sure to leave a comment by midnight December 22.)

The winner will also receive the Muir Glen 2010 Reserve Tomato Vine Dining Tour recipe booklet, which, as it happens, is where this recipe originated. I emphasize originated, because I accidentally used tasso instead of pancetta (I forgot to label in my freezer--bad Laura!--and could not tell until it thawed), which led to a few more changes as well. Everyone in my family loved the recipe, and I loved finding a non-Mexican use for the fire roasted tomatoes.

Note that this is a simple dish but it takes longer than it looks because of all of the browning stages. It's worth it, though.

Hunter Chicken Stew with Mushrooms & Tomatoes
Adapted from Chef Jason Stratton, Muir Glen 2010 Reserve Tomato Vine Dining Tour

2 T olive oil, plus more as needed
4 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces, preferably mix of dark and white meats
1/2 cup potato starch
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 lb mix of wild mushrooms, sliced (I used crimini and shitake as that is what I have locally)
4 oz tasso ham, diced
2 medium onions, diced
1 sweet bell pepper, diced
1 large carrot, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
4 bay leaves
1 T minced fresh rosemary needles
1 t smoked Spanish paprika
1 can (14.5 oz) Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes
1 1/2 cups white wine
32 oz chicken stock, preferably low sodium
1-4 T apple cider vinegar, to taste

Pat the chicken pieces dry and dredge them in the potato starch. Shake excess starch loose. Salt and pepper the chicken and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat in a medium-large Dutch oven (5-7 qt). Brown the chicken in batches, slowly, making the the skin getting nicely browned. Remove and set aside. Add a little more oil if necessary, reduce the heat to medium and brown the mushrooms with a pinch of salt. This will take 15 minutes or so. Remove the mushrooms as well to the bowl with the chicken.

Add the tasso to the pot with a glug of wine if needed to deglaze. Also add a little more oil if necessary. Brown over medium high heat for 3 minutes, then add the onions with a pinch of salt and brown them for 8 minutes. Add the pepper and carrot and brown another 5 minutes. Add the garlic, rosemary, bay leaves and paprika and brown for another 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 15 minutes, over medium heat, until the tomatoes deepen in color.

Preheat the oven 375 F.

Add the white wine to the vegetables and let it boil, on medium high heat, until the liquid is reduced by half, about 15 minutes. Add the chicken stock, chicken pieces, mushrooms, and all accumulated juices to the pot. Bring to a boil. Place a heavy lid on the pot and put it in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove the Dutch oven from the oven. Add a tablespoon of vinegar to the pot and stir. Taste for salt and additional vinegar. Serve with white rice.

The best part of cooking with wine? The glass for the cook!

"Hawaiian" Wedding Cookies

2010-12-10T14:42:00.000-05:00

Growing up, wedding cookies were always present in our Christmas cookie tins. I did not like them--I wonder if they are a taste you need to mature into, because I adore them now, while my kids in turn do not care for them. Karma--what are you going to do? Anyway, my mom uses Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe with pecans, and they are fantastic. However, and I am sure I am a trial to my mother who adores traditional family recipes, I wanted to try a recipe in my current favorite cookbook, Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy, and I wanted to try a nut that got me more excited. I also went looking for a different recipe because I wanted a recipe that specifically allows for using whatever nut you want, and Medrich's does.

My favorite nuts are hazelnuts, but I happened to have a can of Hawaiian macadamia nuts (roasted and salted) and I thought their rich yet also airy texture might be fantastic in a wedding cookie. Medrich's recipe calls for a lot of nuts and very little sugar (in the cookie dough), giving the nuts a starring role. They did not disappoint--and I cannot stay out of them. Sub any nut you like--Medrich does not mention whether they should be toasted first, raw, roasted, etc, so I say go with your gut. The macadamia nuts I had were already roasted and they worked fine.

One note about the mixing method: Medrich's book is full of alternative mixing methods, i.e., food processor, stirring in a pot, etc. I am so used to always just using my Kitchen Aid mixer, so this was a change for me. And a reason that I am not searching for a bigger processor because doubling the recipe gave me fits--so I finished in a mixer. They came out fine, but I only switched to the mixer to add the nuts in, no sooner.

"Hawaiian" Wedding Cookies
Closely adapted from Alice Medrich, Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy

1 1/2 cups nuts (measure them whole)
1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz) granulated sugar
2 cups (9 oz) AP flour
1/2 t salt
1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, slightly softened
2 t vanilla
1 large egg yolk (Medrich lists as optional, but this is the holidays, c'mon... So I added it)
1/2 cup (1.5 oz) powdered sugar, or more, to taste

Either line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or leave them ungreased. Set aside.

Fit your food processor with the mincing blade. Pule the nuts until half of them look pulverized and the rest look chopped. Move the nuts to a bowl and wipe out the food processor to remove the excess oil from the nuts.

Put the granulated sugar into the processor and process until it is fine and powdery. Add the flour and salt and process to mix. Add the butter, vanilla and egg yolk. Process until the mixture looks damp and begins to clump. Add the nuts and pulse until combined. Place the dough in a bowl with a lid and cover the dough with wax paper, pressing it into he dough. Put the lid on the bowl and chill for 2 hours or, even better, overnight (I did overnight).

The next day or when you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 F. If you will be baking 2 sheets at a time, place the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

Shape slightly heaping tablespoon balls of dough into balls (Medrich says you can also do crescents). Place the cookies 2 inches apart--do not do more than 12 cookies per sheet, I tried the first time and the cookies definitely spread more. Bake the cookies for 22-24 minutes, or until "lightly colored on top and golden brown on the bottom." Rotate your pans top to bottom and front to back halfway through to ensure even baking.

Let the cookies cool on the pans for 5 minutes. Then sieve powdered sugar over the tops of them and let finish cooling. When the cookies had mostly cooled, I also gently shook them in a bag full of powdered sugar (requiring more than the half cup) because I like a wedding cookie that is coated in powdered sugar more thoroughly. Cool cookies totally before storing.

These cookies store well except for the fact that the powdered sugar will absorb moisture. Sieve additional powdered sugar over them before serving if that happens.

Lemon-Vanilla Pizzelles, Take 1

2010-12-07T20:38:00.002-05:00

Growing up, there were several cookies that graced our Christmas tins every single year without fail. Wedding cookies, decorated sugar cut-outs, date-nut pin wheels, pizzelles.... Some traditional cookies I have kept, such as the wedding cookies and painted sugar cut-outs. Some, mostly those involving dried fruits, I have left behind. I have never made pizzelles before because they require a special iron, but my mom was coming to visit to help me bake and decorate for the holidays, so I asked her to bring her pizzelle iron. I also asked her if she would mind if we tried a different recipe. Not because I don't love our family recipe, because I do, but rather because, me being me, I wanted to try other recipes and techniques.

This is not a definitive recipe so much as an entry into a journal of my experiments with pizzelle making. There will be more because I loved using the iron and am excited to get my own (hint, hint Santa). They are experiments because while I am enjoying the results, I am not satisfied yet. And experiments also because I have always thought I would prefer pizzelles with lemon (to those made with anise, which is what I grew up with), but I don't think I found the right flavor balance yet. One further issue is that I want to understand why my grandmother's recipe very strictly calls for shortening, with the admonition to never use butter or oil--and yet every pizzelle recipe I find uses butter (and indeed, when you see how little is in the cookie, you would expect to prefer a buttery cookie). I have always wondered if it was an economic issue--maybe she perfected the right balance of ingredients for using with the cheaper shortening.

This pizzelle recipe's greatest flaw is that pizzelles ought to keep well, making them an ideal Christmas cookie, but these have gotten kind of chewy in their tins--and a pizzelle should be crispy, not chewy. (Some recipes suggest storing in paper bag, but others say sealed container, leading me to wonder if the difference is in the recipes, in which case I strongly prefer tins to bags my dogs are more tempted to get into!) When they first cooled off the iron their texture was wonderful. My mother and I both noticed that the batter was quite thick, thicker than my grandmother's batter, which leads to the question of whether the pizzelles might be somehow denser and therefore chewier.

The lemon flavor was too faint for me as well, so I tried adding lemon oil but somehow (maybe my oil is getting old?) it did not translate as well as additional zest would have. So next time I am increasing the zest as well. I am also wondering what fresh Tahitian vanilla beans might do for them.... But for now, here is recipe number one, definitely worthy of being made and served the same day without storing.

Lemon-Vanilla Pizzelles
Closely adapted from Nancy Baggett, The International Cookie Book

10 T (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter (I added a pinch of salt to this recipe)
2 1/4 cups AP flour
1/4 t baking powder
2 large eggs
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 t fresh lemon juice
zest of 1 large lemon (I used 2 small and next time would increase)
1 t vanilla

Melt the butter in the microwave and set aside. Whisk together the flour and baking powder (and the pinch of salt, if using). Set aside.

Using an electric beater, beat the eggs on medium speed until frothy. Slowly add the sugar with the beater running, and beat until the egg mixture is lighter in color and whipped. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and beat to incorporate. Mix in the dry ingredients. Mix in the butter--you will need to beat to incorporate it as the mixture will be quite thick. When it is done it will also be shiny.

Brush your pizzelle iron with melted butter or oil (make sure it is seasoned according to manufacturer's instructions; we use a nonstick iron). How much batter you will use will depend on the size of your iron; we needed 1-2 tablespoons. Close the iron--I have seen instructions for as long as 2 minutes, but ours would have been dark brown and unpleasant by then. 30 seconds works on my mom's iron (although we were so busy talking she lost her rhythm and overcooked a few). When the pizzelle is light gold on both sides, use a silicone fork to peel the pizzelle away from the iron--right now, while it is hot and malleable, is the time turn it into a bowl or cone if you wish. We've always served ours flat. Let the cookies cool on wax paper and then serve, sprinkled with powdered sugar if you want.

Sugared Cranberries & Cranberry-Citrus Twist with a Hint of Vanilla

2010-12-01T22:55:00.001-05:00

I cook by feel (cook, mind you, not bake so much). Glugs of this, dashes of that. And I love really intense flavor, so in most cases I err on the side of more, not less. If I mess up, no big deal--I am usually cooking in such quantities that I can such add a little more of this or that.

All of which explains why I might be the worst cocktail maker on this earth, why my sister and my father both stared in horror while I "glugged" vodka into my glass. It also explains why this is my sister's recipe even though it is an original The Spiced Life creation. So thanks, Josie, it was much appreciated!

Appreciated because once you've made these absolutely delicious Sugared Cranberries there is no way you are letting that vanilla-orange cranberry sugar syrup go to waste. You'll use it all season long on cocktails--with or without alcohol, for that matter.

I am sending you over to A Spicy Perspective for the recipe for the Sugared Cranberries, because Sommer does a fantastic job with the recipe and step by step photos. I only changed one thing--I added the beans of an entire vanilla bean plus the pod itself in addition to a small glug of vanilla extract (think teaspoon).

Cranberry-Citrus Twist with a Hint of Vanilla
Recipe by The Spiced Life (my sister)

1/2 cup vodka
1/3 cup cranberry syrup
1/4 cup fresh squeezed Valencia orange juice (Valencia is just what we had)
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup (to taste) dry soda (my sister especially likes a lemongrass flavored dry soda but a plain soda should work)
twisted orange peel

Stir together the first 4 ingredients. Pour 1/2 cup of this mix over a glass with ice. Top off with the dry soda. Rub the orange peel around the rim and then twist to release more flavor and add it as a garnish.

Vindaloo Inspired Chicken

2010-11-28T18:00:00.000-05:00

Good company does not produce good photos--in fact the opposite. I was so busy yakking when I served this dish to my friend Jessie that I never even noticed I didn't photograph it plated. Which is a real shame, because it is succulent and delicious. A serious repeater. Sticky and fragrant, it's the kind of Indian dish I would confidently serve to anyone who thought they did not like Indian food--maybe even my dad (!).

A note about serving: I'm the kind of laid back cook who expects her guests to fish out the peppercorns (sad but true), but if this bothers you be aware you need to remove them.

Vindaloo Inspired Chicken
Adapted from At Home With Madhur Jaffrey

4 T vegetable oil
heaping 1/2 t brown mustard seeds
1/4 t fenugreek (methi) seeds
1 t whole black peppercorns
20 fresh curry leaves
1 1/2 large onions, thinly sliced
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 1/2 lbs chicken thighs
1 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
salt to taste
1 1/2 t ground cumin
1 T ground coriander
cayenne pepper to taste
1 T paprika
1 T brown sugar

Choose a pan wide enough to hold the chicken in a single layer. Heat over medium high heat with the oil in it. Add the mustard seeds and cover the pan while they pop. When they are finished, add the fenugreek seeds and peppercorns. A few seconds later add the curry leaves--stand back, they will splatter! Let the spices cook, stirring, for about a minute.

Add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook until caramelized, about 10-15 minutes. Then add the garlic and cook an additional minute.

Add the spices and the vinegar and stir. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs and add them to the pan in a single layer. Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce the heat to maintain a gentle simmer. Cook the chicken this way for 20 minutes.

Remove the lid and crank the heat up to a brisk boil (high). Add the brown sugar and boil the liquid until it evaporates, leaving behind caramelized chicken (another 10 minutes or so). Taste for salt. Serve with rice, flatbread, or on in its own.

Bake And Decorate: Family Chocolate Cake

2010-11-26T10:00:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't noticed, I love cookbooks. So when I looked around the web and saw bloggers receiving free cookbooks to review, I thought hey I can do that! So I contacted Rodale Books and asked them if they had any cookbooks coming out they'd like reviewed and they said yes. And sent me Fiona Cairns' Bake and Decorate.

Now those of you who know me or regularly read this blog might guess at my reaction. I have the worst hands known to man and am not a fan of, as Nigella Lawson's grandfather would say, "landscape cookery" (I read that in a N.Y. Times article by her once and it stuck because it was SO me). I was expecting one of those books that starts with a box of yellow or white cake mix and helps you turn it into magical creations to wow your kids.

I could not have been more wrong.

First of all, Bake and Decorate is decidedly for grown-ups. Which is not to say that it does not have ideas that will appeal to kids, because it certainly does. But you will not be wondering how to serve licorice flavored candy on your lemon flavored cupcakes (one of the reasons I usually skip the kid cupcake idea--none of the flavors are compatible with anything other than vanilla). Further, if you are looking for that stunning chocolate cake to serve on New Year's Eve to an adult-only party, you'll definitely find it here.

Second, Bake and Decorate is about half cakes. Cakes of varying flavors and textures--this is as much cake cookbook as it is decorating cookbook. Based on the chocolate cake featured in this post, I have already decided that had I paid for the cookbook it would have been money well spent, whether it was decorated or not.

Third, Fiona Cairns' style--a style which very much appealed to me in the myriad of color photos inside the book--is kind of a casual elegance. Some of her cakes are perfectly frosted all around--or perfectly encased in fondant--but many are, as this cake, iced to let the icing or fondant casually yet artfully drip over the sides. It is more casual--and yet, to me anyway, much more appetizing. I am not sure if I perfectly replicated that look, but it is definitely one that appeals to me and that I can strive for--unlike my attempts at more traditional frosting, which always seems to go awry.

Sammy helped me bake the cakes. As you can see, when they came out of the oven they smelled fantastic and we both kept bending down for a sniff. Because I don't often bake circular cakes like these, Sammy kept thinking they were pancakes of some sort!

You've probably figured out by now that I like the book. The chocolate cake featured here was absolutely delectable. Moist, definitively chocolate but not super-sweet. And the icing is basically a ganache, which I love. This is, actually, the very first frosted chocolate cake I have ever made that I liked, let alone loved.

Now for the cons, since there are a few. The cakes are very nut-heavy (not all but many, especially the chocolate ones). Cairns is British, and Europeans love nuts in their cakes, but if you have nut allergies this might not be the cake book for you--although the decorating ideas will still work of course. Further, she calls for a lot of nut flour; I was surprised there were no instructions on how to make your own nut flour and no weight measurements for the nuts in case you have to make your own (since 1 cup of nut flour will not equal 1 cup of nuts). I did find almond flour for this cake, but I suspect I will have to make my own hazelnut flour, which without the weights will probably result in some hazelnut waste.

Many of the more involved decorating ideas will require a trip to the store. Fondant, edible gold leaf, edible flowers--these are all some of the ingredients needed to implement Cairns' ideas (and it is also why I have not yet attempted any of the decorating ideas--living where I do that will require a trip to the city). On the pro side, though, I do feel like once I do make that trip these ideas are mostly within my ability.

One note about the recipe: Cairns calls for 2 8-inch round pans, but she notes that making a cake slightly bigger should be ok if you do not have the right size pans. So I made the cakes 9-inch and they worked perfectly. However, I forgot that it meant I would need more icing, so I ended up kind of haphazardly adding more ingredients to my icing to bulk it out. Instead, I recommend you double the icing recipe below if you need to use 9 inch pans. Last, while I made the cake recipe exactly to specifications (including leaving out the salt! Is that a British thing?), I preferred the icing with a stronger, less sweet bittersweet chocolate. Although she specifies 50-60% cacao, I think you could use up to 72% cacao to your taste.

Fiona Cairns' Family Chocolate Cake
Very closely adapted from Bake and Decorate (instructions are mine but ingredients are all hers, with exception of chocolate in icing)

Cake:
3 1/2 oz 50-60% cacao semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 T boiling water
1 1/3 cups AP flour
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 cup almond flour
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup buttermilk

Icing
3 oz semisweet 50-60% cacao chocolate (can use up to 72% cacao if you prefer), chopped
3 T unsalted butter
1 T golden syrup (Lyle's Golden Syrup is what we would use in the States)
2 T packed brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease 2 8-inch round cake pans (see notes above about pan size) and line the bottom with parchment rounds. Grease again.

Place the chocolate in a bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Whisk it smooth and set aside to cool.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Whisk it with the almond flour and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy with a mixer, a good 5 minutes. Beat the vanilla into the eggs. Pour the eggs and vanilla slowly into the creamed butter with the mixer running. Add a tablespoon of the flour mixture to prevent curdling. Mix until nicely blended and then mix in the melted chocolate. Beat in the buttermilk. Fold in the flour mix gently.

Divide the batter between the pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes (25-30 minutes for 9-inch pans), or until firm to the touch. A toothpick inserted into the center should come out with a only a few crumbs attached, and, as you can see from the photo, the edges of the cake will pull away from the sides of the pan. And they will smell fantastic! Let the cakes cool in the pans for 2-3 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack onto a piece of parchment paper. Let cool until cold before icing.

To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave on 50% power in 30 second increments until melted and whisked smooth. Stir in the syrup and sugar. Gradually pour in the cream, whisking, until whisked smooth and thickened. Set aside to cool.

To assemble the cakes--place the top side down and spread half of the cooled icing onto the cake. Let some drip over the sides. Place the other cake, once again top side down (because the bottoms are perfectly flat) and spread the remaining icing on top of the cake, once again letting some of it drip over the sides. I sprinkled my cake with pearl sprinkles to make it more festive.

Peanut Butter Candy Cups

2010-11-23T19:00:00.000-05:00

This is technically about 2-3 weeks overdue as a post about what to do with your Halloween candy. But the thing is, this is a great idea for anytime--I mean how cute are these cups? And so easy! And just as tasty with chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, M&Ms, Reece's Pieces, or mini marshmallows--all of which are in my pantry year round (is that embarrassing? Why do I feel no shame?).

So whether you bookmark this for next Halloween or make it a holiday cookie project (try using holiday colored M&Ms, etc), I highly recommend you give these a try. I found the recipe at MyRecipes--where they used storebought refrigerator peanut butter cookie dough. After much searching, I decided that the King Arthur Peanut Butter Crisscross recipe would best work in its place (since I prefer to bake from scratch--although I did adapt it slightly). If you make the dough from scratch, be aware that you will have a lot of dough--so why not put some of it in the fridge for when you need a no-effort cookie?

Peanut Butter Candy Cups
Adapted from MyRecipes (Sunset Magazine)

1 (16.5-oz.) package refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough or use the recipe below
24 bite-size chocolate candy bars or chocolate chips and/or peanut butter chips
M&Ms, Reece's Pieces and mini marshmallows for topping

Preheat oven to 350 F. Shape the peanut butter cookie dough into 1 inch balls, and place lightly greased mini muffin wells (you do not need to press into the tin--the dough will naturally bake to the shape of the cup). Bake for 10 minutes and then add the chocolate candy pieces or chocolate and peanut butter chips. Return to the oven for 5-8 minutes, or until edges of the cookies are lightly browned. Remove from oven and sprinkle the insides of the cups with M&Ms, Reeces Pieces or mini marshmallows.

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
Adapted from King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion

1/2 cup (3 1/4 oz) shortening (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup (3 1/4 oz) lard*
1/2 cup (4 oz) light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup (4 oz) dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 t vanilla
1 cup (9 1/2 oz) smooth peanut butter (I used Jiff)
1 cup (3 1/4 oz) white whole wheat flour
2 cups (9 1/2 oz) AP flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

*If you use Crisco, you could use 1 cup (6 1/2 oz) all Crisco, but I like to avoid Crisco, and the organic Earth Balance shortening is softer at room temperature, so I used the firmer lard to help balance it out.

Whisk together the flours, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Cream the shortening and lard together to blend and then cream in the peanut butter. When it is smooth and evenly blended, add the sugars and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat in. Stir in the flour mixture. Chill for 30 minutes, or until firm enough to roll into balls. Use as directed above.

Argentinean Inspired Chili with Peaches

2010-11-21T19:05:00.001-05:00

Have you ever noticed how often in cooking a great idea is the addition of 1 or 2 simple yet unexpected ingredients? In this case it was balsamic vinegar and peaches, 2 ingredients which made this "chili" vibrant and delicious. The kids were drinking their bowls and John sighed happily and repeatedly while he ate it. One of the best weeknight meals ever.

I found the inspiration for this dish in David Ricketts' Home Cooking Around the World, a little known cookbook whose praises I have sung before (here and here and please cut me some slack as it was before I figured out how to take indoor pictures without a flash!). His version is a beef stew, but it was a weekday and I was looking for simple simple simple. To tell the truth I was totally uninspired and mostly moaning about not wanting to make dinner (yes I have those days too). When I saw this stew had tomatoes in it, I thought to myself why not use ground meat and make it more chili-like, albeit without the actual dried chile pepper. I happened to have organic frozen peach slices in the freezer, and I am always intrigued by fruit and meat, and the addition of the vinegar was even more intriguing still.

About that fruit and meat and the South American part: according to Ricketts, many Argentinean stews contain fruit. His stew in particular is an adaptation of a complex Argentinean stew that used peaches. I don't know if the balsamic vinegar was his addition or also Argentinean, but it's genius either way.

Argentinean Inspired Chili with Peaches
Adapted from David Ricketts' Home Cooking Around the World

1-2 T olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb ground beef
1 lb lean ground turkey
2 medium-large tomatoes, chopped, with juices (or 1 15-oz can chopped, but I had the last of the season's tomatoes)
2 cups cooked black beans in their broth (or 1 15-oz can, organic, with its liquid--I used home cooked)
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t Mexican oregano
1/2 t dried thyme
1 T sugar
3-6 T balsamic vinegar, to taste, divided
bay leaf
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup water, as needed
salt
20 oz sliced frozen peaches (or equivalent fresh--and Ricketts says canned is ok too)
1 1/2 lbs boiling potatoes, diced (I do not peel)

Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions with a inch of salt and cook until translucent and softened, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes, stirring. Deglaze with 1 tablespoon of the balsamic vinegar. Add the ground beef and turkey with dried herbs, cumin and a pinch of salt. Cook until browned. Add the tomatoes and let them fry with the meat for about 3 minutes.

Add the potatoes and beans. Add the sugar, 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and the chicken stock. Add the water if it seems too dry (the liquid should nearly cover the potatoes). Bring to a boil and then cover, reducing to the heat to simmer. Let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Add the peaches and then let it simmer, covered, another 15 minutes. Remove the lid--if it is too soupy, turn the heat up and let it simmer briskly to reduce the liquid some. Also, you will want to taste it at this point for additional vinegar, sugar or salt. Cilantro is an optional garnish, but I actually do not think it needs it.

Mint Chocolate Thumbprints for the Holidays--or Anytime!

2010-11-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

The minute I saw these cookies I knew I was making them. They are from yet another holiday baking magazine, and the minty chocolate definitely says festive holidays--but I could not wait, I wanted them now. So when the PTG asked for volunteers to make dinners and desserts for the teachers during the week of parent-teacher conferences (because the teachers all work late), I figured I could make them for the teachers as a trial run. And keep a few for us of course.

Which turned out to be a bit of a problem, because while I would strongly recommend the recipe, the writers were smoking something funny if they thought the recipe made 3 dozen cookies. I doubled it and barely came up with 40--and while my cookies might have been slightly bigger than expected, there is no way they were doubled in size. So the recipe below is doubled from the magazine.

Setting aside the quantity issue, however, this recipe is fantastic. The cookie part is similar to a shortbread, it kind of melts in your mouth with a tender yet sandy crumb. And the chocolate, well is chocolate. Tender from the butter, and rich and delicious because I used an excellent chocolate (Scharffen Berger), it melted right into the cookie base in a way that a Hershey's Kiss cannot dream of. My family went bonkers for these. In a nutshell, highly recommended for the holidays--or anytime.

*Note this recipe requires chilling so plan ahead.

Mint Chocolate Thumbprints
Adapted from Fine Cooking: Brownies, Bars & More (special holiday issue 2010)

cookie:
10 1/2 oz (2 cups plus 5 T) AP flour
1 1/2 oz (1/2 cup) Dutch processed cocoa (I used Valrhona)
12 oz (1 1/2 cups, 3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz (1 cup) sifted confectioners' sugar
1 T vanilla
1/2 t salt

mint chocolate filling:
8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 oz (6 T) unsalted butter, sliced into pats
peppermint oil to taste (what I used) or 1/4 t peppermint extract

Sift the flour and cocoa together into a medium bowl. Whisk in the salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter and confectioners' sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and blend in. Add the flour mixture and mix until a ball of dough forms. It will be too soft to work with at this point, so wrap it into plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour, or until it is firm enough to work with (I made my dough a few days in advance actually). If you let it chill for a long time, you will need to let it soften a bit at room temperature before you can work with it.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line cookie sheet/s (the number is up to you, however many you can work with at one time) with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Roll scant tablespoons of the dough into balls and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet/s. Lightly flour your thumb and use it to press straight down into the center of each ball, creating a deep well.

Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes, until the tops look dry. Use a wooden spoon to gently define the edges of the well in the center of each cookie. Cool the cookies on the sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

When the cookies are nearly cool, prepare the chocolate filling. Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl and microwave on 50% power in 45 second increments until the chocolate can be stirred smooth. Add the peppermint oil (or extract if using), to taste. Keep in mind all of the mint flavor will come from this chocolate as the cookies are plain chocolate. Set this chocolate mixture over to the side to cool a bit, until it has thickened and is slightly warmer than room temperature.

When the chocolate has cooled sufficiently, scrape it into a pastry bag with a tip attached or into a plastic freezer bag (when you are done, you will snip the corner of the bag off--this is what I did and it worked fine). Pipe the filling into the center of each cookie. Let cool completely before storing--it says to let cool before serving but I could not wait and it tasted just fine warm and melty to me.

Salted Peanutty Brownie Bites

2010-11-16T23:08:00.001-05:00

I made the mistake of making these bars the weekend of Halloween, inbetween trick or treat nights. In my town, the kids trick or treat twice (once in a city celebration where the local businesses open their doors to trick-or-treaters and once in the more conventional house to house setting), so the kids already had gobs of candy when I made these, and as a result I never could get them to really even give this dessert a chance. Which is a shame because they are incredible. My husband loved them but found them a tad rich. I however don't really have a "too rich" setting, and thought these were decadent indulgence at its finest. A fellow mom tried them and pretty much groaned happily the whole time she ate one.

I got the recipe from one of those cookie magazines that are released during the holidays--but I don't find these particularly seasonal. I think peanut butter and chocolate can be enjoyed anytime it strikes your fancy. Because they need to be stored in the fridge, I guess I would not recommend serving them when your house is really hot or at a summer picnic, much like any other buttercream-topped dessert. But even then you could eat them straight out of the fridge/cooler.

Salted Peanutty Brownie Bites
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Ultimate Cookies and Bars

Bottom Layer:
1 1/4 cups finely crushed graham crackers (18 full grahams)
1/4 cup sugar
heaping 1/4 cup salted, dry-roasted peanuts
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
hefty pinch salt

Middle (brownie) Layer:
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt
2/3 cup AP flour
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Top (frosting) layer:
1/4 cup room temperature unsalted butter
2 T creamy, not natural peanut butter, to taste
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 T milk (plus more to taste)
1/2 vanilla
pinch of salt

coarse sea salt for sprinkling
salted peanuts, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line the bottom of a 7X11(recipe calls for) or 9X13 (I used) pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

Make the crust by placing the peanuts in a food processor; pulse until coarsely chopped and add the graham crackers and pinch of salt. Process until it is all fine crumbs. Stir in the melted 1/2 cup butter and pat into parchment-lined pan. Press firmly and then bake for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool. Leave the oven on.

Melt the chocolate and 1/2 cup butter in the microwave on 50% power in 45 second increments. Stir until smooth. Add the sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, eggs and vanilla, and stir just until combined. Stir in the flour and peanut butter chips. Spread this brownie filling evenly over the baked crust. Bake for 20 more minutes, until the brownie layer is cooked. Set aside to cool completely.

Make the frosting by beating together 2 tablespoons of the peanut butter with 1/4 cup of softened butter. Gradually beat in 1 cup of powdered sugar. Add 1 tablespoon of milk, the pinch of salt and the vanilla. Gradually beat in an additional cup of powdered sugar. Add milk and peanut butter to your desired consistency and taste. You might also want more salt, but remember you will be sprinkling the bars with coarse salt.

Spread the frosting over the cooled brownie layer. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Remove in one large slab using the parchment paper. Slice into small bars (these are very rich, small is the way to go). Press a few peanuts into each bar if desired (I did some but decided I liked them better without, I found the peanuts distracting). They keep well in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin Waffles

2010-11-12T09:38:00.000-05:00

You probably do not remember, but the first time I went to Atlanta, about 1 1/2 years ago now, I had the most amazing sweet potato waffles--I even wrote about them here. I've been dreaming of re-creating them ever since, so when my sister bought me this awesome retro cookbook, Pancakes & Waffles: The Fine Art of Pancake, Waffles, Crêpe and Blintz Cooking (published 1970), I immediately went searching. And indeed I found them, but then decided since I live in Ohio, not the south, and it is autumn, why not make them pumpkin waffles (I confess I was also lured by the ease of using canned pumpkin).

Oh man these things are good. And real maple syrup complements them perfectly. I made them as part of a "breakfast for dinner" dinner that we had, and everyone was groaning in happiness when we ate. They were just that good. Run, don't walk, to make these now.

Pumpkin Waffles
Adapted from Pancakes & Waffles: The Fine Art of Pancake, Waffles, Crêpe and Blintz Cooking

2 cups AP flour
4 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground cloves
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups milk (I used 1% with a dash of cream)
1 cup canned pumpkin (or cooked and mashed)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and spices. Set aside.

Mix egg yolks, milk, pumpkin, melted butter and brown sugar; beat until smooth. Gently mix in the flour mix.

Preheat the waffle iron.

Whisk or whip the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Gently fold them into the batter. Make waffles according to your iron's directions. Serve with whipped cream and maple syrup.

Rosemary, Lemon & Olive Oil Tea Bread

2010-11-09T18:23:00.000-05:00

I have to apologize for the photos of this bread. I baked the bread for a meeting of my book club (one held at someone else's house), and like a dunce totally forgot to take any pictures in my house, with my lighting and my camera. So I just snapped a few shots with my cell phone when serving the bread.

So I am not sure if you can tell, but this bread makes a pretty loaf, especially with the sprinkled pine nuts. Its flavor is delicious with subtle hints of lemon and rosemary, with the fragrance of course from the olive oil. The kind of flavor that makes people ask "Do I taste...? Or...? Mmmm... just what is that flavor I'm not placing?" It is sweet but not super sweet; I like it better as a tea loaf than a true dessert.

One note about the recipe: the original recipe uses golden raisins and no rosemary, but one of the reviewers had suggested rosemary, and I was instantly much more intrigued by that flavor combination. So I highly suggest you try the rosemary, but if the idea bothers you, try golden raisins instead.

Rosemary, Lemon & Olive Oil Tea Bread
Adapted from Epicurious

2 1/2 cups AP flour
2 baking powder
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup fruity, fragrant extra virgin olive oil
1 T minced fresh rosemary leaves
grated zest of 2 lemons
unsalted butter for loaf pan
1/4 cup pine nuts

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the sugar. Whisk together the eggs, milk, and olive oil, and then add them to the flour mix, just stirring until combined. Add the lemon zest and rosemary to the batter and mix in.

Butter a 9X5 loaf pan (the instructions said to flour it but I forgot and it was fine). Transfer the batter into the pan and smooth the surface. Sprinkle the top with pine nuts. Bake for 55 minutes, or until a thin skewer inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Let cool for a few minutes. Unmold and cool on a rack.

Congo Bars

2010-11-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

I have a dirty little secret. This year, very different from previous years, my mom has taken a while to ask for Christmas lists (normally she is an early shopper), so I confess I have taken advantage of some of the great sales going on now, specifically at The Good Cook. Where normally I stare wistfully and resist, this year I am embracing those $11 cookbook sales. Which is relevant because this recipe comes from a book that I passed on during the first big sale, about a month ago, and then promptly regretted with all my heart (I can get rather passionate about cookbooks). So as long as no one had requested my Christmas list, I waited patiently for the sale to come back around and just today I pounced! Wee-hoo!

In the meantime, I got this recipe from Alice over at Savory Sweet Life, who reviewed Fat Witch Brownies and convinced me I had made a dreadful error in previously passing on the book (I'm not from New York--I knew nothing about the bakery). And if she had not convinced me, I would have known as soon as I took one bite of these bars.

Which, by the way, are momentous for a second reason. Alice's pictures and general description persuaded me that I needed to make these Congo Bars yesterday--which is odd since I don't like coconut in desserts. Which, in turn, presented me with a quandary. Enter Bob's Red Mill, who makes these fabulous super-sized, unsweetened coconut flakes. I subbed them for the tiny shredded sweetened coconut flakes that bother me so much, and the result was stunning. So, SO good. What a revelation--both the bars and the large unsweetened coconut flakes!

Congo Bars
Closely adapted from Fat Witch Brownies, Patricia Helding

Crust:
1/4 cup AP flour
1/3 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 11 whole crackers, crushed)
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
7 T unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

Topping:
1 1/4 cups flaked coconut (sweetened or not to your taste, see notes above)
1/2 cup semi-semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup chopped nuts--I used hazelnuts (can be left out)

Spray a 9X9 pan with baking spray and then line it with parchment paper. Spray it with Baker's Joy. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and then stir in the graham cracker crumbs and light brown sugar. Mix well. Cut the butter into the flour mix and then mix with your hands until the dough is smooth. Pat the dough evenly in a thin layer into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 10 minutes or until the crust is slightly golden. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Prepare the topping.

Mix together the coconut, both chocolate chips, and the condensed milk with a spoon. Add the nuts, if using. Spread the mixture evenly over the baked crust.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is well-set and light brown. Watch carefully at the end of baking time; do not let the top become too bubbly or dark. Let cool on a rack for 2 hours or until chocolate chips are no longer soft. Use parchment paper to remove from pan when cool and slice into bars.

Butternut Squash & Chickpeas served on Mixed Grains

2010-11-05T17:00:00.000-04:00

This is a great dish to serve in the middle of holiday excess--which I realize we aren't there yet, but it's coming. I just bought several holiday cookie magazines, and am excitedly planning what will be gracing my cookie tins this year. But I digress--I was telling you how tasty, easy, nutritious and especially fiber and protein happy this dish is.

For me, personally, the genius of this meal lies in the multi grain pilaf (if that's the right word) that I served the dish on. Do you have any super foods that you do not like? And does it frustrate you because every time you open another food or health magazine, there is an article singing the praises of that food? Broccoli, blueberries, walnuts and quinoa are all examples--the first 2 of which I love and the second 2 I do not no matter how much I try. Quinoa is especially frustrating to me, because it seems like it ought to be the perfect grain to sub in for rice, serve in cold salads, etc. But no matter how much I rinse it, on its own it tastes bitter to me. But then I had this revelation--what if I mixed quinoa into other grains, diluting its bitter flavor? After all, it works with walnuts in granola. Eureka!

A note about the recipe: I used red quinoa because it is what I had around, but use any quinoa you have.

Butternut Squash & Chickpeas served on Mixed Grains
Recipe by The Spiced Life

Butternut squash-chickpea mixture:
2 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped1 red medium-large onion, chopped
1 head of garlic, minced
1 sweet bell pepper, chopped
1-3 T good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 t ground cumin
pinch of allspice
salt to taste
2 15-oz cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced and soaked in cold water (drain before cooking)

Garnishes:Greek yogurt
lemon wedges and lemon juice
chopped cilantro (I was out)

Mixed Grains:
1 cup red quinoa, cooked to package's directions (if it is a little soggy, drain it)
1 cup pearl barley, simmered until tender and drained
1 cup Israeli couscous (or any other pasta grain of your choice), cooked to package's directions

Begin by prepping all of the vegetables and then cooking the grains that take the longest to cook (i.e., the barley). Basically you want to be multi-tasking with this dish, starting grains cooking while your veggies are cooking, etc. Read through the directions before beginning.

While the barley cooks, heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion to it with a pinch of salt, and cook for 5-8 minutes, until translucent. Add the garlic and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add the cumin and allspice. You chould be starting the other grains around now. Add the butternut squash and sweet bell peppers and toss. Add a pinch of salt and the drained chickpeas. Reduce the heat to medium and let cook, stirring occasionally, until the butternut squash is tender. Add the drained sliced onion and toss to your desired doneness (many people, myself included, have trouble with raw onions, so I like to take that edge off of them).

While you are working on the above dish, you will want to also be working on the quinoa and Israeli couscous. When all 3 grains are cooked and drained of excess water, toss them together in a large bowl. Serve this meal family style, with the butternut squash-chickpea mixture poured over the grains. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or 2 of fresh lemon juice and serve additional wedges on the side for people who like things extra lemony, like me. Garnish with Greek yogurt and chopped cilantro.

Double Chocolate Peppermint Mousse Parfait

2010-11-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

You've probably noticed that this blog is dessert/baked goods central lately. I don't like to whine TOO much (sometimes this blog feels like a long list of what infection I've had when), but after the appendectomy I did something to my back, caught a sinus infection, and now I have bronchitis. But October is also the month of Halloween and Sammy's birthday--which means a certain amount of baking MUST go on. Let's just say I have not been cooking very interesting meals for my family lately, but you can definitely count on me for serious birthday indulgence.

Which brings us to dessert #3 for Sammy (#2 was dirt mousse cups--only with ghost and pumpkin shaped marshmallows instead of gummy worms). I did give her a choice between something not so mousse-like vs another mousse-and she chose the mousse (that's my girl).

For this mousse, I created 2 very different mousses from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet and flavored them with peppermint oil. I wanted some contrasting texture, so the bottom layer is an extremely rich, dense bittersweet chocolate mousse, lightly flavored with peppermint. It is the kind of mousse that Medrich would recommend for layering cakes. For the top mousse I made a light and fluffy egg-less white chocolate mousse--this time heavily flavored with peppermint. I covered the top in chocolate curls.

I think it is fair to say that we liked this mousse dessert better than all the rest.

Note that although this mousse contains eggs,they are heated to 160 F, making it essentially "egg-safe."

Double Chocolate Peppermint Mousse Parfait
Assembly by The Spiced Life, individual mousses adapted from Alice Medrich, Bittersweet

Both mousse layers need to chill for 1 or more hours, so you can, as I did, split this up into 2 days.

Dense minty dark chocolate layer
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, in the 70% range, chopped
8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
4 large eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
a few drops of peppermint oil

Melt the chocolate and butter either in a double boiler or in the microwave on 50% power. Add the few drops of peppermint oil. The chocolate should taste pleasantly, lightly minty. Whisk smooth and set aside.

Fill a large skillet partially with water and bring it to a simmer. Using a heat proof bowl, place the eggs and the sugar in the bowl. Turn the heat down on the water so that it is barely simmering and place the heat proof bowl in it. Stir until well-blended and then add the water. Keep stirring constantly to keep the eggs from cooking. I did this 2 handed with a thermometer in the bowl, but Medrich notes you may need to continuously remove the bowl to check the temperature (in which case clean the thermometer inbetween tests); either way, keep stirring until the temperature reaches 160 F. Remove the bowl from the skillet and use an electric mixer to whip the eggs on high speed for 3-4 minutes, or until they have a texture like lightly whipped cream.

Fold 1/4 of the egg mixture into the chocolate. Then fold in half of the remaining egg mixture. Then fold the rest of the eggs into the chocolate mixture. Fold until no streaks remain. Working quickly (because the chocolate mousse can begin to stiffen), divide the mousse between your glasses. Chill for at least one hour (can be done the night before).

Peppermint White Chocolate Mousse
Some of you may recognize this mousse from the worms in dirt mousse cups--it is the same mousse, as this method works well on milk or white chocolate, but not dark.

9 oz white chocolate, finely chopped (use a good quality chocolate; it should have cocoa butter in it)
6 T water
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
drops of peppermint oil, to taste (see instructions)

Place the chocolate and water in a heat proof bowl. Either melt over a double boiler or in the microwave at 30% power for 3 minutes. Add the peppermint oil--the taste should be quite minty, unlike the recipe above. You are going to add a lot of cream to this, which will dilute it, plus my family likes a strong peppermint flavor. Stir until completely melted and smooth and set aside to cool. The chocolate must cool to about 85 F (Medrich notes a small dab on the lip should feel cool; I used a thermometer)--do not let it cool lower than 85 F as the mousse will end up grainy. When the mousse is getting close to 85 F, it is time to fix the cream.

Whip the cream in a medium bowl "only until it is thickened and barely beginning to hold a shape--when you tilt the bowl it should flow to one side, fluffy but still pourable..."--I have quoted Medrich here as she emphasizes that you will think the cream is not whipped enough but it is and she is right. It should barely be whipped.

Scrape the cream into the 85 F bowl of chocolate and quickly but gently fold the 2 together until they are completely blended. The mousse should seem too soft--it still needs to chill. Divide it up between your serving glasses and chill until set. This will be at least an hour for individual servings, more for a large bowl. I gave mine 2-3 hours to be certain.

Assembling

Just a quick note that while I am by no means an expert on chocolate curls, I have found over time that a serrated peeler works well (lacking a proper chocolate curler) and it helps immensely if the chocolate is quite warm. I heat mine in the microwave on 2% power until it is just barely starting to get melty at the edges. My kids thought the chocolate curls were the best part of the whole thing!

Special K Berries-n-Cream Cookies

2010-10-31T20:00:00.000-04:00

I get a lot of opportunities to try various products through being a Food Buzz Featured Publisher. The honest truth is that I turn a lot of them down, because many of them are processed or partially made (i.e., things you use in place of making something from scratch) and I swear I don't judge others for using them, but since I enjoy making many things from scratch they are not particularly appropriate to me or this blog. However one "processed" or pre-made food we do eat is (cold) breakfast cereal, so when Food Buzz offered us the chance to try Special K's new strawberry cereal (regular Special K plus dried strawberries), I decided to try it.

When it came I was disappointed to realize that for a cereal that is marketed as healthy, its first listed ingredient (the one there is most of) is rice, with sugar listed third. It's great that whole wheat is inbetween those 2, but that still makes it less healthy then anything I want to eat for breakfast every morning. So I decided to try baking with it instead. Eureka!

I actually think this makes a decently healthy cookie, despite what I wrote above. First of all because most cookies are going to have some "white" starch in them anyway but not necessarily any whole grains. And second, because with the sweetness of the cereal flakes, I reduced the sugar from what I would normally use. Keeping in mind, of course, that a cookie is still a cookie and not the healthiest thing on the planet ever. But they passed my test for sending in to Alex's kindergarten class for snacks--which turned out to be kind of a shame because I really wanted more than the 2 I got to eat. I could have eaten a ton of these, which is saying something since neither white chocolate nor dried fruit are my favorite things in cookies. I might actually have to buy more Special K and keep experimenting with baking with it.

A note about the recipe: I get my eggs from a local farmer, and as a result their sizes can vary wildly. I wanted to use 2 egg yolks with some egg white, so I used the 2 smallest eggs in the carton. If all you can get is large eggs, I would use 2 yolks plus about half of the white from one of the eggs. A second observation is that while you should feel free to sub other cereal flakes, increase the sugar if they are not sweetened--and let me know how they turn out, since I am by no means an expert on baking with cereal flakes! Corn, for example, might bake up totally differently, I really do not know.

Special K Berries-n-Cream Cookies
Recipe inspired by CookEatShare Cookbook

1 cup white whole wheat flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
1 1/4 cups (157 g) AP flour
1 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 smallish egg (see note above)
1 smallish egg yolk (see note above)
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 1/2 cups Special K cereal with dried strawberries
1/2 cup dried blueberries
1/2 cup chopped white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Whisk together the flours, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

Cream the butter, adding the sugar about 1 minute in. Cream until fluffy and totally blended. Add the egg and egg yolk and blend. Add the vanilla and blend. Add the flour mix and mix on low until completely smooth and blended.

Add the Special K cereal, the dried blueberries and the white chocolate. Mix on low until evenly blended. Scoop out tablespoons of the dough onto a cookie sheet lined with silicone or parchment paper. Lightly press the scoops with crisscrossing fork patterns to flatten a bit.

Bake for 10-12 minutes--if you have a convection oven you will get better results using a 325 F convection setting. Remove when the cookies are firm and lightly browning at the edges. Let cool for 5 minutes on the pan and then move to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Basic--but so much tastier than that sounds--Pumpkin Muffins

2010-10-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's hard to be a baking mom in 2010. You dream of all the goodies you're going to whip up for your little darlings and their friends, but then they get to preschool and everything must be store bought and individually packaged. And processed in a nut free facility. Now don't get me wrong--parents of kids with serious food allergies must live in a state of fear I cannot comprehend. But at the same time it is a little frustrating to have spent 3 years extolling the virtues of homemade, un-processed foods--and the healthiness of seeds and nuts--only to suddenly be sending a totally different message to your kid with his or her school snack.

So imagine my state of joy when I realized that our school district is one of the last allowing homemade snacks. When it is our turn for snack day, Sammy gets freeze-dried fruit, goldfish and string cheese -all individually packaged- at preschool, but Alex, in kindergarten, gets homemade granola bars, apple pie bars, and now these muffins (to be fair the last 2 are not as healthy because their class was celebrating a particular fruit/veggie and so health was not my primary concern). Our classroom does have a nut allergy, so I don't ever send in nuts, and if it is a questionable ingredient (like sesame seeds, which I guess he has not tried yet), the boy with the nut allergy has some extra snacks that he can eat. I mentioned in the apple pie bar post that the class was studying apples and so the teachers asked me to bake. Well the next week (last week) they were studying pumpkins, and I had an inkling that something pumpkin would not go awry. As it turns out, when I took the pumpkin mini muffins in on Friday, the teacher told me, beaming, "I wanted to ask but I was afraid I was becoming obnoxious!" Ask away--I love baking for my kids and I love having legitimate reasons to whip up goodies like these.

Pumpkin muffins that really celebrate being pumpkin and nothing else are not so easy to find. I wanted the muffins to be something that appealed to most of the kids, since they were studying pumpkins, and therefore I rejected anything with seeds or dried fruit in it (and obviously nuts). (With my own kids I don't like to indulge that kind of visual pickiness, but I wanted this snack to be about pumpkins and nothing else.) I also rejected pumpkin muffins and breads with additional flavors, like apple or banana--for the same reason (plus I hate bananas and I was looking forward to these!). I had given up on regular recipe sites and was randomly searching blogs when I came across this recipe. Just pumpkin and fall spices--perfect.

I made this recipe in a frenzied week of baking, as I made treats for another school project and my daughter's birthday parties. I tripled the recipe, aiming for at least 12 standard muffins and 60 mini muffins (I wanted each kid to get 2 mini muffins; I figured standard muffins were too big). Because Christine of Muffin Top added extra pumpkin I figured I could too, so I added whatever was left in the last can I opened. I made these late at night, and, well, I could not possibly tell you how much pumpkin or spices I put in them. I know they did not get much ginger because I was out and so I used more cinnamon and cloves to compensate. So I am sending you over to Muffin Top so you can look at that recipe. A seriously quintessential, seriously simple and seriously delicious pumpkin muffin.

Strawberry Lemon Pâte de Fruit

2010-10-26T18:10:00.000-04:00

I thought these would take a great picture, but in reality they look much better sans sugar. So just know you would eat them coated in sugar.

What are they? They are what I prefer to call pâte de fruit, because pectin fruit jelly just sounds so blah. But in Europe they are pâte de fruit, and they are sold in the States at high end European bakeries for lots of money. Which is only relevant in that it inspired me to learn to make my own because I could not support the habit I was developing at Pistacia Vera in Columbus. And like many confections, once you make them you discover they are absurdly easy and you begin impressing all of your friends and family with them.

These pictures are of plain strawberry and a second batch of lemon strawberry--so if some seem rosier than others, that's why: 2 different flavors. I plan to try flavor combos involving rhubarb, blueberry, peach and lemon or lime (or more strawberry!) next. According to Peter Greweling, the fabulous author of Chocolates and Confections, if it is fruit or a fruit combo and I can envision it into a puree I can try it. So far, the combo flavors are the biggest hit because they better allow me to regulate the sweetness of the final candy.

If you like fruity candy like gum drops--or even if you don't, because these, in my opinion, have a far superior "mouth-feel"-- you must try to make these. They keep indefinitely in a sealed container, although I have noticed one of my batches got a little wet the 2nd day and I am wondering if it is because it rained. Try to choose a dry day for making them. You can sub 1 pound of any fruit puree you like, or use 10 oz (1 1/4 cups) juice plus 8 oz (3/4 cup) unsweetened applesauce. Note that you will use 1 tablespoon of lemon juice at the end of the recipe no matter what fruit combo you choose as the acid is necessary.

Strawberry Lemon Pâte de Fruit
Basic recipe from Chocolates and Confections, Peter Greweling
Flavor combo by The Spiced Life

1 lb of lemon juice and strawberry puree--see directions for how to measure
zest of 1 large lemon
24 oz (3 cups) granulated sugar
6 oz (2 3-oz envelopes) liquid fruit pectin
juice of half a lemon (if experimenting with other fruit purees, be sure to use 1 tablesp0on minimum with any fruit puree as the acid is necessary)
additional sugar for coating

Spray a 9X9 baking pan with oil and then line it with plastic wrap. Lightly oil it again. Bunch the plastic at the tops of the pan so that the plastic wrap will not stretch and rip from the weight of the jellies (wish I had taken a picture of this--sorry!). Smooth the bottom so that there are as few air pockets as possible. Set aside.

Set up a food processor or blender and place it on a scale. Grate the zest of one lemon into it. Squeeze the juice of 1 1/2 large and juicy lemons into it (use more lemons if your lemons are dry or small--this is basically to taste, i.e., how much lemon do you want in your strawberry?). Then add strawberries to reach one pound (16 oz); I recommend using frozen if you are off season. Puree until smooth.

Open the pectin packets and place them next to the stove (I use a deep but narrow bowl to prevent them from spilling).

Combine the puree and 3 cups of sugar in a 4 qt heavy saucepan (Greweling says you can use 2 qt but mine boiled over). Attach a thermometer and stir over medium high heat. Keep stirring until the fruit sugar mix reaches 238 F. Be sure to stir constantly to prevent the fruit from scorching on the bottom of the pan; it is best to use a silicone spatula to continually scrape at the bottom of the pan.

When the puree reaches 238 F, add the pectin and return to a boil, still stirring. Stir at a boil for 1 minute.

After the minute is up, turn off the heat and add the juice from the remaining half lemon (at least 1 tablespoon). Pour and scrape the puree into the prepared pan. Sprinkle a thin layer of sugar onto the jelly while it is still hot. Set aside to cool completely.

When the jelly is cool, invert it onto a wooden cutting board and then remove the plastic wrap. Use an oiled chef's knife to slice the jelly into squares (or whatever shape you want) and then roll the individual pieces in more sugar. Store in a sealed container.

Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate "Creamy Dreamy" Frosting

2010-10-19T23:08:00.000-04:00

I think I've mentioned somewhere on here before that my kids each get multiple birthday parties. It is a function of both growing older (and having kid parties) and having out of town families which are difficult to coordinate. So I stopped trying, and instead have 1 party for each side of the family and then also one with kids. Anyway, although Sammy's birthday is the 20th, we had her party for my family 2 Saturdays ago, before my dad left on his annual hunting trip and during an out of town away game for my brother (who coaches college football), so his wife and their kids were free to come. The point being, these carrot cupcakes are birthday dessert number 1 for Sammy--because let's face it with 3 parties plus an actual birthday, the most important question is what is for dessert on each of those occasions?

Sammy requested carrot cupcakes--I am not sure where she got the notion, but she became obsessed with it. Which was nice, because I used to feel guilty for foisting more autumnal desserts on her when Alex got chocolate and/or lemon in June. Sprinkles are a Shaky Handed Mom's dream come true, because every kid loves them and you don't need steady decorating hands to use them. (My niece's birthday is also in the fall and we just went to her party, where her mom had made a beautiful pink princess cake--someday I am going to get her to come and decorate my kids' cakes!) With Halloween just around the corner, we went for Halloween colored sprinkles--but you might also see dinosaurs and football helmets mixed in there.

The frosting is Rose Levy Berambaum's White Chocolate Creamy Dreamy Frosting, which has definitely become my go-to cream cheese frosting. It is so much less sweet and so much more, well, creamy. I used a combination of Guittard and Green & Black's white chocolate--the most important thing is that it have real cocoa butter in the ingredients. I was tempted by Beranbaum's carrot cake recipe as well, but instead I went with my tried and true America's Test Kitchen recipe. The recipe is for a 9 X 13 sheet cake, so it makes a lot of cupcakes. I like it because, as promised in the recipe, the cake is never bottom heavy or soggy, because you mix the batter by emulsifying the oil into the eggs in a food processor.

Carrot Cupcakes with White Chocolate "Creamy Dreamy" Frosting
Carrot cake very closely adapted from Baking Illustrated

12.5 oz (2 1/2 cups) AP flour
1 1/4 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 t Vietnamese cinnamon
1/2 t freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt
1 lb grated carrots
1 1/2 cups (10.5 oz) granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed (3/5 oz) light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil (neutral tasting; I used regular olive oil)

Double recipe of white chocolate creamy dreamy frosting

Preheat the oven at 350 F with oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line the muffin cups with liners and lightly spray (I used 24 muffin cups plus a tray of mini muffins to use up the extra batter, to give you an idea of amount).

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Toss in the grated carrots. Set aside.

Dump the sugars and the eggs into a food processor and process until frothy and well combined, about 20 seconds. With the processor still running, add the oil in a slow but steady stream in the feed tube. Continue processing until the mixture has lightened in color and is well emulsified, about 20 additional seconds. Scrape this mixture into a large bowl and then stir the carrots and flour into it until there are no more visible streaks of flour. Divide the batter between 3 muffin pans (36 wells), filling the extra wells with water. You will have to wait to bake one tray of cakes until the other 2 have finished.

Bake 2 trays of cupcakes for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Rotate the pans from front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Bake the third tray after moving the top rack back to the center of the oven.

Let each finished tray cool for 5 minutes, and then dump the cupcakes out onto a cooling rack. When they are cool, frost them with the white chocolate frosting.

Crispy Rosemary Asiago Flatbread

2010-10-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

Confession time. I did not acquire the pasta roller set for my Kitchen Aid mixer to make pasta. I actually did it to make crackers. But then I got intimidated, certain the dough would stick (not being intended for a pasta roller) and finked out of trying it.

What a fool I can be. This was so easy, so simple, so delicious--and like many simple but intimidating culinary adventures--so impressive when finished. Run, do not walk, to trying this. And get creative with your flavoring--try other herbs or seeds, a different cheese or even no cheese. If you do not use cheese, I recommend using a bit more salt when you sprinkle on your flatbreads (although the salt should be to taste either way, which is why no amount is listed).

Crispy Rosemary Asiago Flatbread
Adapted from Wild Yeast (from Savory Baking From The Mediterranean, Anissa Helou)

150 g AP flour
150 g semolina
1 T chopped fresh rosemary, plus more for sprinkling
1 T chia seeds, optional (they add nutrition but not much flavor)
1 t salt
170 g lukewarm water
Asiago cheese for sprinkling (I grated it onto the flatbreads, hence am unsure of amount, maybe 1-2 oz)
extra virgin olive oil for brushing
coarse sea salt salt for topping

Preheat the oven, with baking stone or cookie sheet, to 450 F. I used a cookie sheet because my baking stone is puny.

Whisk together the flour, semolina, chia seeds (if using), rosemary and salt in a medium bowl. Add water and stir to incorporate into the dry ingredients. Turn the dough onto a clean unfloured counter and knead for 3 minutes. It should not be sticky. Cover the dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.

After resting, knead the dough for another 2 minutes. Cover and rest for 20 minutes.

Using a bench scraper, divide the dough into 12 or more pieces and form them into balls. Cover them. Cut a piece of parchment paper the approximate size of your baking stone and place on a clear area of your workspace.

Roll a ball of dough through a pasta roller, starting with the thickest setting and adjusting the thickness setting down with each successive pass, to the desired thinness. Alternatively, roll out as thin as possible with a rolling pin. Based on the Wild Yeast recommendation, I took it to level '7' on my Kitchen Aid pasta roller attachment.

Place the rolled flatbread onto the parchment. Repeat with as many flatbreads as will fit on the parchment (for me it was 2). Brush the flatbreads lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with rosemary and a small pinch of Kosher salt. Grate a scattering of Asiago cheese onto the flatbreads using a fine holed grater, such as a zester.

Transfer the breads, parchment and all, onto the preheated stone r cookie sheet. Bake until the edges are nicely brown and rippled, and the tops have golden brown patches, about 3 – 5 minutes. While one batch is baking, roll out the next batch.

Cool the baked breads on a wire rack. Break into pieces to serve.

No Nut Apple Pie Bars

2010-10-08T09:30:00.000-04:00

Last week Alex's kindergarten class studied apples, so her teacher asked me if I could bake an apple treat for them. Because of the prevalence of nut allergies in kids (and indeed Alex does have one child with nut allergies in her class) I skipped past the apple bars I have made in the past and kept looking until I landed on the Recipe Girl's Apple Pie Bars with an oat topping.

What a success! The kindergarten class made me a ginourmous sign thanking me for the "brownies" (I think Alex must have forgotten what to call them, haha), and each of them signed it. Do you know how absolutely adorable it is to get a sign that has been "autographed" by 24 5 year olds? Mind you, some of them were picky and did not eat the bars, but as Alex and her teacher both more or less said, those are the crazy (Alex's words, not the teacher's) kids who are picky about everything. Because these bars rock.

No Nut Apple Pie Bars
Closely adapted from Recipe Girl

Crust:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups sugar
3 cups AP flour
1/2 t Vietnamese cinnamon
1/2 t kosher salt

Filling:
6 T unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
12 tart, preferably firm apples (about 6 lbs)—peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 T Vietnamese cinnamon
1/2 cup water, as necessary

Topping:
3 cups rolled oats (Recipe Girl says quick cooking but I used old fashioned--results might be crumblier but still worked)
2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 1/4 t Vietnamese cinnamon
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t kosher salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (chilled)

First prepare the crust. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a 15-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper (my pan was slightly smaller but it still worked ok). I got the parchment to lay better by lightly spraying the pan with nonstick spray first.

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. At low speed, beat in the flour, cinnamon and salt until a soft dough forms. Press the dough over the bottom of the prepared pan and 1/2 inch up the side in an even layer. Bake in the center of the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden and set. Let cool on a rack.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. In large, deep (I used nonstick) skillet, melt the butter with the brown sugar. Add the apples to the skillet and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Stir in cinnamon. Cook until the apples are caramelized and very tender and the liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes longer; Recipe Girl says you may need to add water to prevent scorching, but if you use a nonstick pan it will not be necessary. Set the mixture aside to cool.

While the crust and the filling are cooling, prepare the topping. In a large bowl, mix the oats with the flour, light brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Using your fingers rub the butter into the oat mixture and crumble together until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Press the mixture into clumps.

Spread the apple filling over the crust. Scatter the crumbs on top, pressing them lightly into an even layer. Bake in the center of the oven for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the topping is golden; rotate the pan halfway through baking, and keep an eye on it to make sure the top isn’t getting too browned. Let cool completely on a rack before cutting into bars.

Garlicky Angel Hair with Sausage & Peas

2010-10-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

I was not initially planning to share this recipe. The never ending colds from hell continue to plague my family, which means I continue to be very lazy and uninspired about dinner. And picky. I am SO picky when I have a cold. All I want is starch. Which is more or less what inspired this dish--if you are not lazy and/or sick, also serve it with a salad to feel better about yourself! (I should also add I used Barilla Plus pasta, so at least the meal was high fiber.)

But anyway, about my not planning to share the dish. This is definitely one of those greater than the sum of its parts simple dishes--that you more or less want to lick the pan when you are done. We loved it. John and I could not stay out of it. And the best part of all is that it is super simple, super fast and uses, at least in my case, all pantry ingredients.

Garlicky Angel Hair with Sausage & Peas
Recipe by The Spiced Life

1 lb dried angel hair, boiled until al dente
1-2 T good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 head of garlic, minced
1/4 t smoked Spanish paprika
1 lb smoked sausage of choice (I used a local sausage reminiscent of kielbasa)
salt and pepper to taste
9 oz lager (3/4 bottle)
1/2 cup chicken stock
10-12 oz frozen peas

Bring water to a boil and then cook the pasta while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the oil and when it shimmers, add the garlic. Fry until the garlic is quite fragrant and roasted golden brown. Do not let it burn (keep stirring). Add the onions and stir to deglaze the pan. Add a pinch of salt. Cook until the onions are translucent and just starting to turned golden brown. Add the sausage and cook, stirring, until the sausage browns, 5-10 minutes. Stir in the smoked Spanish paprika. Add the beer and scrape the bottom of the pan. Increase the heat to high and boil rapidly for 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and continue boiling to evaporate. You will not evaporate all of the liquid, but enough so that it just coats the pasta, rather than being soupy. Add the cooked and drained pasta with the peas. Toss until heated through and salt and pepper to taste (it will need a decent amount of black pepper). You might also need to add more smoke Spanish paprika (to taste).

Pumpkin Pie Marshmallows

2010-10-01T10:35:00.000-04:00

I have had an epiphany. An epiphany for me, mind you, not the world at large, because I am betting every single parent of a school-aged child already knows it. Kindergarten success has nothing to do with your kid and everything to do with how organized you, the parent, are.

My children are doomed.

Case in point: we did not get home from Costco until 6:30 pm tonight (in my defense, it is 45-60 minutes away, traffic depending, and we picked up dinner), and Alex's homework was still not done. Why? Because I had encouraged her to spread it throughout the week, leading to the fact that she still had homework to do on the day that we were gone, literally, from 8:40 am until 6:30 pm. Yay, Mommy!

But I really needed to get to Costco.

Sigh.

Anyway, I knew 5 days a week kindergarten was going to be an adjustment, especially living in a somewhat out of the way rural town like I do (because errands taken a long time), and yes it really has been. Poor Sammy has been rather neglected as our lives have slowly been surely been taken over by Alex's life at the elementary school. I seem to be perennially behind in everything, including planning Sammy's birthday party and blogging. So please bear with me as my posts are a little more infrequent; I remain as dedicated as ever to this little enterprise.

These marshmallows are just about the easiest I have ever made. They come out of the pan and slice up like a dream. They taste like pumpkin pie in a marshmallow, and they make an amazing autumnal s'more with nothing else but cinnamon graham crackers--no chocolate needed. The amount of spices you should use is pretty individual; I will provide a range.

This picture was taken about a week after I made the marshmallows, which is why the tops are a little dried out and cracked. But they still tasted plenty yummy.

One note about the gelatin: when I was typing this recipe out, I realized that I made it (twice no less) with less gelatin than she calls for. The recipe still came out, both times. I made it with 3 tablespoons of gelatin and she calls for 4 tablespoons. Make of this what you will.

Pumpkin Pie Marshmallows
Closely adapted from Marshmallows: Homemade Gourmet Treats, Eileen Talanian

1 cup pumpkin puree (I used canned)
1/2 cup cold water
3-4 T gelatin (see comments above)

1/2 cup water
1 1/4 cups marshmallow syrup (see recipe and comments here)
1/4 t salt
2 cups granulated sugar, preferably cane

1 1/2 - 2 1/2 t Vietnamese cassia cinnamon
1/2 - 1 1/2 t ground ginger
1/8 - 1 t ground cloves

Lightly spray the bottom and sides of a 9X13X2 or 11X15X1 pan, and then wipe the pan out, leaving only a very thin film of oil. Using a sifter, layer the bottom of the pan with a fairly thick layer of marshmallow coating (you might consider adding 1 1/2 t ginger, 1 t cinnamon and 3/4 t cloves to the basic coating recipe for a gingerbread spiced coating; I did so for one of my batches). Let it hit the sides and corners of the pan as much as possible. Set aside.

Measure your 1/2 cup water and whisk it with the pumpkin puree. Dump the gelatin into a medium sized bowl and set the pumpkin puree mix beside it.

Place the remaining 1/2 cup water, marshmallow syrup, salt and sugar into a heavy 4 qt pan--in that order. Stir twice. Bring to a boil over medium high heat; while waiting, whisk together the pumpkin puree mix with the gelatin and dump it into the bowl of your stand mixer. Set the mixer bowl in the mixer and attach the whip.

When the syrup boils, place a lid over it for 2 minutes to prevent crystals. Then remove the lid and increase the heat to high. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Heat the boiling sugar mixture to 255 F; do not stir.

When it reaches 255 F, remove the thermometer and turn off the heat. Moving quickly but very carefully, pour the syrup into the mixer bowl with the mixer running on low speed. Slowly increase the speed to high and place a towel over the mixer to prevent being hit by splattering liquid. Whip on high for 10 minutes. Slow the mixer down to a medium low speed and add the spices. Increase the speed back up to high and whip one more minute.

After adding the spices and mixing the additional minute, lower your bowl (I like to do this with the mixer running as it helps remove some of the fluff from the whip attachment). Have a large spatula ready. Turn off the mixer--working quickly now--and remove the whip attachment, knocking as much fluff as possible back into the bowl (do not get too hung up on this, you are going to lose some fluff no matter what). Using the spatula, scrape the fluff into the prepared pan and smooth it as evenly as possible. Set aside, uncovered, to set for 4-6 hours.

When the marshmallows have set, use a table knife to gently loosen the marshmallow cake from the sides of the pan. Sprinkle your marshmallow coating over a cutting board--I like a large wooden one. Using your fingers (you're going to get messy, just have clean hands and accept it) or a flexible turner, loosen the marshmallow cake from the bottom of the pan. Once you are certain it is loose, use both hands to gently remove the cake and place it on the prepared cutting board. (This step was so easy with this recipe.) Using a chef's knife, slice the marshmallows into squares. You may need to occasionally clean your knife or dredge it in the coating powder. Roll each marshmallow in the coating powder before storing, in a single layer, for up to a week.

I plan to acquire a 11 X 15 baking pan so I can make thinner marshmallows--and then I would like to slice this recipe in the shape of pumpkins and other Halloween appropriate shapes with cookie cutters. I have not tried it yet--it needs the larger pan so the marshmallow cake is thinner, more like the thickness of the cookie cutter, which should not be thinner than the marshmallow cake--but if you try it let me know how it turns out!

Dulce De Leche Pound Cake

2010-09-27T18:33:00.001-04:00

Much like exercise, there is a rhythmic routine to cooking dinner for your family. Unlike baking, which I do to relax at my own convenience, dinner must be gotten to the table around the same time every day (running late carries all sorts of nasty consequences as the kids spend less time with Dad, get to bed late....), with certain healthy components present (do I have something green? Is there enough veggies? What about protein?) and with certain flavors avoided (ok in my case really just spicy heat; my kids are not picky). I love to cook (unlike exercise), but when something interrupts my dinner routine, it is hard for me to get back on track. Which is why you can expect to see more desserts around here for a while. Since my appendectomy I have also gotten a bad cold and between both issues, I pretty much stopped making super interesting meals. We have had tortilla soup, chicken divan, and a straight-from-my-childhood taco salad made with iceberg lettuce and un-spiced ground beef (which I actually love but am not sure is blog-worthy). I am hoping to get back on track soon (and start working out again), but until then, indulge your sweet tooth with me.

Pretty much anyone who does any kind of volunteer work for any reason would probably agree that volunteering will be much more successful if you can find something you enjoy. Which is why I currently am planning to volunteer to bake (or cook) for just about any reason that my daughter's elementary school needs. I had my first opportunity this past weekend when the school had its carnival. I provided 2 items to the Cakewalk--although now that I have experienced a cakewalk, I would not bake this cake for it again. The cake is perfectly delicious, but it was mostly little kids doing the cakewalk, and I am certain they had no idea what dulce de leche is--and my translation, provided on a piece of paper with ingredients for those with allergies, of "Argentinean Milk Caramel" probably did not help either. Plus, let's face it, bundt cakes are beautiful in an elegant, restrained manner. They don't compete with over the top desserts for little kids (nor, for that matter, did they compete with my pumpkin marshmallows, which were chosen early; stay tuned for the recipe). But for a grown-up occasion, or just a run of the mill weekend dessert, you cannot go wrong with this cake.

I wondered how much you would be able to taste the dulce de leche after it was baked into the cake; the answer is you can definitely taste it, but in a mellowed out way. It is there, but unlike pure dulce de leche, it does not wollop you over the head with its intense caramelized sweetness. The bites with the swirled in dulce de leche are, of course, more intense. Those swirls also caused the cake to stick in places, so it is a toss up as to how I feel about the swirled part. Use a lot of baking spray is my best advice, I guess.

You will notice some comments in the recipe indicating I am not sure how large of a cake pan to use. This is because whoever copied the recipe for the website (where I got the recipe) clearly had a typo because they claimed you should use a 6 cup or small bundt pan. Well I doubled the recipe and ended up with 2 10-cup bundt cakes and 2 mini loaves. So I am not positive the recipe makes enough for a 12 cup bundt pan, although I suspect it might, and so I have written the recipe for a 10 cup bundt pan with extra batter. Plus we all know the 10 cup pans are the prettiest!

Dulce De Leche Pound Cake
Adapted from RecipeGoldMine, Marcy Goldman

14 oz dulce de leche
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
4 eggs
2 t vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk or sour cream (I used whole fat buttermilk)
1 T baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
heaping 1/2 t salt
3 cups AP flour

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F. Generously spray a 10 cup bundt pan (have some mini loaf pans handy in case you have extra batter--this recipe may or may not have been intended for a 12 cup bundt pan--if you linked to the recipe you will notice it claims a 6 cup bundt pan which is definitely not right) with nonstick spray. Set aside.

Reserve approximately 1/4 cup of the dulce de leche in a microwavable container and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, and the salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter on medium low speed until smooth. Add the brown sugar and cream again, then add the bulk of the dulce de leche (all but the 1/4 cup). Cream until it is smooth; scrape down the sides as necessary. Add the eggs, one at a time, blending after each one. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add the vanilla and blend it in. On the lowest speed, add the flour mixture and the buttermilk or sour cream, alternating, in 3 additions for the flour and 2 additions for the liquid. Blend until smooth--finish by hand, scraping along the sides and bottom of the bowl. Pour the batter 3/4 of the way up the pan (i.e., leave room for some batter on top). Heat up the reserved 1/4 cup dulce de leche so that it pours easily. Drizzle the reserved dulce de leche onto the cake batter in the pan. Spoon the remaining batter into the pan (until it is full--do not overfill it; use mini loaves for extra batter). Place in the oven with a cookie sheet on the rack under it to catch any drips.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a cake tester comes out clean of batter (although it may have dulce de leche on it, so the pulling away from the sides of the pan is the better test in this case). Cool for 15 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Dulce de Leche Swirled Marshmallows

2010-09-22T17:59:00.000-04:00

I do lead an interesting life, don't I? That's 3 surgeries since the start of this blog and 11 total over my lifetime. The good news--in addition to the fact that I got the infected appendix 12 hours before it ruptured (that's an approximate guess by the doctor), is that having removed now 2 organs this calendar year, my deductible has been long since met and this one was free.

Sheesh.

I am not 100% yet, but marshmallows don't require much, so I made one more batch of those Dulce de Leche marshmallows I've been working on--and finally had a recipe I was happy with. Actually, I should say a process I was happy with, because after fiddling, it became clear the original recipe by Eileen Talanian was perfect, but the pan needed to be prepped differently. When I made the marshmallows as written they stuck in horrible clumps. It was without a doubt the most delectable, gooey mess ever. Not serve-able, but rather the kind of mess you use a spoon to eat within the privacy of your own home. I added powdered sugar and corn starch to the pan prep, and voila! Perfect marshmallows. So much for all the other tweaking I tried.

These marshmallows are without a doubt the best eating marshmallow I have made. My dirty little secret is that except for melting in hot chocolate, I am not the biggest marshmallow fan in the world. Unlike with, say, chocolate chip cookies, I can usually stop after one. Not these. I barely ate them because every time I pick them up I pick up more than one. And more than 2--and at least once way more than that (gulp). You might think they would be too sweet, but nope, as long as you like dulce de leche in the first place, they are perfect. Within my family, some prefer the cappuccino marshmallows --but my mom, John and I all prefer these Dulce de Leche ones. As far as anyone told me, John's class really liked them too--who else was going to eat all those experiments?

Talanian believes in using a homemade marshmallow syrup instead of light corn syrup. While I have never noticed any problems with the marshmallows I've made with light corn syrup, I have used the homemade marshmallow syrup for Talanian's recipes. If you do not want to make it, just substitute light corn syrup.

Dulce de Leche Swirled Marshmallows
Closely adapted from Marshmallows: Homemade Gourmet Treats, Eileen Talanian

1/2 cup + 2 T cold water
1 1/2 T vanilla
3 T (4 Knox packages) unflavored gelatin

3/4 cup water
1 1/4 marshmallow syrup (see below)
several pinches of salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup dulce de leche
marshmallow coating (see below)

Lightly spray the bottom and sides of a 9X13X2 or 11X15X1 pan, and then wipe the pan out, leaving only a very thin film of oil. Using a sifter, layer the bottom of the pan with a fairly thick layer of marshmallow coating. Let it hit the sides and corners of the pan as much as possible. Set aside.

Measure your 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water and vanilla. Dump the gelatin into your mixer bowl and set the liquid beside them.

Place the remaining water, marshmallow syrup, salt and sugar into a heavy 4 qt pan--in that order. Stir twice. Bring to a boil over medium high heat; while waiting, dump the other liquid into the gelatin and whisk it together. Set the mixer bowl in the mixer and attach the whip.

When the syrup boils, place a lid over it for 2 minutes to prevent crystals. Then remove the lid and increase the heat to high. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan. Heat the boiling sugar mixture to 250 F; do not stir.

When it reaches 250 F, remove the thermometer and turn off the heat. Moving quickly but very carefully, pour the syrup into the mixer bowl with the mixer running on low speed. Slowly increase the speed to high and place a towel over the mixer to prevent being hit by splattering liquid. Whip on high for 10 minutes.

While the marshmallow fluff is whipping, measure out the dulce de leche and place it in the microwave. Heat it for around 2 minutes on 40% power, until the caramel is easily whisked. You want to be able to pour it in a thin stream as opposed to dumping it all in a pile.

When the mixer has been running for 10 minutes, lower your bowl (I like to do this with the mixer running as it helps remove some of the fluff from the whip attachment). Have a large spatula ready. Turn off the mixer--working quickly now--and remove the whip attachment, knocking as much fluff as possible back into the bowl (do not get too hung up on this, you are going to lose some fluff no matter what). Using the spatula, scrape half of the fluff into the prepared pan and smooth it as evenly as possible (it will wiggle around in the pan and you may not get exactly half, just go with it). Pour half of the dulce de leche in drizzles into the pan. Using a table knife, swirl the caramel into the fluff. Then scrape the remainder of the fluff into pan, once again smoothing it as evenly as possible (if necessary, one trick is to use wet hands). Drizzle the remainder of the dulce de leche all over the top of the fluff, and once again swirl it with a table knife. This marshmallow needs to set longer than some--find an out of the way place and let it set for at least 8 hours. Talanian says overnight--if it is humid, I would let it go 10 hours if possible.

When the marshmallows have set, use a table knife to gently loosen the marshmallow cake from the sides of the pan. Sprinkle your marshmallow coating over a cutting board--I like a large wooden one. Using your fingers (you're going to get messy, just have clean hands and accept it) or a flexible turner, loosen the marshmallow cake from the bottom of the pan. Once you are certain it is loose, use both hands to gently remove the cake and place it on the prepared cutting board. Using a chef's knife, slice the marshmallows into squares. You may need to occasionally clean your knife or dredge it in the coating powder. Roll each marshmallow in the coating powder before storing, in a single layer, for up to a week.

Homemade Marshmallow Syrup
Marshmallows: Homemade Gourmet Treats, Eileen Talanian

2 cups water
5 1/3 cups granulated cane sugar
1 t cream of tartar
pinch of salt

Place all of the ingredients into a 4 qt heavy pan (the recipe may be doubled or even tripled, but use a bigger pan in that case). Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cover with a lid for 2 minutes, in order to let the steam wash any crystals from the sides of the pan. Then remove the lid and insert a candy thermometer into the pan. Boil, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 140 F. Remove from the heat and let the syrup cool, without stirring or jostling, for 15 minutes. Ladle into clean jars and attach a lid. Talanian says you can store for up to 2 months, but I stored for up to 6 months without a problem (marshmallow making does not tend to be a summertime activity for me and I had some leftover last spring).

Ignore any crystals that form at the bottom of the jar. The syrup will be very thick--heat gently in a pan of hot water or in the microwave before pouring for recipes. If using the syrup immediately, remember that it is warm and will cause your marshmallows liquid to boil faster.

Marshmallow Coating
Marshmallows: Homemade Gourmet Treats, Eileen Talanian

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch

Whisk the ingredients together. Use for layering in the pan or to roll the set marshmallows in.

Molasses Ginger Granola Bars

2010-09-16T19:24:00.001-04:00

Well I still don't have the marshmallows to share. I want to tweak just a few last things--for a 4th batch (most of the 3rd was enjoyed by John's students lest you think we have turned into marshmallows around here). It's a hard job, making all these marshmallows, but someone has to do it.

In the meantime I do have the promised granola bar recipe. This is actually a twofer--it is a basic granola bar blueprint; it is amazing--so easy, so perfect. And it is also a specific, unusual granola bar that I came up with. Not rocket science, but worth sharing nonetheless. Or I think so at least.

Anything granola is a great baking project for kids to help with. There are no raw eggs to worry about, the order that ingredients are mixed in rarely matters, and nothing can be over-mixed. Just put it in a deep bowl so they cannot spill anything--and expect some boredom while you are setting up, as evidenced by Alex on the right up there.

The granola bar blueprint is from Smitten Kitchen. She does such an awesome job explaining it, with its myriad of options, that I am not going to re-type it. I will mention one thing I do differently from her--she says that oat flour plus quick cooking rolled oats are the key and specifically warns against old fashioned rolled oats. All I keep is old fashioned rolled oats, so I use 2 heaping cups of old fashioned rolled oats and I pulse them in a food processor about 15 times, to end up with a blend of chopped up oats and oat flour. It has worked perfectly, and requires less work for those of you, like me, who only buy old fashioned rolled oats. The picture above shows the un-processed rolled oats; the picture below shows how they look after I have processed them.

I got the idea for these granola bars after making several batches of peanut butter based granola bars and getting bored. They were awesome, but I have been baking for Alex's kindergarten class, and I figured I needed some variety in my treats. I started wondering if my mother's gingersnaps could be turned into a granola bar--replace the white flour with oats, seeds, grains, nuts, etc, but keep the flavoring the same. (I will mention that none of my granola bars have nuts currently because we know too many kids with nut allergies; feel free to sub nuts into this recipe and see the Smitten Kitchen link for some guidance.) It only took 2 batches to get it right, proving once again how flexible and well written the original recipe is. The only word of warning I have from my initial fail (which was a tasty fail) is to not overload your bars with oily ingredients, such as wheat germ and ground flaxseed--especially the ground flaxseed. The bars were too wet and did not hold together well when I had a lot of those kind of ingredients.

(**I got this far in writing this post when I had an emergency appendectomy. So enjoy the recipe and expect more posts for me when I am back to cooking.**)

Molasses Ginger Granola Bars
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 heaping cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 T ground flaxseed
2 T wheat germ
2 T chia seeds
3 T oat or wheat bran (I used oat)
1/2 cup finely diced candied ginger
1 1/2 cups puffed grains of choice (I used millet and Kashi 7 Grain cereal)
1/2 - 3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 T molasses (not light)
1 T light syrup of choice (honey, agave, light corn syrup--I used light agave)
2 T light corn syrup
4 T unsalted butter
2 T shortening (I used Earth Balance--but if butter feels healthier to you just use all butter)
1/2 t salt
1 t ground cloves
1 t ground ginger
1 heaping t ground cinnamon (cassia)
sparkling sugar for topping the bars (I forgot this but would do next time)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly spray a 9X9 cake pan. Line it with parchment paper and then lightly spray that paper. Set aside.

Toss together the first 8 ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside.

Melt the butter and shortening and pour into a large measuring glass with the molasses, light corn syrup, and the syrup of choice. Whisk these together with the salt and spices. Pour this mixture over the dry ingredients and toss until the dry ingredients have all been evenly moistened.

Dump the mixture into the prepared pan. Use another square of parchment paper to push the granola evenly into the pan, making sure to get it into the corners, pat it down evenly, and also to press it down quite firmly. Sprinkle the top with sparkling sugar. Bake it at 350 F (I actually prefer convection 325 F if you have it) for 30-40 minutes, until the granola has browned, especially around the edges but also some on top. The middle may still be bubbling when you remove it, but it will set. Let it cool completely in the pan before removing the bars (use the parchment paper) and slicing with a sharp chef's knife. Store in an airtight container.

Stir Fried Tamarind Shrimp

2010-09-12T22:50:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to figure out why my blogging has slowed down lately, when I realized that I did the majority of my writing late at night--the same as I did all the way through high school, college and law school. Only now I have to get a kid to school by 8:45 am--and while I realize this may sound really late to some of you morning people (and believe me I do appreciate the later start time), getting up at 7:30 am every weekday is a shock to my system. It is 10:31 pm right now, and I am actually half asleep as I write this. So I apologize for the slower posts--and any typos--but believe me, I am still cooking and baking, and I am planning to share the successful recipes.

I whipped--and I do mean whipped--this up last week when my mother in law was visiting. I took advantage of her great grandma skills and left the kids with her and collapsed into a 2 hour nap (yikes), rolled out of bed at 4:15 pm, stared blankly at the recipe in a fog for a good 10 minutes or so, and had this on the table by 5:20. By my standards that's whipping--especially because I don't buy any ingredients pre-chopped, etc. And you could make the sauce in advance if you needed to spend even less time in the kitchen.

This is adapted from a Rebar recipe that was intended for tofu and does not use fish sauce. The sauce did not taste right to me until I added fish sauce--but if you always sub soy sauce for fish sauce I doubt you will have any problems with it. I used shrimp because it was simpler--and because my mother in law loves shrimp. It matched the dish perfectly, and we were very happy with the results. The leftovers were gone by lunch the next day.

Stir Fried Tamarind Shrimp
Adapted from Rebar Modern Food Cookbook, Audrey Alsterberg and Wanda Urbandowicz

Tamarind Sauce:
2 T tamarind concentrate
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
2 T light soy sauce or fish sauce (I would use fish sauce next time)
2 T minced ginger
2 T minced garlic
2 T fresh lime juice
sambal oelek to taste, optional (I left out and served on the side)
2-4 T brown sugar, to taste
1 T cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cold water

The Stir Fry:
1 head of cauliflower, broken into small pieces and blanched just until tender
1-2 T vegetable oil
2 large shallots, sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups chopped napa cabbage
4 small-medium ripe tomatoes, sliced into quarters
1 1/2 lbs medium sized shrimp
1/2 cup roasted cashews (salted is fine)
3/4 cup tamarind sauce, to taste (see above)
1/4 cup Thai basil
2 T chopped cilantro

Combine all of the tamarind sauce ingredients expect the cornstarch in a small saucepan. Whisk over medium heat and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cornstarch dissolved in water and whisk. Return to a simmer, and simmer until thickened, stirring occasionally. Set aside or refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok over high heat. Add the shallots and garlic and stir fry until golden and fragrant. Add the napa cabbage and stir fry until it has wilted some but it still bright green. Add the cauliflower and toss it in. Add the shrimp and toss it into the cabbage--because of all of the cabbage and cauliflower, it will take longer than usual to cook. Toss until it is starting to turn pink, and add the tomatoes, cashews and the sauce. Toss until the shrimp is cooked through; add more sauce if you like it wetter. Mix in the fresh herbs and serve over jasmine rice.

Bengali Mahi Mahi with Mustard Seeds

2010-09-08T19:50:00.000-04:00

You've probably noticed the dearth of desserts around The Spiced Life lately. That is partially because we've made some tried and true favorites lately, but it is also because I have 2 different recipes that I am determined to not share until I get them right! One is an unusual granola bar, and the other, pictured below in its first incarnation, is a Dulce de Leche Marshmallow--and if that does not keeping you coming back I don't know what will!

In the meantime, this fabulously simple, quick and delicious fish dish ought to keep you satisfied. It was a big hit with everyone--even as a leftovers-for-lunch with my mother in law (it always makes me nervous serving fish leftover--and she was not here for the dinner). According to MacMillan, West Bengal in India is famous for its fish curries made with mustard seeds and mustard oil. Mustard oil is controversial here in the States (used by Indians everywhere, it is actually not approved for culinary use by the FDA), and I have not yet gathered the nerve to serve it to my kids. MacMillan suggests using crushed mustard seeds as a substitute--and because I adore mustard seeds in Indian cooking, I added the whole seeds as well. The mahi mahi is a great choice for baking this way, as it does not break down at all and retains a firm texture. This is a definite repeater.

Bengali Mahi Mahi with Mustard Seeds
Adapted from Curried Flavors, Maya Kaimal MacMillan

2 lbs mahi mahi fillets (can substitute any other firm, white fleshed fish)
1/4 t paprika or cayenne
1/4 t turmeric
1 t salt
1 T fresh lime juice (lemon is ok too)
3 1/2 T vegetable oil, divided
2 medium onions, finely diced
1 heaping T minced garlic
1 t mustard seeds
1/2 T coarsely crushed mustard seeds
1 heaping cup chopped fresh tomatoes
1 t ground coriander
1 t ground cumin
1/4 t turmeric
1/4 t paprika or cayenne
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground cardamom
3 T chopped cilantro
salt to taste
1/2 plain greek yogurt, low fat or whole fat

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 9X13 casserole dish.

Cut fish into 2-inch wide strips. Pat dry and then place in a Ziploc bag. Whisk together the 1/4 teaspoon cayenne/paprika, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, the lime juice and 1 tablespoon of the oil. Pour into the Ziploc bag and rub all over the fish sticks.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium high heat with 1/2 tablespoon of oil in it. When it is shimmering, add the fish sticks and lightly brown on each side, about 2minutes each side. Do it in 2 batches if necessary. Remove the fish and set it aside. Wipe the pan out.

Reheat the pan over medium high heat with 2 tablespoons of oil in it. Add the mustard seeds (whole). Fry until they pop--you may want to shield the pan with a piece of foil or lid. When they are done popping, add the onion with a pinch of salt and fry until lightly caramelized. Add the garlic and the crushed mustard seeds and fry for another minute. Add the tomatoes with the rest of the spices and a pinch of salt and fry until the tomatoes become very soft and break up (10-15 minutes). Stir occasionally. Add the cilantro with a another pinch of salt and continue cooking until the mixture becomes a wet paste.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir the yogurt in. Arrange the fish in a single layer in the prepared casserole dish and pour the sauce over it. Cover tightly with foil and bake until the fish flake opaque, about 20 minutes. Although we served this with rice, I think it could easily be served on its own with other sides as well.

Comfort Kheema

2010-09-05T19:35:00.001-04:00

First, some housekeeping: last winter I was contacted by a representative from Meijer about trying some of their products. Meijer at the time was my favorite local grocery store--ever since the Kroger's has been renovated, I would call Meijer the most economical and the best one stop shopping, but the renovated Kroger's outshines it some areas now (and is genuinely closer), so it depends on how much time I have and what I need. For example, we did all of Alex's ballet and school supply shopping at Meijer. At any rate, all that craziness then happened with my gall bladder so I was not shopping much at all for a while, and then summer came, and, well, it was a crazy summer. Fun, but crazy. Fast-forward to now, when I finally got around to using the gift card they sent me. First, I want to say if you are looking for baking items (bakeware, cookie cutters, cake decorating pieces) and you live in the middle of nowhere, i.e., nowhere near a real cake store, Meijer is actually a good option. I have gotten very competitively priced cookie cutters and Sil-Pats there as well as Nordic Ware bundt pans and cooking thermometers. I also took the opportunity to try the Meijer Organics Honey Graham Bears, which were perfectly acceptable (that is something I buy for the kids) and the Meijer Naturals Chocolate Chip Cookies--which were an extremely pleasant surprise. Made with butter, they actually rivaled the Pepperidge Farm chocolate chunk cookies, which are my go-to cookie when I am craving that crunchy chocolate chip cookie flavor. I know where I am sending John next time I start craving cookies when I am sick and not up to baking!

About this recipe, now: I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who is married to an Indian man, and she mentioned that he referred to rice/legume pilafs as Indian comfort food. I told her that for me Indian comfort food is kheema (also spelled keema). For one thing it is exceptionally easy, easier than a pilaf by far as it only uses one pot and the pilaf usually cooks the legumes separately. It is also predictable--I have tried many variations and while I have liked some better than others, I have enjoyed them all, as has my family. It is also great "gateway" food for adults or children who are uncertain about Indian food because in many ways (but not exactly flavor) it resembles a spaghetti meat sauce. There is just something comforting and easy about them--I can make them without a recipe at this point.

However, this one is from a recipe, because I never tire of being inspired by recipes, especially those produced by someone from a culture that is not my own. So far my favorite 2 kheemas are this one I am about to share and the kheema with greens I made earlier this summer.

Kheema
Adapted from Curried Flavors, Maya Kaimal MacMillan

*I almost always double kheema recipes, first because we love them, but second, and more important, because (for health reasons) I like to use a combination of ground turkey and ground beef--and they don't come in small enough packages to do that with a single recipe. The recipe below is a "single" recipe.

2 medium red onions, thinly sliced
2-4 T vegetable oil
1 1/2 T minced garlic
1 1/2 T minced ginger
1 1/2 lbs ground meat of choice (lamb and beef are great--poultry mixes well to make it healthier with either; lean is preferred but I use local beef so it is what it is)
2 T ground coriander
2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground cayenne or paprika
1/4 t ground black pepper
1/4 t ground turmeric
3/4 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1-2 small hot chile peppers, split in half (I left out)
salt to taste
2 medium boiling potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 heaping cup chopped tomatoes, preferably fresh and ripe but can use canned, either way drain them in colander first
1 cup water
1 heaping cup frozen peas
lemon juice to taste

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion with a pinch of salt, and fry, stirring, until the edges are nicely browned and it is beginning to caramelize. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another 2 minutes--the onions should continue browning. Add another pinch of salt and stir.

Add the ground meat and break it up and stir it into the onions. Add a pinch of salt. Stir fry the meat until it browns.

Add the spices to the meat and stir them in. Add the chile peppers at this point if using, and add another pinch of salt. Add the potatoes, tomatoes and water and stir. bring to a boil and reduce heat, partially covers, to simmer for 30 minutes. Check if the potatoes are tender and if the mixture is too dry or wet at this point. If too dry, add a little more water, if too wet, simmer more briskly--and either way continue simmering if the potatoes are not done (cover the pan completely if the moisture balance is perfect though--it should be moist but not watery). When the potatoes are tender but still holding together, add the peas and simmer for 5 more minutes. Taste for salt and add a squirt of lemon juice. Serve with basmati rice and Greek yogurt with your chutney of choice (I used a locally made plum chutney). I also serve with red pepper flakes and/or cayenne pepper to increase the heat for those who want it.

Kishmish Waale Thane Ki Dal (Sweet Hot Yellow Split Peas with Golden Raisins)

2010-09-03T15:15:00.000-04:00

So, my mother came to visit and actually requested Indian food. I had made a quick Indian potatoes, peas and cauliflower dish in Nags Head which she liked--apparently a lot. Once my head had stopped spinning, I started thinking about what I could make for lunch, since my dinner was already planned. The fact that the dish was being made for lunch put me at a disadvantage, especially because we did not have any potatoes or cauliflower. I did not want to defrost any meat for lunch, so I knew I was thinking about legumes, specifically dals. On the plus side, if she hated it I figured she could make herself a grilled cheese.

My mother hates lentils. Or thinks she does anyway--since I learned to cook Indian food I am more aware than ever of just how many lentil options there are (whole, split, skinned, skinned and split, never mind the actual different kinds). But she likes split peas, so I started looking at yellow split pea recipes, with just a handful or so "red lentils" (which are skinned and split brown lentils--see what I mean?) to bind the soup. Red lentils (masoor dal) work exceptionally well for this because they disintegrate completely upon cooking, causing the broth to thicken. And, as it turned out, my mother could not taste the lentils, confirming my suspicions just a bit.

This dal needs to be cooked more slowly than I gave it time for. It was superb the next day and the next day after that, but when I served it to my mom I felt it needed yogurt and tamarind thicken it and punch it up (I still used the yogurt and tamarind for the leftovers; they just did not feel as necessary). My husband loved this--he stole at least half of the leftovers from me. My mom liked it. She admitted it tasted very foreign to her, and said that while she would probably not request it, she would eat it without complaining--which she did, by the way. (I should also add I asked for her honest reaction). It may be that we will make a fan of Indian food out of my mother yet!

I made a few subtle changes to this dal, leaving me to wonder if it still qualifies as Kishmish Waale Thane Ki Dal, but unless one of my Indian blogger friends wants to pipe up with an answer, I have no idea!

Kishmish Waale Thane Ki Dal (Sweet Hot Yellow Split Peas with Golden Raisins)
Adapted from 660 Curries, Raghavan Iyer

1 cup yellow split peas
1/4 cup red lentils
1/2 t ground turmeric

2 T ghee
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
2/3 cup golden raisins
3 fresh or dried bay leaves
salt to taste

1 T ghee
1 t dark mustard seeds
1 t cumin seeds
1 t black cumin seeds
2 T minced ginger
2 T minced garlic
1 large or 4 small tomatoes, cored and finely chopped
up to 6 fresh green chile peppers (such as Thai), sliced into 1/2-inch rings with seeds (I left these out and let people make it hot at the table)
salt to taste
1/2 t garam masala
brown sugar for serving, optional
lemon juice for serving, optional
1/4 chopped fresh cilantro

Rinse the dried legumes thoroughly, and then place them in a medium sized saucepan. Add 3 cups of water with the turmeric and bring to a boil. Boil for about 3 minutes, skimming foam off of the surface. The reduce the heat to simmer. Keep an eye on them for tenderness while preparing everything else.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the ghee in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the onions with a pinch of salt and cook until translucent. Add the raisins and bay leaves and continue cooking until the onions are caramelized light brown. Transfer this mixture to a bowl and set aside. Wipe out the skillet.

Reheat the skillet with 1 tablespoon of ghee over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and cover the pan with foil. When the mustard seeds slow down popping, add both kinds of cumin seeds and cook for about 15 seconds, stirring. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until golden and fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, fresh chile pepper (if using), garam masala and some salt. Stir to deglaze the skillet.

When the split peas are tender and the lentil have fallen apart, add the tomato mixture to the legumes. Also add a pinch of salt, to taste. Let the dal continue to simmer for another 15 minutes--the split peas will fall apart even more and the flavors will absorb. Before serving, mix in the onions (or serve the onion mixture on top, your choice). Mix in the cilantro. Taste for lemon juice, brown sugar or salt. We loved this with yogurt and tamarind chutney.

Penne with Crimini Mushrooms, Sausage, White Beans & Escarole

2010-08-31T20:35:00.001-04:00

Alex has started kindergarten.

Amazingly, I can say it and even think about it without much sadness. I've done a lot of thinking about why. Am I a callous mom? Shouldn't I have cried when I dropped her off? Don't I miss her? Well I miss her a ton, but I think it comes down to how incredibly excited I am for her. Yes I was that kid--I LOVED school, and so now I am living vicariously through my children. Call me a dork, but I have already baked treats for her class.

But anyway, that first day, when it was back to being just me and Sammy and yet in a whole new way, a wow this won't just be 2 days a week anymore way, I asked Sammy if she wanted to help me plan dinner. And before I forget, on the topic of involving your kids in cooking, be sure to check out my guest post at What's Cooking Blog, where I detail our exciting experience beheading shrimp together. Seriously. Anyway, so I asked Sammy what she wanted and she told me noodles. And this is what came of it. It's somewhat out of my comfort zone, and I found, to my surprise, that I rather liked it. So did the rest of the family, although the kids predictably avoided the escarole a little.

Penne with Crimini Mushrooms, Sausage, White Beans & Escarole
Inspired by Ellie Krieger, The Food You Crave

1 cup dried white beans
1 small onion, chopped4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T extra virgin olive oil
8 oz dried penne noodles
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 small-medium onion, slice
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t red pepper flakes
2 cups sliced crimini mushrooms
2 links sausage of choice (I used a portobello chicken sausage), sliced into half-moons
1/2 cup white wine
1 T chopped fresh sage
1 medium head of escarole, chopped
shredded Asiago cheese for garnish

Begin by making the beans. If you prefer to use canned beans, I recommend having chicken stock on hand, but I used bean broth to make this dish. Place the beans, 1 small onion (chopped), 4 minced cloves of garlic and 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a pot. Cover the beans by 2 inches with water. Bring to a rolling boil for 5 minutes, and then cover and simmer until the beans are tender. When they are nearly tender, add salt to taste and continue cooking until done. Set aside.

Cook the penne in a pot of salted boiling water until slightly less done than your desired doneness (they will continue cooking in the drainer and then cook further when mixed into the dish). Drain and set aside.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a large nonstick pan on medium high heat. When it shimmers, add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until golden and fragrant, about 1 minute. Then add the onion with a pinch of salt and cook until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until they have given off their liquid. Add the sausage and brown. Deglaze the pan with the white wine--cook until all of the liquid has evaporated.

Add the white beans with about 1 1/2 cups of their broth and the chopped sage. Add the escarole and cover the pan for 2 minutes. Then toss the dish, distributing all of the ingredients evenly. Salt and pepper to taste. When the escarole has cooked down to your desired taste, add the pasta and toss it in. Loosen with more bean broth or chicken stock if necessary. Top with shredded Asiago cheese before serving.