Artful Food

Pain Aux Raisins

2012-01-05T21:48:00.000-08:00

Jasmine Ice Cream

2012-01-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

WARNING. This ice cream is delicious!

Jasmine Ice Cream

20g jasmine tea leaves
1.25 c cream
0.75 c milk
4 yolks
1/8 tsp kosher salt
90 g sugar

Measure milk and cream into a 1-quart Pyrex measuring cup. Pour 1 cup of the mixture into a small heavy bottom saucepan with half of the sugar and set it over medium heat until it reaches 120 F or just steaming, whisking occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat and pour into a glass measuring cup containing the tea leaves. Steep for 3 minutes and strain the milk back into the sauce pan over medium heat, heating it until just boiling. Meanwhile, wash and dry the fine mesh strainer and set it over the Pyrex measuring cup containing the reserved cup of cold milk and cream. Whisk yolks with remaining sugar until pale yellow and sugar is dissolved. Splash a little hot milk into the yolks and whisk immediately; stream in the rest of the milk while whisking, and return the mixture to the saucepan over medium low heat, whisking constantly until mixture reaches 180 F. Strain immediately into the cold milk and cream; whisk to blend. Add salt to taste and whisk well to dissolve the salt. Cover with plastic wrap and cool overnight in the fridge; churn the next morning, after breakfast, when you can eat ice cream from the machine.

Bourbon Ice Cream

2012-01-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

Raspberry Macarons and Cake Pops

2012-01-03T22:23:00.000-08:00

Look at that reflection in the table! How adorbs is he?

Macarons, like you and me, are unique. One of these raspberry macs went surfing in the California sun and the other sat at home snacking in front of Food Network. Both, however, were delicious in their own way.

Some macarons are too sweet, but these combine the complex bittersweetness of quality dark chocolate and the bright floral tang of raspberries. We found freeze dried raspberries at Trader Joe’s; if you cannot get your hands on these, you can try freeze dried strawberries or concentrated raspberry jam or coulis in the ganache and omit the raspberries from the shells.

Chocolate raspberry ganache (fills 20 macarons)
100g dark chocolate, finely chopped
100g heavy cream
30g butter, room temp
10g raspberry powder (ground freeze dried raspberries)

Shells (makes 36-40 shells)
90 g almond flour
120 g confectioner's sugar
35 g granulated sugar
70 g egg white (2 large whites)
2 g raspberry powder, plus more for dusting

For ganache: Heat cream in microwave until just about to boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk slowly until smooth. Add butter and raspberry powder, and whisk til smooth. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate til just stiff enough to pipe.

For shells: Pulse almond flour, confectioner's sugar, and raspberry powder in food processor until very finely ground. Sift the powder with a medium-mesh sieve, discarding the almond bits and raspberry seeds that don’t fit through; whisk to blend. With oil-free beaters and a clean metal bowl, whisk egg whites until white and frothy, and add granulated sugar 1 tablespoon at a time while whisking on medium high speed until egg whites have stiff peaks. Fold 1/2 of the dry ingredients into the meringue until just incorporated. Add the remaining dry ingredients and fold 15-20 times to make a lava-like batter. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe 1.25-inch circles onto a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Rap them a few times to wake up the neighbors, remove air pockets, and flatten any stubborn bumps. With a fine mesh sieve, dust the tops with raspberry powder. Let rest until dry to the touch (about 45 minutes, longer on rainy days). Preheat oven to 300F with the oven rack on the lower third. Bake macaron shells on the lower third of the oven for 18-20 minutes, until the center ones don't wobble when nudged. Remove Silpat onto the table and allow shells to cool 30 minutes before removing.

Assembly: Match them based on size and fill with ganache. Refrigerate or freeze immediately and allow them to get happy overnight. Allow to rest at room temp (30 minutes if from the fridge, 2 hours if from freezer) before enjoying.

It appears that cake pops are harder than macarons to make. These are the only two that did not fall apart and end up on the table. We suspect it's because we used homemade cream cheese frosting to make the cake balls, and this may have been less sticky than the trans-fat laden Betty Crocker frosting that the recipe called for. Or maybe we're just nooby when it comes to cake pops. The latter is highly probable. :D

Carrot Cake with Mascarpone Frosting

2011-12-29T21:01:00.000-08:00

Carrot cake is a classic. You mess with carrot cake, you go to jail.

Woahhhh Nelly, hold your horses! (neigghhhh...!) Hate to break it to ya but you're wrong! You CAN mess, but you gotta do it legitly. Every legit carrot cake needs to have real carrots, walnuts or pecans (we used both because we couldn't decide), cream cheese frosting, and those cheesy little carrots piped around the top. Whether or not you throw in crushed pineapple, coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, buttermilk, chopped ginger or raisins is up to you, and will allow you to determine who your real friends are.

We adapted this beauty from Sam's famous carrot cake on Allrecipes, and paired it with mascarpone cream cheese frosting. The mascarpone balances the tang of the cream cheese and adds a nutty sweetness. We don't like tooth-achingly sweet frosting. Paula once put SIX cups of powdered sugar to one stick of butter and one 8-oz brick of cream cheese. Don't know about y'all, but we ain't wearin' dentures/have Deen Family Sugar Tolerance. So we reduced the sugar in both the cake and the frosting, and it's still plenty sweet and scrumptious.

Sam told us to use 8 oz of crushed pineapple with juice, but we think that the juice made the cake a little too sticky; we wanted a fluffier, lighter cake, so we suggest draining the pineapple of excess juice. Also, we substituted some of the white sugar for brown sugar, but this may have also made the cake slightly denser and moister (akin to a sticky toffee date pudding, which some may prefer); maybe all white sugar is the way to go. Also, let the cake cool completely before wrapping in plastic wrap to prevent condensation. We think raisins don't go with carrot cake as well as crystallized ginger does - ginger just fits so well in the cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg clique. But if you're not a ginger fan, fret not, we're sure you'll find other friends. In the meantime, make this cake!

Revised and Tested Recipe - the World's Best Carrot Cake
THIS CARROT CAKE IS DELICIOUSLY FRAGRANT AND MOIST thanks to the combination fo buttermilk, flaked coconut, and crushed pineapple. It is also not too sweet because we reduced the sugar from 2 cups to 1 ¼ cup and swapped out raisins for crystalized ginger, which perfectly matches the spiced cake. It contains less oil than most carrot cake recipes, allowing the delicate flavor of the carrots to shine and results in a cake that isn’t too greasy. The mascarpone adds a natural sweetness and lends complexity to an otherwise traditional cream cheese buttercream that is essential to carrot cake.

For the cake:
2 cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (270 g)
1 ¾ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/8 tsp allspice (optional)
3 large eggs (room temp)
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk (room temp)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups white sugar (reduced from 2 cups)
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups shredded carrots, about 4-5 large (370 g)
¾ cup unsweetened flaked coconut (75 g, optional)
3/4 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
140 g crushed pineapple, drained well
1/2 cup chopped candied ginger

For the mascarpone frosting:
19 Tbsp butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
16 oz cream cheese, cool
8 oz mascarpone cheese, cool

For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line with parchment circles two 8-inch round cake pans. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine eggs, buttermilk, oil, sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour mixture and mix well. In a medium bowl, combine shredded carrots, coconut, nuts, pineapple and candied ginger. Using a large wooden spoon or a very heavy whisk, add carrot mixture to batter and fold in well. Pour into prepared pans, and bake at 350 F (175 C) for 50 minutes. Press lightly in the center to check for spring and do the toothpick check (few crumbs cling to toothpick inserted in center). Cool cakes 15 minutes in the pans, remove and cool on wire rack for 5 hours until no longer warm. Wrap with plastic wrap and store at room temp overnight or in the fridge or freezer until ready to frost.

* we shredded 75% of the carrots by hand to produce an interesting texture and visible carrot pieces in the cake. We then processed the remaining unshreddable ends in the food processer until pretty finely ground, and added them to the cake to make 2 ½ cups total (370 g).

For mascarpone frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and powdered sugar on lowest speed until all of the sugar is incorporated. Increase speed to high and beat 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese 8oz at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition or until smooth and fluffy. Add mascarpone cheese and beat 1 more minute or until smooth, satiny, and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar to taste or if your frosting is too stiff. Remove some frosting and add food coloring to make carrots.

The Ultimate Banana Cream Pie

2011-12-27T22:08:00.001-08:00

Banana cream pie is already up to no good, so it wouldn't hurt to make it naughtier...

...by adding salted caramel and two types of shaved chocolate! But the food nerds think....

...there's STILL room for improvement. :D Updated, ultimate ultimate version coming in the near future. Stay tuned!

Christmas Desserts

2011-12-26T13:43:00.001-08:00

It's a good thing we don't normally have this much spare time on our hands. The problem with making desserts is that we have no choice but to taste test along the way, so we inevitably get caught on a sugar high, which fuels our maniacal desire to churn out more desserts...with scrumptious yet fattening consequences. Some wise guys retort: Oh that's so silly, why don't you just exercise some self control and not nibble along the way? Clearly, they've never found themselves in the possession of a mixing bowl or whisk covered in some vanilla-scented pastry cream or warm chocolate ganache...or a few raspberries or blueberries that just missed the Fruit Tart Train. In these situations, before anyone can stop them, greedy fingers kidnap an unsuspecting berry and mercilessly smear it in some cream and chocolate...and the berry is never heard from again. A somber moment indeed, but at the same time an unavoidable sacrifice integral to the Circle of Life. Naaaaaa...tsaben yaaaa...Babbalycheebabbo! There is more to eat than can ever be eaten...

***

Christmas Dessert Menu

Assortment of cookies

Strawberry Blueberry and Pineapple Mango Linzer Cookies, Chewy Ginger Cookies, Dark Chocolate Macarons, Jasmine Creme Fraiche Macarons, Pistachio White Chocolate Cranberry Icebox Cookies

Fruit Tart

Tartine Bakery's Pate Brisee, creme fraiche pastry cream, assorted fruit, mango pineapple jelly glaze

Chocolate Rose Cake

Ina's Chocolate cake, cream cheese mascarpone berry filling, strawberry swiss meringue buttercream

Apple Cranberry Pie

Tartine's flaky pate brise, granny smith apples, cranberries, turbinado sugar

***

Recipes

Strawberry Blueberry and Pineapple Mango Linzer Cookies (adapted from Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies)

Chewy Ginger Cookies (adapted from Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies)

Pistachio White Chocolate Cranberry Icebox Cookies (adapted from Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies)

Dark Chocolate and Jasmine Creme Fraiche Macarons (adapted from recipes courtesy of the impossible-to-please chef, Yanqiang Tan :D)

Chocolate ganache (makes 20 macarons)
110g dark chocolate (Scharffen Berger 72%), finely chopped
110g creme fraiche (too tangy against the acidic Sharffen Berger...I'd use cream next time!)
38g butter, room temp

Heat cream in microwave until just about to boil. Pour the hot cream over finely chopped chocolate. Whisk slowly to melt chocolate. Add butter and stir until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate until just stiff enough to pipe but not too hard; alternatively, refrigerate overnight and allow to sit at room temp for 5 hours before piping.

Jasmine ganache (makes 20 macarons)
95g white chocolate (valrhona) chopped fine
105g creme fraiche (goes well with white chocolate's sweetness!)
8g jasmine tea leaves

Microwave creme fraiche until just about to boil; add tea leaves and infuse for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, heat white chocolate on 15-second intervals in the microwave until just melted. Strain the hot cream into the melted white chocolate, whisk until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate until just stiff enough to pipe but not too hard; alternatively, refrigerate overnight and allow to sit at room temp for 5 hours before piping.

Shells (makes 36-40 shells)

90 g almond flour

120 g confectioner's sugar

30 g granulated sugar

70 g egg white (2 large whites)

2 g cocoa powder, plus more for dusting (omit this for the jasmine ones; we dusted green tea powder on top instead)

Sift almond flour, confectioner's sugar, and cocoa powder with a medium-mesh sieve and whisk to blend. With oil-free beaters and a clean metal bowl, whisk egg whites until white and frothy, and add granulated sugar 1 tablespoon at a time while whisking on medium high speed. Fold 1/2 of the dry ingredients into the meringue until just incorporated. Add the remaining dry ingredients and fold 15-20 times to make a lava-like batter. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe 2-inch circles onto a silpat-lined baking sheet. Rap them a few times to wake up the neighbors, remove air pockets, and flatten any stubborn bumps. With a fine mesh sieve, dust the tops with cocoa powder or green tea powder, depending on the flavor you want to make. Let rest for 45 minutes until dry to the touch, meanwhile preheating the oven to 300 F with rack on the lower third. Bake macaron shells on the lower third of the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the center ones don't wobble when nudged. Remove silpat onto the table and allow shells to cool 30 minutes before removing. Match them based on size and fill with ganache. Refrigerate or freeze immediately and allow them to get happy overnight. Allow to rest at room temp (30 minutes if from the fridge, 2 hours if from freezer) before enjoying.

Fruit Tart (inspired by Pastiche, Providence, RI)

The pastry cream can be made up to 48 hours in advance, but don’t fill the prebaked tart shell until 30 minutes or less before serving before serving. Once filled, the tart should be topped with fruit, glazed, and served within about 30 minutes (for best results). This recipe makes way more than a 9 inch tart. With the extra pastry cream and berries, make some baby tarts!

Pastry Cream
1 1/2 cup whole milk + 1/2 cup creme fraiche (can substitute 2 cups half and half)

1/2 cup granulated sugar
pinch table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean powder

5 large egg yolks, chalazae removed
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 4 pieces

Pate Brisee
1 1/2 Tsp Fine sea salt
2/3 Cup (150ml) Ice cold water
3 Cups + 2 Tbs (455g) All-purpose flour
1 Cup + 5 Tbs (300g) Chilled butter, cut into small cubes

Fruit and Glaze
assorted fruit, sliced 1/8 inch thin (raspberries, strawberries, mangoes, kiwi, blueberries, blackberries, persimmon)
1/2 cup pinapple mango jelly (can use apple or apricot jelly)

For the Pate Brisee: Place the flour and salt in a big bowl. Add the butter. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until you obtain a mixture ressembling coarse sand. Pour the water over the crumbly mixture. Stir and toss with the help of a knive until the dough starts to come together. Continue mixing (very gently) until you obtain a ball of dough which is not completely smooth. On a floured surface, divide pastry in two, shape into a 2.5cm (1-inch) thick disk and wrap in plastic film. Put in the fridge and let rest for about 2 hours or overnight. Roll out one of the disks on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of 0.3cm (1/8 inch thickness) and from the center toward the edge in all directions, without forgetting to lift and rotate the pastry a quarter turn every now and then. Once your pastry is a circle 1 1/2 inches larger than the tart pan, carefully transfer it to the buttered pan (folding in half, if necessary). Ease it into the bottom and sides of the pan and pressing into place. Trim the edge with a knife. Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork, line with baking paper and fill with pie weights or dry beans. Preheat the oven to 190° C (375° F). Bake blind until the surface of the dough looks dry and has no opaque areas left, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the paper as well as the weights/beans, then return the shell to the oven for an extra 2-5 minutes (if the center starts to rise, gently pierce with a knife. Let cool completely on a wire rack before filling.

For the Pastry Cream: Heat the whole milk+creme fraiche or half-and-half, 6 tablespoons sugar, salt and vanilla bean powder in medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until simmering, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl until they are thoroughly combined. Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and whisk until the sugar has begun to dissolve and the mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in the cornstarch until combined and the mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds. When the milk mixture reaches a full simmer, gradually whisk the simmering milk into the yolk mixture to temper. Return the mixture to the saucepan, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure every bit makes it into the saucepan. Return the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly (this is important, don’t stop stirring!), until 3 or 4 bubbles burst on surface and the mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds to one minute. Off the heat, whisk in the butter. Transfer the mixture to medium bowl, press plastic wrap directly on the surface, and refrigerate until the pastry cream is cold and set, at least 3 hours or up to 48 hours.

To Assemble and Glaze the Tart: When the tart shell is completely cool, spread cold pastry cream over the bottom, using an offset spatula or large spoon. At this point, you can press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream and refrigerate the filled shell for up to 30 minutes. Arrange the fruit on top of pastry cream from outside to inside. Bring the jelly to a boil in a microwave safe cup in the microwave. When boiling and completely melted, apply the jelly to the tart by dabbing and flicking it onto the fruit with a pastry brush; add 1 teaspoon water and return the jelly to a boil if it becomes too thick to drizzle. (The tart can be refrigerated, uncovered, up to 30 minutes.)

Chocolate Rose Cake

Ina's chocolate cake (baked in 3 8-inch round cake pans, made ahead and refrigerated tightly wrapped)

Strawberry swiss meringue buttercream (made right before assembly)

Cream cheese mascarpone berry filling (made right before assembly)

We made this on a whim, so the exact numbers may be off. We realized that we had gone from 12 sticks of butter to 1/2 a stick, so needed to improvise with this recipe a bit...and decided to add creme fraiche, which turned out to make the frosting exceptionally tasty.

1/2 stick of butter, room temp

1 cup powdered sugar

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup creme fraiche

blueberries, raspberris, strawberries, blackberries

Blend butter and powdered sugar with a pastry blender or fork. Using a handheld whisk, beat in the cream cheese and creme fraiche until smooth and whipped.

To Assemble the Cake: Place one of the three chocolate cake layers on a cardboard circle. Spread a generous third of the cream cheese mascarpone cream evenly onto the cake. Embed the cream layer with an assortment of berries, making sure the tops of the berries are even with the top of the cream. Place another cake on top, being careful to center it, and press lightly to anneal the layers. Repeat this process for the next layer of filling, topping with the third cake layer when finished. Put the remaining scant 1/3 of cream on the top of the cake and spread it down to the sides, smoothing it with an offset spatula to make a thin even crumb coat. Chill the cake in the fridge for 15 minutes if the kitchen is warm. If not, proceed with piping roses to entirely cover the tops and sides of the cake using the strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and a rose tip. Embed berries in between the roses. Store the cake in the fridge in a handmade cake box (get Annie to make one for you) until 2 hours before serving. Make sure you take the cake out at least 2 hours before serving so it can get happy at room temp and the buttercream will be melt-in-your-mouth creamy!

Apple Cranberry Pie

Martha's recipe

Green, Purple, and Orange Salad

2011-09-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

Gotta take advantage of the stone fruits while they're in season.

Green, Purple, and Orange Salad

mixed greens
sliced green bell pepper
sliced cucumber
feta cheese
plums
apple cider vinegar
olive oil

Mix up the veggies, fruit, and cheese and drizzle with olive oil and apple cider vinegar.

White Chocolate Mousse Fruit Jewel Cake

2011-08-28T13:46:00.000-07:00

Fluffy buttery vanilla cake filled with creamy white chocolate mousse and fresh grapes, frosted with crème chantilly and garnished with almonds, pistachio brittle, caramelized hazelnut powder, fresh figs, and grapes.

I'm usually a very modest person. But another one of my virtues as a human being is that I am honest. And it would be a violation of the moral fiber of my very soul to say that this little cake is not the most adorable little gem of a cake I had ever seen get created from my two hands. (I have submitted the previous sentence to the writers of the SAT for their writing improvement section). I simply adore natural decorations on a cake (translation - this person is too lazy/nooby to decorate cakes otherwise). Just look at the gorgeous villi-like innards of the figs contrasting with the shiny jet black skins, the little veins of the translucent grape flesh, and the organic shards of the nuts and iridescent caramel (mais non, I did not plagiarize from an anatomy text). I made the butter cake part ages ago and froze it. Then I split it in half - this was a genius maneuver because it enabled me to dodge my knack of mutilating soft cakes while sawing them into layers. I cheated on the white chocolate mousse too - it was made by pouring 1 cup hot cream on 2.5 oz of chopped white chocolate, stirring to melt, and then chilling the ganache and beating it til soft peaks formed.

Please let me redeem myself by telling you about the grapes. Those grapes were individually hand selected and peeled, cut in half, and seeds removed. The pistachio brittle and hazelnut caramel powder were made by pouring caramel over the nuts, letting it cool, and breaking it up. For the powder, I used the food processor to blast the brittle to smithereens. The outside of the cake is just lightly sweetened whipped cream (it sounds fancier when you call it crème chantilly), stabilized with "Whip-It." The almonds conveniently cover all the imperfections.

I learned a trick to making the cream smooth while frosting the outside! I don't actually think it's a trick...I'm pretty certain all legit cake decorators would roll their eyes upon hearing my profound discovery of dipping the spatula in a vat of hot water while smoothing the cream. Genius, huh?

Believe it or not, there are improvements I would make to this cake. The white chocolate mousse could be more legit. Although it was super simple to make, I thought the flavor was lacking in something. Maybe I would add some malted milk powder to it or use a mousse recipe with egg yolks. The crème chantilly, however, cannot be improved - kudos to whichever cow made that cream and the Hawaiian farmer who made that sugar. Oh, and I guess the matchmaker behind that happy marriage should get some credit too. I only used figs and grapes because all the other yummier fruits got eaten. If I could have my way, the cake would be filled with blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, would be 3 layers tall, and would be topped with mango, kiwi, strawberry, and blackberry slices. Kind of like a fruit tart. It would be gorgeous! But I shall stop right there because I think I hear some sniffling coming from the fridge, and you know I hate to hurt cakes' feelings. Perhaps we can console it by devouring another slice...

Chiffon Crazy

2011-08-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

Chardonnay Chiffon. I googled "wine chiffon recipe" to see if anyone had done it and how they did...but to no avail. So I just went with a regular chiffon formula, swapping the 1/2 cup of liquid for chardonnay. I got lucky! The cake was heavenly. If you've ever had fermented sweet rice (tian jiu), this cake kind of tastes like that. It is amazing and the texture is perfectly soft, springy, and micro-crumby!

Lightly sweetened and with a delicious wine taste. See the bottle of Chardonnay in the first picture? I had no idea if it was good or not; just discovered it suddenly chillin' among the expired apple cider and cheap reds on the wine rack. After using it in the cake, we had a whole bottle to finish, so we had some for dinner.

my mom: sip. makes a face. Hm. Maybe someone who actually knows wine would appreciate this. This could be very 高级 but I wouldn't know...it's kind of...not sweet enough.

Well, I googled Meridian. Let me just say, it's the best.

Cream cheese chiffon. Sorry the picture is quite hideous. I dub it Chiffon In the Headlights. There is a secret ingredient that makes the cream cheese really stand out. You know those bags of buttery milky happy little dinner rolls you get from Costco? Or just any milky buttery mini bun thing. Like Hawaiian milk butter rolls. Anyway, this cake tastes like that! I know, magical, right? Guess what the secret ingredient is. Wow you're good! Why it is pecorino romano cheese!

Cake for Breakfast

2011-08-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Ginger Cake, from David Lebovitz's blog. It tastes kind of sharp and molassesy and too gingery the first day, but the spices mellow out and the flavors mature over the next few days and the cake just gets yummier and yummier! We reduced the white sugar by 50% and kept the molasses the same as the original recipe. It was plenty sweet. The orange dots on the plate are made of some sort of orange plum jam, but the jam didn't really match the cake's flavor. The cake tastes best with tangy yogurt, sour cream, creme fraiche, or cream cheese.

It is excellent for breakfast. This is such a balanced breakfast, and I know you will agree. Here's what's on the table (from the left)

1. black beans. simply cooked with no sugar or salt or any nonsense. delicious, my friend.

2. a jar of toasted wheat bran. yes, fiber is the redemption for your misdeeds.

3. ginger cake. mmmm!

4. raspberries and strawberries. healthy, right?

5. Japanese chiffon cheesecake and lemony sponge cake

6. peaches and figs

7. whole wheat flax seed yeast leavened baked bread stuffed with sweet paste (烧饼）

8. pineapples

9. fat free sour cream

10. fat free organic yogurt

11. homemade orange plum jam

We don't spoil ourselves enough. It's a tough life. Just a few more days of this...and it's back to oat bran and soymilk and bananas in the dorm!

Raspberry Slump

2011-08-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

We saw this blackberry slump recipe in Saveur and fell in love. Sadly, our slump kinda slumped too much and didn't overflow like the model in the original picture. The raspberries were from Costco. We bought a pack of 6, ate two, fridged 2, and froze another 2 boxes. They. Were. Divine! Especially the slightly defrosted ones. Costco is just so awesome.

A list of our favorite things to get from Costco:

1. frozen blueberries

2. multigrain bread, the one in the green bag

3. dog food

4. shampoo

5. fish oil

6. wine

7. plastic wrap

8. nuts

9. raspberries!

A list of least favorite things to get from Costco:

1. milk. Seriously, who can drink milk that fast? Rather, whose fridge is big enough to fit 2 gallons?

2. romaine lettuce. unless you have a rabbit or two at home.

3. apples. they shouldn't be the size of softballs.

4. clothes. they never fit. I'm not sure what possessed me on the day I decided to try on a snow white costume that was designed for someone half my age, but a man walking by thought it'd be funny to ask, "Is that your wedding dress??" Unfortunately, a witty comeback escaped me as I pathetically struggled to regain circulation from the suffocating netting.

Anyway, this slump was amazing! Not sure why it's called a slump. Maybe it helps to lower expectations, so it tastes yummier. The concentrated tangy sweet baked raspberries and the buttery crumble topping were perfect complements to the white-wine flavored vanilla butter cake underneath. The wine flavor was my favorite part of the slump. I want to try adding wine to other butter cake recipes! Or perhaps a wine chiffon...mmmm

Raspberry Slump (adapted from Saveur)

2 1⁄4 cups flour
1 1⁄2 cups sugar
2 tbsp. unsalted butter,
cut into 1⁄2" cubes, chilled,
  plus 8 tbsp. melted and
more for greasing
1⁄2 tsp. baking powder
1⁄2 tsp. kosher salt
1⁄2 cup dry white wine
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 lb. fresh or frozen thawed raspberries
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

1. To make crumb topping, combine 1⁄4 cup flour, 1⁄4 cup sugar, and 2 tbsp. chilled and cubed butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until mixture takes on texture of coarse bread crumbs, about 10 seconds. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Heat oven to 350°. Grease eight 6-oz. ramekins with butter and dust with flour; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk remaining flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a large measuring cup, whisk together melted butter and wine; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining sugar, vanilla, and eggs until pale and thick, about 2 minutes. Add wine mixture to eggs and whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide batter between ramekins and top each with berries. Sprinkle reserved crumb topping evenly over berries. Put ramekins on a baking sheet and bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 1 hour. Transfer to a rack and let cool for 20 minutes; serve with scoops of ice cream on top.

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

Cavernous Cream Puffs

2011-08-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

The cream puff is such a naughty way to indulge in cream. Its lumpy, humble external surface belies the dollop of gluttony that fills its cavernous interior. The best kind of cream for this indulgence is whipped cream lightened vanilla pastry cream - so billowy, light, yet creamy. With a drizzle of salted creme fraiche lemon caramel sauce on the inside of the puff, it is a divine experience.

I used to think huge cream puffs were the ultimate indulgence. But now I think small ones are better. The shell is crispier, and the ratio of cream to shell is perfect for enjoying a few delicious bites. Cream doesn't dribble down your chin when you eat it. And, the best part is that you can eat several because they are small.

Milky Way Tart and Raspberry Cream Tart

2011-08-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Raspberry cream tart with rum laced pastry cream and caramel-lined almond sugar butter crust. I think I would've preferred a flaky buttery tart shell because it is lighter and more exciting when it shatters in your mouth, but this was deliciously crunchy and buttery too.

The Milky Way Tart is genius. It's supposed to be a thick layer of caramel topped with a billowy, magical layer of whipped milk chocolate ganache. I was too stingy with the caramel, unfortunately. Maybe a little stingy with the cream too. Next time, I would totally use a flaky tart shell, spread at least 1 cm of caramel, and load up on the cream. It would be a dangerous combination.

Milky Way Tart
Adapted from Joanne Chang's Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe

Makes 1 9-inch tart

For the tart shell, use your favorite pie or tart dough recipe, baked off in a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom.
For the milk chocolate mousse:

5 ounces milk chocolate, chopped (we used quality milk choco chips)
2 cups (1 pint) heavy cream
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

For the caramel filling:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the tart assembly:

One baked and cooled 9-inch tart shell (like My Favorite Pie Crust)
3-to 4-inch slab milk chocolate, at warm room temperature, for decorating

Place the chopped chocolate (or chocolate chips) in a medium heatproof bowl.

Gently heat the cream with the espresso powder and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. As soon as you see bubbles beginning to form around the edges of the pan, remove it from the heat--don't let the cream come to a boil. Pour over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute. Whisk until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl (I prefer a metal bowl for faster cooling, and poured it straight into the bowl of my standing mixer). Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until very cold, at least 8 hours and up to 3 days ahead. The mixture needs to be extremely cold in order for it to whip properly, so don't skimp on the chilling time. If you are short on time or generally impatient like me, throw the metal bowl into the freezer and give it a good whisking every 5-10 minutes or so--you can complete the chilling this way in about an hour.

To make the caramel, place the sugar, water and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and stir well to combine. Bring the syrup to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until the syrup becomes a deep amber color. Pull the pan from the heat when you see it reaching a deep golden color--it takes only a moment for caramel to go from golden to amber to straight up burnt, so pull it early if in doubt. Stirring constantly with a whisk or heatproof spoon, stir in the cream all at once. Be careful--it will bubble up violently, but keep stirring until the lumps of caramel smooth out once again. Stir in the butter, salt and vanilla. When the caramel is smooth and well-blended, pour it into a small heatproof container and set in the refrigerator to cool and thicken, at least 4 hours or up to 1 week. Again, using a metal container (I use a loaf pan) will cut this time down significantly.

When the cream mixture and caramel have both cooled sufficiently, assemble the tart. Place the tart shell on a serving platter. Spread about three-fourths of the caramel evenly over the bottom of the tart shell. Fit the bowl with the cream mixture onto a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and whip on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form (or beat with a handheld mixer). Mound the chocolate mousse on top of the caramel and smooth evenly.

Using a vegetable peeler, make chocolate curls from the bar of milk chocolate: warm the bar slightly in the palm of your hand before pulling the peeler across it to get curls instead of just grating the chocolate. Drizzle the tart with the remaining caramel and follow it with a generous sprinkling of chocolate curls. Refrigerate the tart for 30 minutes before serving (or airtight for up to 8 hours).

How to Enjoy Vanilla Ice Cream

2011-08-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

...on top of a toasted shard of rum-drenched vanilla pound cake, topped with crushed toasted pistachios

...with pistachio brittle, hazelnut brittle, or pecan brittle

or in a sundae with fresh raspberry coulis, blackberries from a nearby berry bush, pistachio brittle, and creamy luscious caramel sauce drizzled on top!

The Wonders of 日本料理

2011-08-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hamachi sashimi with shiso and ikura. Do you see the marbling of fat on the hamachi? The pairing of that fine marbling with the lovely weblike design on the shiso leaf is entirely intentional, thank you for noticing. And I'm not sure what shape your eyes are, but is it just me or does that center shiso leaf cradling the little eyeball-like ikura not resemble an eye? Tell me that's not genius right there. You can't? Oh come on. Not to mention, the sashimi was delicious with shiso, ikura, some wasabi, ripe avocado, and toasted salted nori. Soy sauce was utterly unecessary; the ikura provided just the right savory touch. Rice would've been good but we were too lazy to make it.

Bought these egg molds from Daiso in Berkeley. Aren't. they. adorable? The first time I tried, the eggs were not big enough, so they came out very pathetic looking. So I purposely went hunting for not large, but extra large eggs for this important order of business.

I admit, eggs do taste better when they are in pretty shapes. So there you have it - two classics of Japanese cuisine. Sashimi and the Molded Egg. (What are you grimacing at? I said molded, not moldy)

Lemon Chiffon

2011-07-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

My aunt, who is visiting from China, doesn't like sweet desserts. So I thought I would make a cake that tempered sweetness on multiple fronts. This is a lemon chiffon cake filled with nectarine whipped cream and frosted with cream cheese creme fraiche whipped cream, topped with yellow and white nectarine compote.

I overdosed on lemon zest in the cake and reduced the sugar by 30%. The peach compote also has just a sneeze of sugar. And the tang of the cream cheese and creme fraiche also help combat the sweetness, in theory.

My aunt took one bite and said, "太甜了!" (too sweet!!) I thought, "不会吧!" no way! Was it really that sweet? I had to try another slice. And maybe another. This was for the sake of research, you know. I wanted to make a cake that she would like...and I was curious just how much you could reduce the sugar in a cake before it became inedible. So I made another lemon chiffon cake and used only 60 g of sugar! That's like, 4 measly tablespoons. For a whole 7-inch cake. That's a reduction of 50-70% from most recipes. I thought, this cake will probably be disgusting, but my curiosity got the better of me.

It turned out okay! In fact, I might've overdosed on salt just a smidgeon...haha. But the cake was ever so delicately sweet and delightfully lemony and feather soft. I also didn't put vanilla extract because my aunt can detect that and doesn't like it. Nevertheless, the cake was very flavorful from the lemon zest and juice. The verdict? "还是太甜了!" still too sweet. I think she's getting 蛋糕 (cake) confused with 馒头(steamed bun). Oh well...I guess I'll just have to eat these three cakes solo. Thank you, your sympathy is greatly appreciated.

Loofah and Egg / Belt Fish

2011-07-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

This green veggie is called (thank you googletranslate) Loofah. Whoever named it was a genius. The story behind this dish...you see those eggs? I usually put about 2 eggs. This time there were 4 whites and 5 yolks and maybe a little too much oil. I was making a lemon chiffon cake and accidentally dumped the oil into the egg whites instead of the yolks. I was in shock for about 30 seconds. Then I had the brilliant idea of stir-frying the eggs with loofah! Before cooking, I poured the oily eggs into a tall narrow glass and mopped off the oil with paper towels and a spoon (I'm a genius, I know). And don't worry about the chiffon...it was made alright. The egg carton is just a little empty now.

Loofah and egg go together like crazy. Let me just say, the eggs were delicious! They were just beaten with 1/6 tsp kosher salt and fried til golden, and flavored with a splash of soy sauce. Loofah is incredibly bland unless you add garlic, egg, and the right amount of salt. Then it's amazingly sweet! And even better with a crackling of numbing saliva-inducing Sichuan peppercorn. I have to admit...I cheated and added homemade chicken broth while cooking the loofah...shhhh don't deflate their self esteem!

This fish is called belt fish. Whoever named it needs to talk to whoever named the Loofah. It is caramelized with ginger infused soy sauce, caramel, Shaoxing wine, and black vinegar. The crusty, caramel sweet skin is the best part!

Oxtail Soup...Again

2011-07-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Is this bowl finished? Are you crazy? That little morsel right there. Yes, it's making eyes at you. That's the secret hideout for the Yum Yums. Shhh they don't know you're here. You're supposed to pick it up and coax the juices out from deep within the bone. All the tomato-y beefy goodness...

The worst part about making and eating oxtail soup is getting to the bottom of the bowl. So this time...we'll turn back time!
Perfectly tender and fall-off-the-bone good. But not completely disintegrated. That's important - we don't want to eat the Gerber's version of oxtail soup. Wouldn't that be awesome if Gerber made oxtail soup in babyfood form? Those poor babies...I guess privileges do come with getting teeth.

Do you see the slight crusty brown coloration of the meat that is staring you in the face? That, my friend, is flavor. The result of a good sear before braising!
The biggest bones are the best. So many nooks and crannies and tendons and ligaments and deliciously meltingly tender collagen...sorry, too much anatomy huh. Excuse my enthusiasm; you had to be there to understand.
I don't think these photos are really in any logical order. But no matter. If that meat doesn't look tender, you can just leave right now. I need some private time with my soup anyway.

Do you know how much self control it took to take all those pictures? Thank you, I know I just outdo myself every time. And because I'm so nice...I'll even share with you the top secret recipe.

Before I do, I have a funny story. At the supermarket, while I was gawking at the oxtail, this nice elderly man (who didn't really speak English) and his granddaughter were next to me and he goes, "Oh, what is that?"

Me: "Oh, this is oxtail."

Him: "Huh?"

Me: "It's the tail, you know..."

Him: "Oh! The neck?"

Me: "No no, the tail, in the back..."

Him: "Ohhh."

I guess cows have gotten a little larger since his days.

Oxtail Soup...Again

This makes a relatively small serving. I would say it serves 3 people - with a maximum of two people who like to eat meat. The third person must be content with not having a large oxtail piece. Double it for larger company! The keys to this recipe are that the oxtail and veggies must be seasoned with a healthy single layer of sea salt, and the oxtail must be seared on high heat almost to the point of burning. Also, the tomatoes must be ripe and sweet or the broth will be too sour and watery; if you cut open your tomatoes and they are whitish instead of completely dark red inside, add tomato paste or sugar to the broth. Don't be scared by the 2 bulbs of garlic; they are imperative for flavor and the long braise just makes them meltingly sweet and mellow. The purple onion and garlic added in the beginning and end ensure complex flavor development throughout the braise as well as intense sweetness of shorter-cooked onion and garlic. The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity - no need to add beef stock, chicken bouillon, bouquet garni, flour, etc. There's a lot of oil in the end, so be sure to skim it off, or you will suffer a very unpleasant oily mouthfeel when you drink the soup. And trust me, you'll want second servings of the lovely beefy, sweetly concentrated tomato soup.

Oxtail - 2 HUGE bones, 3 medium ones, 1 tiny one

Sea salt or kosher salt

2 Tbsp oil

3/4 cup Shaoxing wine

2 bulbs of garlic, one bulb minced and the other bulb peeled

1 large carrot, sliced on a diagonal into 1-inch pieces

2 celery stalks, sliced into 1-inch pieces

1 large fresh organic red onion, sliced into 1-inch pieces

1 1-inch piece of fresh, good quality ginger, peeled and sliced

4 large ripe tomatoes, 1 ripe roma tomato, 8 ping-pong ball sized ripe sweet tomatoes

1 cup of purple sweet potatoes, cut into large chunks

Prepare the meat: Take it out of the fridge, dry very well with paper towel, and sprinkle one layer of sea salt on one side. Let it rest at room temperature for 15-20 minutes to take off the chill to promote better searing.

Sear the meat: Heat a medium soup pot over high heat 2 minutes until hot. Add 2Tbsp oil and swirl, heating until oil starts to ripple. Add meat in a single layer, salt side down. Sprinkle the other side with salt, put the lid on, and let it sear for 2-3 minutes until you get a very dark brown crust (This is the flavor concentration! Make sure to get that dark brown crust). Turn the meat and sear very well on all sides, replacing the lid each time, unless you want to smell like a piece of seared meat.

Deglaze the pan: Remove the perfectly seared meat and set on a clean plate. The pot will be very hot at this point, and the yum-yums at the bottom may be threatening to burn. Turn the heat down to medium and add the 3/4 cup wine all at once, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove the yum yums. Pour this delicious liquid into a small heatproof bowl and set aside. Don't you dare let anything dangerous get near it.

Brown the veggies: Turn the heat once more up to high. Your pot should be pretty clean right now. Add 2 Tbsp more oil and swirl to coat. When oil is hot, add the finely chopped garlic, ginger, carrot, celery, and HALF of the onions to the pot. Sprinkle with an even layer of sea salt and toss the veggies to coat evenly with salt and oil. Cover with a lid and allow to cook for 5-7 minutes, until slightly softened.

Simmer down the tomatoes: Add the tomatoes and smash them with the back of a spatula, mixing them with the veggies in the pot. Replace the lid and continue cooking on high for 5-7 minutes until the mixture is boiling and the tomatoes are releasing liquid.

Replace the meat and simmer for a long time: Add oxtail back into the liquid, pushing them all the way to the bottom of the pot and covering every piece with the liquid. Turn the heat down to low, cover with a lid, and maintain a gentle but even simmer for 3 hours.

Add additional veggies and adjust salt: Toss in the remaining garlic cloves, onions, and sweet potato and push them into the soup. Taste the soup and add more salt if needed. Simmer for 45 more minutes.

Skim off the oil and swallow your saliva: Using an oil skimmer or a very flat wok spatula, take off the top layer of red orange oil to a wide shallow bowl. Be patient - this may take 20-30 spatula-fulls. Press down on the tomatoes to coax the oil to the top of the soup. Continue until you don't see too much red oil on top. Pour the oil mixture into a glass measure cup and gawk at the layer of fat that rises to the top. Cover with plastic wrap, and allow to cool at room temp before putting it in the fridge (use it to braise ox tendon later!). Help yourself to a big piece of oxtail and savor every second.

The Passionfruit-wannabe-chiffon

2011-07-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

Passionfruit is impossible to find. I called Whole Foods, and after being transferred to three different departments, I was told that it is out of season. My call to Lucky's was unlucky. I checked all over the sketchy Asian supermarkets. No success, except for one bottle on the bottom shelf of the Pandan extract aisle - I couldn't really decipher the strange characters on the bottle but there was a picture of the elusive little devil on the label! I was tempted to scrawl WANTED under its mug shot, as I used every drop of my nonexistent self-control to stave off an impending heart attack. Upon closer inspection, I noticed some unwanted suspects on the ingredients label: sugar, sodium benzoate, and yellow something. Poisonous!

But wait! Isn't passionfruit just an addictive combination of tropical flavors?? It has the floral buttery aroma of jackfruit, the vanilla notes of a banana, the tangy intoxicating sweetness of pineapple, and the tang of a bright yellow lemon. Okay I know, wishful thinking...But in my humble opinion, this chiffon cake was phenomenal. Take that, passionfruit!

I baked it in a pan too big for the batter, so it didn't rise to such an impressive height. Next time, I'm using the 7-inch tube pan. Oh yes, there will be a next time!

Banana Jackfruit Pineapple Lemon Chiffon (aka Passionfruit-wannabe-chiffon!)
1 cup (120g) Cake flour
1/3 cup (70g) Fine sugar (Grind white sugar in a food processor or Magic Bullet)
1 tsp Baking powder
Scant ½ tsp Salt
¼ cup Oil
¼ cup (4) Yolks
½ cup Magnificent Tropical Mush: (perfectly pureed pineapple, jackfruit, and banana, and the juice of half a lemon – use a food processor)
½ tsp Pure Vanilla extract
¼ tsp Cream of tartar
½ cup (4) Egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, 1/3 of the sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl.
3. Whisk together oil and yolks. Mix in the flour until it forms a smooth paste. Add the mush and whisk until smooth.
4. Add cream of tartar to egg whites in a large mixing bowl.
5. Beat until white, gradually add remaining sugar, and beat until stiff peaks form.
6. In 3 additions, gently fold egg whites into the flour mixture just until no streaks remain.
7. Pour into an ungreased 7-inch tube pan and smooth the top. Bake 27-30 min until a tester comes out clean and dry. No peeking!
8. When cake is completely cool, remove from pan (it’s okay, I couldn’t wait either...who obeys this step anyway?).

Jackfruit Chiffon Cake

2011-07-23T09:51:00.001-07:00

Jackfruit - how do you describe it? I think it kind of tastes like Juicyfruit bubblegum. Or a blend of banana, pineapple, and mango. The fruit itself is gigantic. I mean huge. Like, ridiculously big. And spiky. I think it's delicious, and I'm never wrong. Except when I'm not right. But that doesn't happen.

This chiffon cake is to die for! I tried one bite. It was okay. I tried another. Oh, it's good. I tried a third...and then I lost count. I realized that you have to savor it slowly because the layers of flavor unravel on your tongue. First you're hit with the sweet aroma of jackfruit, and then the delicious flavor of a perfectly tender eggy chiffon comes forth (You don't like eggy chiffon? That is just too bad. Allow me to do you a favor and eat your piece). It's almost buttery...which is weird because it has no butter. Pure magic, my good friend.

Next time, I will reduce the sugar a smidgeon. It was a little too sweet, but I prefer less sweet cakes so this is good for most people.

Jackfruit Chiffon

1 1/4 cup (150g) Cake flour
1/2 cup (130g) Fine sugar (Grind white sugar in a food processor or Magic Bullet)
1 tsp Baking powder
Scant ½ tsp Salt
¼ cup Oil
¼ cup (4) Yolks
½ cup Jackfruit puree + juice of half of a lemon
½ tsp Pure Vanilla extract
¼ tsp Cream of tartar
½ cup (4) Egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, 1/3 of the sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl.
3. Whisk together oil and yolks. Mix in the flour until it forms a smooth paste. Add the mush and whisk until smooth.
4. Add cream of tartar to egg whites in a large mixing bowl.
5. Beat until white, gradually add remaining sugar, and beat until stiff peaks form.
6. In 3 additions, gently fold egg whites into the flour mixture just until no streaks remain.
7. Pour into an ungreased 7-inch tube pan and smooth the top. Bake 27-30 min until a tester comes out clean and dry. No peeking!
8. When cake is completely cool, remove from pan (it’s okay, I couldn’t wait either...who obeys this step anyway?).

Adaptable Bran Muffins

2011-07-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

Before trying these, you are not allowed to know what's in them. Oh what's that I see making a run for it? If my eyes don't deceive me...I believe it's your...starts with an "a" and ends with a "ppetite." Now now, come back here! Don't these look absolutely scrumptious? If you insist, I shall be perfectly honest and label them as Wheat-bran-black-bean-sweet-liquid-pureed-red-bean-millet-flax-banana muffins. They only contain 3 Tbsp (count them!) of oil and are perfectly tender, moist, and flavorful. The best part? You can customize them to your liking.

The story behind these gorgeous babies. My mom was cleaning out the fridge and was like, "Can you make something using these ingredients?" She slapped on the counter the liquid she used to cook sweet black beans and a bowl of plain mushy red beans whose future looked hopeless. Recently she's been crazy about millet, so she suggested putting them in muffins. I thought about using the black bean liquid to make a chiffon cake, but that wouldn't take care of everything else. I then turned to the trusty "Bran Poop Muffins" recipe and adapted it. The key to any bran muffin is to include a healthy dose of white flour - I know, you're tempted to use whole wheat, and that's perfectly fine if you intention is instead to make dense weapons to pelt at burglars. A second important point - you need to have some oil. Otherwise they will be gummy. Finally, toasted bran is a must. Unless you are a horse and like the taste of hay.

You can add any 1/2 cup of grain and 2.25 cups of mush. For this mush, I used 1 cup of sweetened kuromame (black bean) cooking liquid, 1.5 cups of mashed cooked unsweetened red beans, and 3/4 of a banana, and didn't add extra sugar (but it was delicious!). Be sure to adjust the sweetness to your liking. For instance, if you use unsweetened applesauce or pumpkin puree, you may need to add the brown sugar; for these, no additional sugar was necessary because the bean cooking liquid was sweetened already, and the banana added extra sweetness.

Adaptable Bran Muffins
1 1/2 cup (90g) wheat bran

1/2 cup grain (cornmeal, millet, oat bran, etc!)
2.25 cup mush (mashed banana, pureed soaked raisins, grape juice concentrate, pureed sweet black bean cooking liquid and unsweetened red beans, applesauce, a combination, etc)
1/2 cup (120g) plain low-fat yogurt
1/4 cup (50g) packed light brown sugar (If you mush is not sweet enough)
3 Tbsp vegetable oil (canola works well)
2 eggs

3/4 cup (100g) all purpose flour

3 Tbsp flax seed powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

chopped walnuts, flax seeds, millet, etc (for sprinkling on top)

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray with nonstick spray.
2. Spread the wheat bran on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for six to eight minutes, stirring every 3 minutes so it cooks evenly. Be careful not to let the bran burn; remove bran after you smell a lovely toasted aroma. Let cool for 5 minutes.
3. While the bran is toasting, prepare your mush.
4. In a large bowl, mix together the toasted bran, yogurt, mush and brown sugar, if using.
5. Stir in the oil and eggs.
6. Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and pour into wet ingredients. Stir gently with rubber spatula until the ingredients are just combined.
7. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, filling the tins all the way but not mounding the batter (batter may overflow onto oven floor and burn). Because muffin tins can vary in size, don’t try to make exactly 12 muffins; just fill the tins to the top. Sprinkle the tops with chopped walnuts, millet, sesame seeds, flax seeds, etc.
8. Bake for 21-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in one of the middle muffins comes out clean (a few tiny dry crumbs are okay, but no mushy stuff). Cool 5 min in the pan, and then cool completely on a rack to room temperature. Enjoy with whole milk or vanilla soymilk!

婷婷姐姐的生日蛋糕！

2011-07-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is not a pretty cake. In fact, yesterday when Bonnie and I were frosting it with the green tea swiss meringue buttercream, my mom came by and was like "What is that?? It looks like a pie of poop." My placid thoughts quickly turned turbulent as I contemplated questioning my mother about the verdant status of her feces. But she had a point...at that point the cake was just a heap of greenish mutant cream, so I elected to dress it up with some cherries and chocolate and almonds. Ah, much better...who doesn't love poop with cherries on top? If you look closely, you can make out a barely legible hidden message at the top of the cake which I masked in vain with more Scharffen Berger chocolate.

When any picture of food is this messy, it can only mean one thing! Ok maybe two. Either the food was really delicious or the photographer just sucked. In this case I think both apply. But seriously, this cake was phenomenal!! The filling is Martha Stewart's mocha mousse with Scharffen Berger 70% chocolate and instant espresso powder, lightened with old fashioned Clover Farms whipping cream and a pate a bombe made with fat golden organic egg yolks from the farmer's market. The chocolate cake is Ina Garten's ubiquitous chocolate cake. And the frosting is a green swiss meringue buttercream that we couldn't stop licking...

Basil, Tomato, Mushroom Pasta

2011-07-04T15:26:00.000-07:00

With lots of garlic and basil!

We had leftover kong xin cai and mushroom stir fry, which were delicious in the pasta! The following recipe may be a little specific, but you can customize it to your liking. We used whole wheat noodles and didn't add cheese so it's low fat and high in fiber, but it would taste better with unhealthy white pasta and lots of creamy delicious cheese!!

Basil, Tomato, Mushroom Pasta

4 servings of noodles

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 head of garlic

1/2 cup ground pork

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp better than bouillon (optional)

4 fat organic tomatoes

leftover sauteed mushrooms and kong xin cai (hollow center veggie)

a fat handful of basil leaves, cut finely

cracked black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of boiling water to a generous salt. Add noodles and stir. Cook until al dente, drain but do not rinse off the starchy goodness.

2. Meanwhile, heat a wok over high and add olive oil. When oil is ot, add garlic and pork and salt, and stir fry until the pork starts to brown and the garlic smells fragrant.

3. Add tomatoes and bouillon. Bring to a boil over high heat and smash tomatoes to let them release juice. Add your leftover mushrooms and kong xin cai.

4. When everything is heated through and smelling delicious, add the noodles and stir. Toss in basil leaves and give everything a good stir, and divide into bowls. Serve with freshly cracked black pepper.

a bushy bunch of basil

Gateau St Honore

2011-07-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

This evil little puppy. Whoever came up with it was up to no good. The Gateau Saint Honore is made of a puff pastry base, a ring of choux pastry encircling a filling of silky light chiboust cream (meringue lightened pastry cream), accented with cream puffs dipped in caramel and garnished with a generous swirl of chantily cream. What's that? Not enough cream? Oh let's be friends. :D

For the puff pastry base, measure the butter square, roll out the flaps (this was so much fun!) and tuck that butter baby in nice and snug. Don't get too attached. You'll be smashing and rolling it and sticking it in the cold fridge.

Fold like a business letter, chill 40 minutes, repeat 5 more times for traditional puff pastry and only 3 more times for this cake! What a deal. I opted to make miniature cakes so I cut them little circles. See that middle photo right below? That's the culprit...the hot caramel that is responsible for the fat blister on someone's left thumb! Actually the thumb's owner's own stupidity is to blame.

To make puff pastry, you need two things which I lacked. One, the ability to roll dough into shapes that don't resemble amoebas. Two, the patience of a saint. The dough needs to rest for 40 minutes after each turn (there are six turns! can't even count them on one hand) to let the gluten relax and the butter rechill so it doesn't melt and stick the precious layers together. I was on my 5th or 6th turn...forgot to do the indentation dough thing to keep track, and I checked another recipe from the Pastry Bible (not the recipe I was using, but I was just curious) and to my elation it said that you only need 4 turns for the St Honore because the base of the cake doesn't need all 1000 or so layers of traditional puff pastry. Me and that book became friends real fast.

The spun sugar was actually really easy to make. I watched a few youtube videos of some really pro people making spun sugar, and then got sidetracked and found myself gawking at old Asian ladies making dragons and phoenixes and stuff out of caramel. Amazing! But being the overachiever I am, I made something even better. The phoenix's maison. What did you say? Oh please, don't inflate my ego.

Hear that? It's the puff pastry calling your name. Needless to say, the seductively dripping chiboust cream is intentional.

I used a combination of the recipe from Tartelette's beautiful blog and the one from the Pastry Bible. My ring of choux pastry on top of the puff pastry was definitely too fat, and unfairly cheated me out of my precious chiboust cream filling. Also the three cream puffs on this cake are the only three presentable ones from the batch - the others were either the size of grapes or the shape of oversized lumpy popcorn. My piping skills never fail to amaze me. To be honest, I really only cared for the chiboust cream! I could just live on that stuff. Next time I'll just make a vat of chiboust cream and dine in heaven. Since it'd be sans the butter-laden puff pastry, it would be figure friendly too...

姜母鸭－ Ginger Mom Duck

2011-07-01T19:16:00.000-07:00

If you love ginger and duck, this dish is to die for. If you love your mom, it's even better. In Chinese, the name refers to the mother root of the ginger plant, the central root from which arise the baby roots. Cute huh?

Getting happy. Look at all that ginger! Two cups!

This is the wine we used. It was good, but my mom kept insisting that beer would be better. Alas, we had none on hand. My mom then proceeded to sing the praises of the above brand of sesame oil after we liberally dumped it into the wok.

mom: "This brand is really really good! Oh." pause.

me: "What?"

mom: "It expired last year."

The integral component to this dish's success. Shhhh...they'll all be doing it...

Jiang Mu Ya – Ginger Mom Duck

The legs, thighs, and wings from one duck (or 1.5 lb assorted cuts)

2 Tbsp Shaoxing Wine

a few turns of freshly ground Szechuan peppercorn

½ tsp kosher salt

1 cup pickled ginger, sliced ¼ inch thick

1 cup fresh ginger, sliced ¼ inch thick

½ cup sesame oil

3 Tbsp sugar

1/3 cup soy sauce

1 cup sake or beer or Shaoxing Wine

3 carrots, roughly chopped

Additional add-ins (listed in order from lengthy to short cooking times): frozen dried chestnuts, peanuts, sweet potatoes, shiitake, seaweed, kabocha, nagaimo

Chop duck into bite size pieces, being careful not to splatter duck guts all over the place. Marinate the duck with 2 Tbsp Shaoxing Wine, a few turns of freshly ground Szechuan peppercorn, and ½ tsp kosher salt for 15 minutes while you prepare your ginger and veggies. Heat the sesame oil in a wok over high heat, and add all of the ginger slices and stir fry briefly. Throw the duck on top, add the lid, and cook undisturbed for 5 minutes to brown the duck. Stir the contents around, and brown the other sides. Add the 3 Tbsp sugar to the bubbling liquid and let it caramelize for a minute. Then add the 1/3 cup soy sauce, tian jiang (if using), and enough sake or beer to barely cover. Add carrots and chestnuts (and any other tough cooking veggies) and transfer to pressure cooker, and cook on high for 30 minutes. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just add the lid and maintain a rapid simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from pressure cooker and transfer to a heavy pot, and add any additional add-ins depending on how long they need to cook (most take about 30 minutes). When almost done, take off the lid and let the liquid boil off to concentrate the yum yums, about 30 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking.

Cook’s Notes

- If you only have fresh ginger, you can just use 2 cups fresh ginger and skip the pickled stuff.

- Make your own pickled ginger by marinating

- For the add-ins, feel free to get creative! Just try to pick stuff that holds up to stewing and doesn’t release too much liquid (such as leafy greens)

Strawberries and Cream

2011-06-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen anything as beautiful as fresh Farmer's Market strawberries crowned with a dollop of honey kissed sour cream? You have? Oh no, the thumb is not in the running.

Blueberry Mascarpone Pistachio Macarons

2011-06-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

I had a tub of mascarpone and no idea what to do with it...until a certain genius, the same person who introduced me to macarons, chef 陈彦强，suggested that I make these. Evidently he overestimated me because they look nothing like the inspiration. ;) But...

...I learned several indispensable life lessons from these little guys (which, I should mention, are rather dangerous - I dare you to hover over them for more than 9 seconds without salivating/devouring one).

1. Don't trust Martha Stewart. I thought I trusted this woman...but alas. Her macaron recipe said to start the oven at 375, pop the suckers in, and turn it down to 325 and bake for 10 minutes. I think this is what caused those pesky cracks! Oh Martha, I thought you were the one...

2. Too much food coloring makes a wet batter. Gel colorings are better! I used 5 drops of blue and 8 drops of red...this might be why they took over 1 hour to dry, and falling victim to my impatience, my poor babies didn't develop their pieds.

3. Blueberry coulis, mascarpone, and butter = shut up.

4. It's what's on the inside that counts. These are ugly but yummy. Just like people - a warm, loving heart wins over dashing looks any day. But it doesn't hurt to be gorgeous.

I'm very good at keeping the kitchen clean. This is the tub of mascarpone that was responsible for this madness. Seriously, I think I will blame Costco for selling such big tubs of mascarpone. If it weren't for them, none of this would've happened.

The near empty tub of mascarpone pictured above was left in the wake of the Deadly Duo: the Rubber Spatula and Cream Craver.

The mascarpone filling is deadly. Think nutty, buttery mascarpone, kicked up with a combo of organic salted and unsalted butter, and mixed with a very intensely concentrated blueberry coulis spiked with the tang of a lemon and sweetened with a touch sugar. Ah, this description does not do it justice.

Blueberry Mascarpone Pistachio Macrons

1 batch of macarons, colored purple, sprinkled with pistachios (Huh? You don't have it memorized?)

more ground pistachios

2 cups frozen organic blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

juice of a lemon

Mascarpone, whatever is left in the tub (Based on the fullness of my stomach...exactly 4.235 oz)

7 Tbsp softened butter (3 Tbsp unsalted, 4 Tbsp salted)

1. Put blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a sauce pan over high heat. Bring to a boil, lower heat to medium, and simmer for 15 minutes until very thick and syrupy, stirring occasionally.

2. With a rubber spatula, force the berry mixture through a fine sieve and set aside until it is room temp. Taste it if you dare. It should be tart and sweet and intoxicatingly perfect.

3. Mix the mascarpone with the butter until smooth and lump-free. Add the blueberry mixture and mix well with a whisk until very smooth. Refrigerate until slightly cool and firm.

4. Pipe a dollop onto 1/2 of the shells, top with the other shells, and sprinkle with pistachios. If they fall off, that's your problem.

Homely Blueberry Peach Pie

2011-06-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

Bonnie and I made this. :) We gave up trying to cut a perfect slice. The blueberry juices just didn't want to cooperate, hence the "homely" look. It's a very simple pie made with just blueberries, peaches, sugar, tapioca starch, and lemon zest, simmered on the stovetop until thick and then poured into a pate brisee. The top was brushed with soymilk and sprinkled with coarse sugar. It's excellent served with lightly sweetened sour cream and fresh garden mint!

Rum Drenched Vanilla Cake and Saffron Rice

2011-06-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Rum Drenched Vanilla Cake, from Dorie Greenspan's awesome book, Baking. This cake recipe called for rubbing the sugar with vanilla beans, but I didn't have those, so I added a fat tablespoon of vanilla paste. And I went a little greedy on the rum. And the cream. So I don't know why I was still surprised when the batter was runny, instead of thick like Dorie said. Didn't realize this until it was too late though; I was reading the recipe and Dorie wrote: "Pour batter into pan, and smooth the top with a spatula." I looked at the cake and thought, "How very pointless. It smoothed itself." So I shoved it in the oven and forgot about it for a whole 11 seconds, and then got paranoid and reread the recipe...I seriously considered taking the cake back out and adding more flour, haha. Good thing I didn't! Everything worked out - the cake was moist, tender, and a little too delicious for its own good (especially when soaked in rum syrup!). I reduced the sugar by about a tablespoon, but it was still kinda sweet...the bitterness of the rum helps a little, as does the fat from the 7.5 Tbsp of butter and 1/3 cup cream, but it is very good served with coffee! Arrrr this is pirate's booty.

This was dinner from today. Saffron rice made by toasting rice with garlic infused oil and ground pork, then adding chicken stock, salt, saffron, and shrimp and cooking on the stovetop. The veggie is a stir-fried pumpkin leaves with fermented tofu and garlic, and kidney beans cooked with pickled mustard greens and ground pork. Trust me, it tastes better than it sounds.

Chocolate Souffle

2011-06-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

This chocolate souffle uses 60% dark chocolate, and has no flour or milk! The recipe is from the Dessert Bible by Christopher Kimball. First, chocolate is melted with 2 Tbsp butter, and then orange zest, chocolate liquor, salt, and vanilla are added. Then you beat 3 yolks with 2 Tbsp sugar until very light and thick and fold the two mixtures together. Then you whip 4 egg whites with 1 Tbsp sugar and some cream of tartar, stir a bit of the white into the chocolate mixture, and fold the rest in. Then everything is baked at 385 degrees for 14 minutes in buttered and sugared ramekins.

These were good, but they were a little overbaked (16 minutes was a little long, so next time I would do 14...I think if the middle is molten it's ok! The chocolate flavor will be more intense if it's underbaked) and I thought the orange zest was a little strange, and maybe the chocolate was a tad bitter (try adding more sugar or use a less dark chocolate? like 45%). Didn't have chocolate liquor so I used dark rum.

Pierre Herme's Lemon Cream Tart

2011-06-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

my mom: Wow! This is so good! What's in it??

me: uhh, lemon juice, lemon zest, eggs, sugar...yeah that's about it.

my mom: (mouth full) mmmmm...

me: ...oh yea, and some butter.

By some, I mean like 21 Tbsp for the whole recipe. Hehe. But I only made half, so that's only 10.5 Tbsp, so it's healthier right?

This is Pierre Herme's recipe. For those of you who don't know him, he is one naughty boy. First he rubs 1 cup of sugar with the grated zest of three lemons until the sugar is lemon infused. Then he whisks the sugar and lemon with 4 eggs and 3/4 cup lemon juice, and cooks it over a double boiler to 180 degrees and strains it through a fine mesh strainer to make it silky smooth. Then after it cools to 140, he blends it in a blender and chucks 21 gobs of butter at it until it turns into a pale, light, decadent cream. It's blended for 3 minutes after all the butter is added to make it super light and creamy. After the cream is refrigerated in the pre-baked tart shell, it firms up ever so slightly and just melts on your tongue when you take a bite. Sinful? Nah. Naughty? Maybe. Heavenly? Oh yes!

Blue Ribbon Cheesecake

2011-06-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

I don't think Blue Ribbon is a very fitting name. Maybe something more like "Crater Cheesecake" or "Bowl of Happiness Cheesecake"...oh, so much better. This recipe does three things special. For one, it uses whipped egg whites to lighten the batter; for another, it doesn't use a water bath, and finally it is baked at 450 degrees for 10 minutes and then finished at a lower temperature. The high temperature is what helps the cheesecake get its lovely California tan. It's not elegant but I think its rustic charm makes it more interesting and delicious! Don't you just want to pick off the top nutty brown crust? It's calling your name...dare you to click on the left photo! ;)

The addition of a Tbsp of flour and the separation of the eggs helps the texture stay soft and fluffy, despite the absence of a water bath. Not having a water bath also helps the cheesecake develop its lovely golden brown, shiny, delicious crust. The crater in the middle is kind of an eye sore, however. This is because the beaten egg whites makes it rise too much, and inevitably fall. I supposed we need to fill the crater with something to hide it...cream, anyone??

Recipe for Blue Ribbon Cheesecake, adapted from Apron Strings

I just cut the recipe in half and dumped it into a 7-inch springform but it threatened to overflow, so I baked the rest in a ramekin. I also added the zest of a lemon and maybe a little more lemon juice, and reduced the sugar by a Tbsp. And I used leftover pie crust for the base. Also, since my cake was smaller, the baking times were reduced by 15%.

Tartine Tarts

2011-06-09T22:17:00.000-07:00

Apple nougatine tart, based on the recipe from the Tartine Bakery book. It is a flaky all butter crust filled with caramelized granny smith and golden delicious apples, tossed with a teeny bit of cinnamon and the juice of a lime (the recipe didn't call for cinnamon and used lemon instead of lime; I used lime just because I was lazy and didn't want to go hunting for a lemon). The tart is topped with an almond nougatine (what the heck is that?) which is made from sliced almonds, egg whites, sugar, and salt. Couldn't be easier!

The trick to a flaky crust? Cook's Illustrated will tell you to use shortening and vodka...but seriously, how are you supposed to bake when you are tipsy and suffering cardiac arrest from trans fats. Listen to Martha Stewart, or Tartine Bakery, and use all butter! The key points:

- Cut butter into 2 cm cubes and freeze for 10 min while you put flour in food processor

- Weigh all ingredients

- Use ice water

- Pulse butter and flour very briefly until you have fat pea-sized clumps. Peas are big! Don't be fooled by their unassuming name. None of this pea-wee nonsense. Fat peas!

- Pour the bare minimum of water in all at once and pulse very briefly until it just starts to clump - Don't wait for it to form a ball in the processor! Squeeze together, and if it holds, you're golden. If it doesn't, sprinkle on a little more water.

- Dump the dough out into a bowl, squeeze once into a dense flat disk, cover with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for a good hour.

- Roll out into disks, and fill tart pans. No stretching the dough! It will shrink when it bakes.

- FREEZE again for 15 minutes, then bake immediately from the freezer in a 385 degree oven with coffee filters weighted down with beans for 25 minutes, then remove weights and bake until golden, at least 5 minutes.

The complete recipe is in Tartine's book. First you peel and core the apples, and then slice them 1/8-1/4 inch thick (I think it's ok if they are different thicknesses because the texture difference is nice). Working in batches, melt 1 Tbsp butter and 2 tsp sugar in large heavy bottomed pan over high heat until sugar starts to caramelize. Add apples, cook until apples soften - remove to a holding bowl. Repeat for all apples, and then toss everything with the juice of a lime or lemon, zest, some salt, and some cinnamon (Tartine did not call for cinnamon). Layer the apples neatly into the shells; it's ok if the apples are still warm. For the topping, mix egg white, sugar, toasted almonds, and pinch of salt until well blended. Spread evenly over tarts. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until topping is just golden and you are salivating. The combination of the buttery flaky crust, tangy sweet caramelized apples, and toasted sweet and savory almonds is amazing.

Too many pictures of the same thing? I think so. But I couldn't resist! This mango tart is very simple. Just Tartine's pastry cream and fresh sliced manila mangoes (I am in love with these! They have a silken texture and an incredible floral, nutty, milky fragrance). Tartine's pastry cream is unique in that it uses whole eggs and milk, rather than egg yolks and half-and-half, so it is lighter and the vanilla flavor is brighter. Next time I might reduce the sugar a little because this was a teeny bit sweet, but delicious. (can't say no to custard!) I didn't have vanilla beans, so I used some vanilla paste.

Fruit tart with mango, strawberries, and bluberries

Ginger Chiffon

2011-06-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

A delicious ginger chiffon cake dusted (or rather, smothered) with a little too much green tea powder. Oops, couldn't fight gravity. It was delicious though! We used the same recipe as the pandan chiffon, but since we only had 2 eggs, we cut the recipe in half. Also, instead of pandan juice, we used ginger juice - it's just grated ginger squeezed against a very fine mesh strainer to extract only the juice and none of the icky fibers. We added a breath of cinnamon and a hiccup of nutmeg too. If you love ginger, this cake is a different take on the common heavy, molasses laden dark ginger cakes (which are still good, just different! Not trying to make them feel inferior...hehe).

Squid with Jiu Cai

2011-06-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

What do you call Jiu Cai in English? Chives? Not quite...leeks? No...baby leeks? Ah whatever. This dish combines the sweet leekiness of jiu cai with the slightly sweet umami of baby squid, and gets a spicy kick from pickled red peppers. Hen hao chi!

Recently our friend, Irene, gave us the most wonderful little book of Chinglish, aka funny English translations from actual Chinese signs, books, menus, etc. I'm sorry, you have to know Chinese to appreciate the hilarity. Note to self, certain dishes taste better in Chinese. Which would you rather eat, 夫妻肺片 or Husband and Wife Lung Pieces? Oh sorry, would that be your appetite I see under the sofa - I think you lost it...

Friday Farmer's Market and the Elusive Free Range Chicken

2011-06-04T07:25:00.000-07:00

Farmer's Market is mother-daughter bonding time on Friday mornings. Last week we went at 9:32 am, which we thought was pretty darn early, but when we got to the free range chickens-slash-ducks table they were all out of chickens! There were tons of little quackers though, so we settled for one of those. It wasn't bad; our mom made a delicious ginger duck stew with it. But we were determined to get vengeance on those chickens...so this time we woke up super early, sped through breakfast, hopped into the car and whisked ourselves off to the market once more. We waltzed up to the table and there was the cooler. Sticking up through the mounds of ice were countless pairs of feet...and they weren't webbed! Chickens! But where were the ducks? "Sold out," explained the farmer. Something smells fishy...I mean, chickeny...But it didn't matter, we got our chicken and were on our way to overload on strawberries and green veggies from the rest of the market.

For dinner, we made a hot pot soup with the chicken and put various veggies in at the table. This was one of the best hot pots ever because the soup was so simple - just chicken and ginger, and a little salt, and the flavor of the soup gradually evolved to take on more complex flavors as we put more stuff in the pot. In the end, the soup was a delicious medley of flavors from the three kinds of mushrooms, the durum wheat pasta, scallions, tomatoes, and cabbage.

The spicy red pepper dipping sauce was awesome too. Think of something that has complex flavors of roasted red spicy pepper, sesame, and the umami richness of fermented black beans, all suspended in a silky smooth bright red oil. It's sweet, spicy, salty, smoky, sour, and fragrant all at once, and was phenomenal with anything, but the best pairing was of course with the chicken.

Pandan Chiffon

2011-06-03T16:38:00.000-07:00

Feather soft and divine! If you've never had pandan before...it's kind of grassy and tastes like jasmine rice on steroids. Also matches coconut, but it's a lot less assertive of a flavor. We made our pandan juice from frozen pandan leaves, but you can also buy imitation extracts and pastes with artificial coloring. No fake color here! It's a natural green. :)

We wouldn't change much about this recipe. We don't like overly sweet desserts and this one was perfect. There were some larger holes, which may have been due to poorly distributing the baking powder into the flour. Despite not using cake flour, the cake was surprisingly fine-crumbed. Another idea is to bake it as a jelly roll and fill it with coconut cream, or jasmine tea cream! Maybe we would try adding some coconut powder or coconut milk in place of some of the oil to give it more fragrance. Or some pandan extract or vanilla extract. However, having just pandan allows the delicate flavor to shine through!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Ingredients:
(A)
4 Large Egg Yolks
70g Castor Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt

(B)
85ml canola oil (may be able to reduce this to 70 mL)
115 ml Pandan Juice (see note! make sure it's concentrated)

(C)
150g Cake Flour (we used all purpose flour sifted with cornstarch, 5:1 ratio)
3/4 tsp Baking Powder

(D)
4 Large Egg Whites
70g Castor Sugar
1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

To make pandan juice: Blend 20 pandan leaves with 1/2 cup or less water in food processor until leaves become smithereens. Gather everything up into a fine cotton cloth and squeeze the living daylights out of it to extract all the juice. You want to concentrate the juice as much as possible, so make sure to pulverize the leaves and add only as much water as needed to get the motor going. This will make more than you need; you can save the rest for another purpose.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Whisk and then sift (C) twice, set aside.

3. Cream (A) until sugar dissovled using hand whisk. Add in (B) in the order listed. Mix well after each addition.

4. Whisk in sifted flour and mix well. If lumps persist, strain through a fine mesh strainer.

5. Beat egg whites until frothy, add cream of tartar and beat till soft peaks. Gradually add sugar and beat till stiff peaks.

6. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into egg yolk mixture gently with a rubber spatula until just blended.

7. Pour yolk mixture (step 6) into the rest of egg whites, fold it gently with rubber spatula until blended.

8. Put batter into a 20cm chiffon cake pan, bang the pan on a hard surface to release the bubbles and bake at 350 F for 30 - 40 minutes (we did 35) or till the top is light golden and the cake springs back when poked.

9. When the cake is cooked, remove from oven immediately invert the cake to cool. Remove the cake from the cake pan when it is completely cool, or when it is warm after about 30 min if you are impatient like we were!

Chocolate Banana Matcha Bombe

2011-06-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Moist, tender buttermilk coffee chocolate cake with caramelized banana pastry cream filling, encased in an airy green tea Swiss meringue frosting. Perfect for a rainy Wednesday! We used Ina's chocolate cake recipe and Bobby Flay's caramelized banana cream recipe for the banana cream pie that won him a throwdown. The Swiss meringue frosting is Martha Stewart's, but Martha didn't call the green tea! ;) The filling was a little too sweet, but the chocolate helped. The frosting was very light and matched the cake - the green tea complemented the sweet meringue. Other flavors that would be good to try: lemon, lime, cocoa, hazelnut extract!

What else do you do on a lazy weekday? Prince seems to have figured it out...

1 minute later...

...we thought he was dead.

Pasta with Peas and Shrimp, Two Ways

2011-06-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

A happy pot of yum yums. We used shiitake mushrooms, tiger shrimp, freshly peeled peas from the farmer's market, and shrimp shell infused oil. Cheating? I think so.

With the simplest, most delicious garlic tomato sauce (from epicurious) We loved this sauce. It was full of tomato and sweet garlicky goodness. We used fresh plump garlic from the farmer's market and sweet roma tomatoes that were seeded and diced before simmering for 1.5 hours into a concentrated sauce.

With buttermilk creamy herb sauce from cooking light. The dressing was delicious, and we substituted creme fraiche for the mayo so it was healthier (relatively!). It's best to make the dressing a few hours in advance and let it get infused with the pepper, chives, and scallions. The sweet peas and shrimp were a great contrast to both the tangy buttermilk dressing and the tomato sauce.

Angel Food Cakelettes with Lemon Curd Whipped Cream and Lemony Buttermilk

2011-05-30T16:02:00.000-07:00

This is truly the food of angels. We were too lazy to make a creme anglaise so we just served the cake on a pool of fresh buttermilk sprinkled with lemon zest, and the tangy creaminess of the buttermilk really complemented the sweet marshmallowy cake and the brightness of the lemon curd whipped cream. Try some now, especially if you are a lemon fan!

Angel Food Cakelettes with Lemon Curd Whipped Cream

1 cup + 1 tbsp cake flour

pinch of salt

3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

6 large egg whites

3/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325. Place your sugar in a food processor and process until powdery. Place half the sugar in a separate bowl. Add you salt and flour to the remaining sugar and process for 1 minute. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy, and gradually add the reserved sugar and whip until the mixture forms medium stiff peaks. Mix in vanilla. Sift 1/3 of flour mixture over egg whites and fold with a rubber spatula until incorporated. Repeat twice. Fill a large ungreased cupcake pan with the mixture and bake for about 15-20 minutes until set and not jiggly. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 2 minutes. Run a knife around the cakelette to ease releasing. Remove the cakelettes, cool to room temp, and put in an airtight container or large ziploc bag in fridge overnight (the cakes will be moister and have more flavor the next day).

Assembly

Trim off the top of the cakelettes, if they are domed. Pour buttermilk onto plate, and place a cakelette in the center. Whip heavy cream and some powdered sugar to medium stiff peaks and then fold in some lemon curd to your liking. Drop a generous dollop onto the cake. Do it again. Grate some fresh lemon zest on top. Dot some lemon curd around the rim of the plate. Bon appetit!

Catfish with Pickled Mustard Greens and Roasted Pepper Pesto Salad

2011-05-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

Delicious catfish braised with pickled mustard greens.

Roasted bell pepper and cucumber salad with pesto

Basil Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream

2011-05-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

Is this a strange combination? Maybe. It wasn't intentional. We're just bad at scooping in a straight line. But take our word for it, it was delicious!

Also, we used Thai basil this time for the ice cream, but next time we might try Italian basil because it's less anise flavored and maybe more suitable for ice cream.

Basil Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream

Basil Ice Cream

Raspberry Ice Cream

1. Store the two ice creams side by side in a container in the freezer.

2. Maniacally scoop out some ice cream and inadvertently mix the two.

Basil Ice Cream
2 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup well-chilled heavy cream
Bring milk, basil, 1/4 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring, then remove from heat and let steep 30 minutes. Transfer to a blender (reserve saucepan) and blend until basil is finely ground, about 1 minute. Beat together yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 1 minute. Add milk mixture in a stream, beating until combined well. Pour mixture into reserved saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture coats back of spoon and registers 175°F on thermometer (do not let boil). Immediately remove from heat and pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Set bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stir until cold, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in cream and freeze in ice cream maker.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Lemon Curd

2011-05-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

From Epicurious. We served it with lemon curd, but it would probably be better served on a plate drizzled with extra virgin olive oil because the flavors are very delicate. The satiny smooth tangy lemon curd, while delicious, goes better with angel food cake as a compliment to its marshmallowy sweetness.

Oxtail Soup with Tomatoes, Love, Happiness, and World Peace

2011-05-29T15:49:00.001-07:00

Few things in life are as comforting as a nice steaming bowl of oxtail soup and a meal with family. This recipe is a family favorite! It's top secret too. Don't tell anyone.

Oxtail Soup with Tomatoes, Love, Happiness, and World Peace

cooking oil or butter

4 large oxtail bones + 6 small oxtail bones

3/4 cup shaoxing wine

1 pound beef tendons + a stub of ginger

2 yellow onions, roughly chopped

a few thin slices ginger

2 carrots, cut on a diagonal into 1-inch chunks

4 celery stalks, cut on a diagonal into 1-inch chunks

10ish medium sized ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 bay leaf, 1 star anise, 1 rosemary sprig, 1 thyme sprig (optional)

6 plump cloves of fresh garlic

1 tsp sea salt

4 fingerling potatoes, cut on a bias into 1-inch chunks

Thai basil (optional)

1. Heat a large pot over medium high heat, add 1 Tbsp oil and heat until shimmering. Add oxtails and cover with lid for 2 minutes, until the meat is golden brown. Flip and continue until seared all around. Remove oxtails to a plate and add a splash of wine, scraping up the yum yums at the bottom of the pot.

2. In the meantime, heat another small pot of water and the tendons and ginger and touch of wine to a boil over high heat. Simmer for 10 minutes, then drain and set aside the tendons.

3. Add a little more oil to the pot and toss in the onions and ginger. Cook over medium heat until onions are softened and smell delicious, 5-8 minutes. Add 3 celery stalks and 1 carrot, season lightly with salt, and continue to cook a few minutes until you smell the celery and carrots.

4. Add half of the tomatoes, the 1 tsp salt, and the herbs (if using). Add the oxtails and tendons. Add the rest of the tomatoes.

5. Turn heat to high and bring to a boil. Turn heat down to the very lowest, most pathetic setting to maintain a very shy simmer - you don't want to vigorously simmer because the meat will get tough. After 15 or 20 minutes, check to see if the tomatoes are breaking down and releasing their juices; mix the stew and smash the tomatoes a bit to help it along. If there is not enough liquid to cover all the bones by about 1/2 inch, do not add water! Just add two or three more tomatoes or beef broth if you have it on hand. The key is to maintain a bare simmer for 3 hours, or until the meat is just beginning to fall off the bone.

6. One and a half hours before dinner time, add the remaining carrots and taste the soup. Add more salt if needed. Skim surface fat if there's a lot of fat.

7. One hour before dinner time, add the rest of the celery and the potatoes. Add the garlic cloves 15 minutes later - they will become meltingly sweet!

8. Ten minutes before dinner, season the soup to taste with salt. Add the basil to the soup if using.

9. Remove basil and bay leaf. Call everyone to dinner and let people pick out their favorite veggies and oxtails and tendons from the pot. Garnish with chopped cilantro, dill, or scallions if desired; but honestly, the soup doesn't need any of that stuff.

Tips

- You may be tempted to use canned tomatoes. Don't! Just don't. They are sour. You can add them if you want, but keep in mind that you would be making "oxtail soup" and not the version with love, happiness, and world peace.

- Feel free to add some tomato paste if you really like tomatoes!

- Don't let the stew boil or the meat will get tough and stringy.

- Don't stew for much longer than 3 hours because the meat will get too tender and it will just fall apart; you want a little chew, but you want the gelatin to dissolve and make the soup thick and satiny.

- Don't add too much salt! The soup will reduce as it cooks, so it's better to undersalt the soup initially. It's really easy to add too much salt, so watch out!

- Don't worry if you can't finish this on the day of. The next day it tastes even better - not sure why.

- The quality of the tomatoes, carrots, celery, and garlic matters! Use ripe, fresh veggies from the Farmer's Market if possible.

- Boiling the tendons helps get rid of some of that stinky cow smell.

- Adding some of the veggies later ensures that they retain their bright color and don't dissolve into the stew; but adding some in the beginning is important for flavor.

Gordon Ramsay's Strawberry Glory

2011-05-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

"The totness of the balsameeck vinegah against the sweetness of the strawburries is mind-blowing" - Chef Gordon Ramsay.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves. This dessert is balanced on so many levels - temperature, texture, flavor, and color. The caramelized balsamic vinegar syrup enhances the tangy sweetness of the fresh berries, and the super sweet crunchy meringue bits are perfectly suspended in the creamy, silky smooth whipped cream lightened vanilla bean pastry cream. We never thought meringue would taste so addictingly delicious! They are basically crunchy explosions of sugary marshmallowy flavor. Alone they are cloyingly sweet, but against the tart berries, balsamic caramel syrup, and lightly sweetened cream, they are perfect.

Also, being the meringue noobs we were, we toasted them a little too much so they lost their snowy white color and instead turned a light tan. This actually added some additional caramelized flavor! Also, we didn't put the meringues in an airtight container overnight so they were soft the next morning, to our dismay. But after 5 minutes in the oven at 250 degrees F, they became crunchy once more upon returning to room temperature. The pastry cream is to die for; barely sweetened, with a hint of vanilla and the perfect silky smooth texture. We suspect that the use of both cornstarch and flour enables a creamy texture that isn't too gummy or runny.

Chef Ramsay used vanilla ice cream and a "good ol' English wafer" to garnish, but we opted for our raspberry ice cream and a fresh mint sprig. The only things we would change are to add more balsamic vinegar and sugar to make a richer, more flavorful syrup, and to make sure that the heat is very high to enable maximum caramelization. A few extra meringue crumbs in the parfait wouldn't be bad either.

oh hello!

Gordon Ramsay Strawberry Glory

Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients

Approx 80g meringues, crushed

300g fresh strawberries, quartered

Icing sugar to dust (be generous!)

Balsamic vinegar to drizzle (go heavy!)

240ml double cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

4- 6 scoops vanilla ice cream (we used raspberry)

Plain chocolate to grate (skipped this; added more meringue)

Wafer fans to garnish (didn't have these! used mint)

For the crème pâtissière (makes about 320g):

150 ml milk

100ml double cream

20g plain flour

15g cornflour (cornstarch)

3 free range large egg yolks

40g caster sugar

1. For the crème patissière base: heat the milk and cream in a heavy-based saucepan until almost boiling. Sift the flour and cornflour together. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl then mix in the flour. Add a splash of the hot creamy milk and whisk well until the mixture is smooth, then gradually whisk in the rest of the milk. Pour back into the pan and whisk over a medium-low heat for 3-5 minutes until thickened and smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming.

2. Quarter the strawberries and dust with icing sugar. Drizzle over the balsamic vinegar and toss to coat. Quickly cook the strawberries in a hot pan for 1minute until the strawberries just begin to break down. Spoon on to a plate and allow to cool.

3. Whip the double cream with a tablespoon of icing sugar to soft peak stage. Mix the whipped cream and crème patisserie together - the mixture should be two thirds cream to one third crème patisserie.

4. Layer the bottom of the glasses with some strawberries, scatter over some meringue then pipe over a little of the mixed cream. Repeat the layering as necessary and top with a spoonful of ice cream, a drizzle of sauce and a grating of chocolate. Garnish with a fan wafer and serve at once.

Dinner and Raspberry Ice Cream Dessert

2011-05-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

A simple dinner of blanched greens with extra virgin olive oil (organic, from where else but Costco?); stir fried mushrooms with fermented black beans, garlic, smoky dried sichuan peppers, and black heritage pork; stir fried Chinese celery with smoked pressed tofu, pork, and fermented black beans.

David Lebovitz' raspberry ice cream. The raspberries are not cooked, so the flavor of the fresh berries is maintained and the end result it simply divine. Words cannot describe the fruity freshness of the flowery raspberries!

1½ cups (375ml) half-and-half
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1½ cups (375ml) heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
1½ cups (375ml) strained black raspberry purée (from fresh or thawed frozen berries)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
about 1/8 t xanthan gum (optional; helps keep ice cream scoopable)

-Warm the half-and-half, pinch of salt and about half of the sugar in a medium saucepan. Pour the cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top.

-In a separate medium bowl, vigorously whisk together the egg yolks with the other half of the sugar. Slowly pour the warm liquid into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

-Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Vigorously whisk in the xanthan gum, if using, and quickly pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Mix in the raspberry purée and lemon juice, then stir until cool over an ice bath.

-Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, but to preserve the fresh berry taste, churn the ice cream within four hours of making the mixture.

Rustic Blueberry Tart

2011-05-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

Rustic blueberry tart, inspired by two recipes from Taste of Home. One of them was a peach blueberry pie, and the other was a blackberry blueberry rustic tart. The tart was so delicious, and the buttermilk tart shell was flaky and flavorful, although next time we would leave out the cornmeal because it added a gritty texture. The lemon zest in the crust is phenomenal! Next time we would pulse it with the sugar and flour to infuse the whole crust before adding the butter.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal (might leave this out, or use finely ground cornmeal)
2/3 cup cold butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp lemon zest (optional, but highly recommended!)
FILLING:
4 cups fresh blueberries (used frozen blueberries, and cooked the fruit mixture to reduce liquid)
2 cups fresh blackberries (substituted frozen peaches)
2/3 cup sugar (reduced a little)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 egg, beaten (used one yolk beaten with tablespoon of milk)
2 tablespoons turbinado (washed raw) sugar or coarse sugar
Whipped cream, optional

Directions

(we used a food processor for this part - lazy method!) In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and cornmeal; cut in butter until crumbly. Gradually add buttermilk, tossing with a fork until dough forms a ball. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 14-in. circle. Transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
In a large bowl, combine the berries, sugar, flour and lemon juice; spoon over the pastry to within 2 in. of edges. Fold up edges of pastry over filling, leaving center uncovered. Brush folded pastry with egg; sprinkle with sugar.
Bake at 375° for 55-60 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Using the parchment paper, slide tart onto a wire rack to cool. Serve with whipped cream if desired. Yield: 8 servings.

Asian 5-Ingredient Fix

2011-04-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

I was watching 5 Ingredient Fix by Claire Robinson the other day and she kind of cheated because she made this one steak with 5 ingredients, and then another sauce with 5 ingredients, and slapped the two together. Whoa, if kindergarten serves me correctly I think 5 + 5 equals 10, no? Pretty sneaky there, Claire! Well anyway, a lot of Chinese stir fried vegetables are easily 5 ingredients or less, and very delicious. The above shot is burdock root (gobo) with carrots, and uses dried chilies, oil, salt, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. The dish below combines garlic, the skinny cousin twice removed of broccolini, oil, and salt. That's like 3 ingredients not counting salt! Trust me, it's so delicious. The inherent sweetness of the veggie really gets to shine in a simple dish like this.

The trick to making it taste good? You gotta make sure your oil is hot and well flavored with garlic before adding the veggies, and then you need to flip the veggies constantly while you cook over high heat to make sure you cook it evenly and distribute salt and oil well. And of course, take it off the heat when it's just bright green and done, not overcooked and yellow and gross.

Tofu Chawanmushi

2011-04-03T09:34:00.001-07:00

This healthy, silky smooth version of chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg) includes tofu and the rich flavors of toona, shiitake, dried shrimp, and Chinese pickled vegetable. We used the tender shoots from the toona tree in our backyard. It's hard to describe the flavor of toona...imagine a really intense, meaty, mushroomy, bacon-y, soy-saucy, savory and almost salty, saliva-inducing flavor packed into a tiny leaf. Got it? Good for you!

A garnish of freshly cut scallions from the Farmer's Market and a drizzle of seasoning sauce provide the perfect flavor contrast to the egg.

These were super easy to make, and you can add your own variations simply by switching out the flavoring components. The original recipe called for fresh shrimp which we didn't have on hand, so we just used dried shrimp (pre-soaked in water). Fresh shrimp probably would have been devilishly good. Otherwise, you just blend together 1 package of tofu, 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp shitake water (the water you have left after soaking shiitake; if you don't have this, chicken stock would work beautifully) and add a little bit of chopped shiitake, chopped pickled vegetables, etc. Cover with plastic wrap and steam for 13 minutes or until just set (don't over steam!) The sauce for topping is just a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, and mirin in a 3:2:1 ratio, and you can garnish the cups with fresh cilantro and scallions.

Trail Mix Cookies

2011-04-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

These are a slightly healthier version of regular cookies because they have reduced butter, oats, and whole wheat flour. They are still a treat though! Using melted butter helps encourage gluten formation, developing a chewier cookie. It also enables you to use less butter (only 5 Tbsp for 24 cookies!) because melted butter is easier to incorporate into the dough.

The cinnamon and brown sugar flavors combine perfectly with the oats, nuts, and dried fruit, producing a very flavorful cookie with great texture. Next time we will try toasting the oats to bring out their flavor more, and perhaps replacing some of the brown sugar with white sugar to cut back a little bit on the molasses notes and allow the oats and nuts to have their moment on the flavor stage. (Note: if you do this be sure to flatten the cookies a bit because they won't spread as much due to the reduced brown sugar; also, they will be less chewy)

Trail Mix Cookies

3/4 cup unbleached AP flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup of old fashioned oats (toasted)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 large egg

5 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup - 1 cup packed brown sugar*

1/4 cup chopped walnuts, almonds, or pecans

1/4 cup dried cherries, raisins, or cranberries

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds

1. Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.

2. Beat egg and brown sugar with melted butter and vanilla extract.

3. Fold the flour mixture and butter mixture together, and then fold in the mix-ins.

4. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, depending on whether you like your cookies soft and chewy (underbake them) or browned and crunchy (bake just shy of burnt).

*if you like sweeter, chewier, moister cookies, then use 1 cup. If you like less sweet, crunchier cookies then use 1/2 cup - but be sure to flatten them a little bit before baking because they will spread less.

Cauliflower Watercress Soup

2011-03-31T23:26:00.000-07:00

A deliciously silky smooth and healthy cauliflower watercress soup from Martha Stewart's cookbook. We used freshly picked watercress from Stevens Creek. Ingredients are simply butter, onions, chicken stock, cauliflower, watercress, salt and pepper, and a drop or two of cream for garnish.

Chocolate Raspberry Green Tea Mousse Cake

2011-03-31T17:51:00.001-07:00

Layers of chocolate genoise soaked with rum syrup, layered with raspberry coulis, fresh raspberries, matcha mousse, and topped with chocolate truffle ganache and raspberry jelly.

Mango Mousse Coconut Bavarian Cream Cake

2011-03-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Layers of rum soaked genoise with mango mousse and coconut bavarian cream, topped with a glassy layer of lemon glaze, inspired by a cake found on Tartelette's gorgeous blog.

A Delicious Dinner

2011-03-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

Yirenmi - a type of barley - with yum yums from tofu dish below:

This was a mixture of medium firm tofu, wood ear, fermented soy beans, napa cabbage, ground pork, scallions, tomatoes, red chili pepper, and deliciousness.

Vietnamese Oxtail Soup

2011-03-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

Oxtails are so delicious. We added tendon and brisket meet, and cooked it according to the recipe for Vietnamese beef noodle soup (without the noodles).

THE BROTH
2 onions, halved
4" nub of ginger, halved lengthwise
5-6 lbs of good beef bones, preferably leg and knuckle
1 lb of beef meat - chuck, brisket, rump, cut into large slices [optional]
6 quarts of water
1 package of Golden Flower Brand Pho Spices [1 cinnamon stick, 1 tbl coriander seeds, 1 tbl fennel seeds, 5 whole star anise, 1 cardamom pod, 6 whole cloves - in mesh bag]
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt (halve if using regular table salt)
1/4 cup 3 Crabs Brand fish sauce
1 inch chunk of yellow rock sugar (about 1 oz) - or 1oz of regular sugar

THE BOWLS
2 lbs rice noodles (dried or fresh)
cooked beef from the broth
1/2 lb flank, london broil, sirloin or eye of round, sliced as thin as possible.
big handful of each: mint, cilantro, basil
2 limes, cut into wedges
2-3 chili peppers, sliced
2 big handfuls of bean sprouts
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha hot sauce

directions:

Char: Turn your broiler on high and move rack to the highest spot. Place ginger and onions on baking sheet. Brush just a bit of cooking oil on the cut side of each. Broil on high until ginger and onions begin to char. Turn over and continue to char. This should take a total of 10-15 minutes.

Parboil the bones: Fill large pot (12-qt capacity) with cool water. Boil water, and then add the bones, keeping the heat on high. Boil vigorously for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse the bones and rinse out the pot. Refill pot with bones and 6 qts of cool water. Bring to boil over high heat and lower to simmer. Using a ladle or a fine mesh strainer, remove any scum that rises to the top.

Boil broth: Add ginger, onion, spice packet, beef, sugar, fish sauce, salt and simmer uncovered for 1 1/2 hours. Remove the beef meat and set aside (you'll be eating this meat later in the bowls) Continue simmering for another 1 1/2 hours. Strain broth and return the broth to the pot. Taste broth and adjust seasoning - this is a crucial step. If the broth's flavor doesn't quite shine yet, add 2 teaspoons more of fish sauce, large pinch of salt and a small nugget of rock sugar (or 1 teaspoon of regular sugar). Keep doing this until the broth tastes perfect.

Prepare noodles & meat: Slice your flank/london broil/sirloin as thin as possible - try freezing for 15 minutes prior to slicing to make it easier. Remember the cooked beef meat that was part of your broth? Cut or shred the meat and set aside. Arrange all other ingredients on a platter for the table. Your guests will "assemble" their own bowls. Follow the directions on your package of noodles - there are many different sizes and widths of rice noodles, so make sure you read the directions. For some fresh rice noodles, just a quick 5 second blanch in hot water is all that's needed. The package that I purchased (above) - needed about 45 seconds in boiling water.

Ladling: Bring your broth back to a boil. Line up your soup bowls next to the stove. Fill each bowl with rice noodles, shredded cooked beef and raw meat slices. As soon as the broth comes back to a boil, ladle into each bowl. the hot broth will cook your raw beef slices. Serve immediately. Guests can garnish their own bowls as they wish.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Sundae

2011-01-21T21:17:00.000-08:00

Homemade Asparagus Pasta

2011-01-17T19:28:00.000-08:00

Tea Braised Lamb Stew

2011-01-17T19:17:00.000-08:00

Tea Braised Lamb Stew (inspired by Ming Tsai's recipe)

1 1/2 pounds lamb stew meat, preferably shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 cup Five-Spice Chile Tea Rub or Cumin Rub (recipe below)
3 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
1 large onion, cut into 1-inch dice
2 carrots, cut into 1-inch thick slices on bias
1 large celery stalk, cut into 1-inch dice
2 cups dry red wine
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, if needed
1 large baking potato, cut into 1-inch dice
1 large sweet potato, cut into 1-inch dice

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the lamb and the rub and toss to coat the lamb. Rub the seasonings into the lamb. Allow the lamb to flavor for 15 minutes.
Heat a small stockpot over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl to coat the pot. Working in batches if necessary, add the lamb and brown it on all sides; remove the pieces to a plate and set aside. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pot and swirl to coat the bottom. Add the onions, carrots, and celery and sweat for 5 minutes. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half, 6 to 8 minutes. Return the lamb to the pot, add enough water to cover the lamb, and bring it to a simmer. Season, if necessary, with salt and pepper. Continue to simmer until the lamb is tender, 1 3/4 to 2 hours, adding the potatoes in the last 30 minutes (do not add potatoes too early!). Serve in bowls.

Cumin Rub

1.5 Tbsp cumin

1 Tbsp Sichuan peppercorn

3 Guiyang red chile peppers

1 Tbsp sea salt

1 Tbsp Korean ground red chili pepper

1 Tbsp grated garlic

1 Tbsp grated ginger

Grind the Guiyang red chile pepper and Sichuan peppercorn. Mix with the other dry ingredients. Mix in the grated garlic and ginger when ready to rub on meat.

What to do with Whipped Cream

2010-12-31T15:44:00.001-08:00

Gong Bao Ji Ding and He Tao Xia

2010-12-31T15:42:00.000-08:00

Homemade Pickled Vegetable Fried Rice

2010-12-31T15:41:00.000-08:00

Tofu Cheesecake with Honey

2010-12-31T15:39:00.000-08:00

Creamy Polenta with Poached Egg and Bacon Mushrooms

2010-12-27T07:59:00.001-08:00

Avocado Caprese

2010-12-27T07:58:00.001-08:00

This salad is a twist on the classic caprese, using avocado, olives, and dill in addition to mozzarella and balsamic vinegar.

Avocado Caprese

ripe tomatoes, sliced

1 ripe avocado, sliced

buffalo mozzarella, sliced

1 Tbsp chopped dill

2 olives, finely diced

balsamic vinegar

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt

pepper

1. Layer the plate with tomatoes, avocado, and mozzarella.

2. Garnish with dill and olives.

3. Drizzle on balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

4. Using the salt and pepper grinders, add some sea salt and black pepper.

Morimoto Tofu Cheesecake

2010-12-27T07:57:00.001-08:00

Lamb Dumplings

2010-12-23T09:20:00.000-08:00

Dumplings remind me of the holidays...maybe it's because we tend to make them around this time of year. The multi-step process lends itself well to having many hands helping in the kitchen - as kids, we would smash the dough disks but several years and hundreds of dough disks later we've finally proven ourselves worthy of the meatball-wrapping step. Seriously, why do grown ups get all the fun?

These are filled with lamb. The recipe is very inexact: a bunch of ground lamb, a smaller bunch of jiu cai (chives I think), some shaoxing jiu (Chinese rice wine), some salt, sugar (?), ginger, soy sauce, water, shrimp. I don't know why we never follow a written recipe - maybe it's to create that intense moment of anticipation right before you bite into the first dumpling, since every time the dumplings are different.

Or maybe it's just because we're lazy.

Cutting the dough. The trick is to turn the rope 90 degrees every cut so you don't end up with flatter disks each time.

Rolling the dough disks. The trick is to make the edges thinner than the middle. I did this job for a while too before graduating to the elite meatball-wrapping step.

The filling. According to our mom you have to mix it vigorously in one direction with chopsticks and a little water to loosen up the meat.

A tablespoon of meat is how much we usually put.

The pinching step!

I like to enter my dumplings in beauty contests with the other dumplings on the plate. See that one in the upper right? Isn't she beautiful?

They're ready after they float and boil two more times.

My dad made the garlic sauce with a makeshift mortar and pestle. Other ingredients: Chiakang (?) black vinegar and soy sauce.

Dinner is served! Happy holidays. :)

Ming Tsai Sesame Noodle Salad

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

We love Ming Tsai's new cookbook, Simply Ming One-Pot Meals. The Asian fusion recipes are delicious, easy, and healthy, and there are gorgeous pictures for every recipe.

As Ming says, recipes should serve as a jumping off point for your own creative meals - you shouldn't copy a recipe line for line because that's just sort of extremely boring, dontcha agree? (Maybe the real reason is that we're just too lazy to go out and fetch the exact ingredients and too cheap to let the ingredients in our fridge rot, but that doesn't sound like a very chivalrous reason, so we'll just pull the creativity excuse.)

We used soba noodles instead of egg noodles, and radishes, carrots, a soft-poached egg, nori, sesame seeds, shaved parmesan cheese, and blanched mung bean sprouts instead of romaine lettuce, chicken, cucumber, and red bell peppers, as Ming's recipe suggested. For the sauce, we used freshly ground Whole Foods peanut butter, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine, sliced scallions, red chili sauce, soy sauce, some Chinkiang black rice vinegar, and maybe 1/2 cup of hot water to make the sauce runny enough to coat the noodles effectively. I think grated fresh ginger and miso would be good additions too!

These noodles were phenomenal - the peanut sesame sauce is a perfect balance of sweetness, saltiness, spiciness, tangy-ness, and umami, and clings wonderfully to the radishes, noodles, carrots, and bean sprouts. The one thing we would change is to include some meat! Maybe some chicken or bacon or beef or ground pork would be delicious.

Sesame Noodle Salad (serves 4)

8 ounces soba noodles

2 carrots, shredded with food processor

2 radishes, shredded with food processor

2 cups mung bean sprouts, blanched

freshly ground pepper

toasted sesame seeds

slow-poached egg

nori (dried seaweed)

shaved parmesan and gryuere cheese (optional)

Peanut Sesame Sauce

1 cup creamy freshly ground peanut butter

2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup Chinese black rice vinegar

2 Tbsp Shaoxing wine or dry sherry

1 cup thinly sliced scallions, white and green parts

1 Tbsp hot chili sauce (Lao Gan Ma brand is what we used)

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1. Cook noodles as directed and divide among bowls or plates.

2. Mix sauce ingredients together, adjusting water level until it has the consistency of European style yogurt.

3. Assemble your own bowl or plate, adding veggies and sauce and tossing to coat. Garnish with sesame seeds, egg, nori, and cheese, as desired.

Momofuku milk bar cereal milk ice cream

2010-12-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gents, prepare yourself for the yummiest ice cream in the world.

If you are stuck indoors thanks to good ol' California rain this holiday season, I highly recommend investing in an ice cream maker so you can start churning out homemade ice cream. I also highly recommend investing in a heavy duty treadmill and/or Stairmaster, probably the only better thing than homemade whipped cream to go with said ice cream.

This ice cream uses milk that has been steeped in caramelized corn flakes. If you have never met a caramelized corn flake, consider the following dialog:

(Scene: kitchen, two baking sheets spread with caramelized corn flakes have been resting on the counter for some time)

Mom: Ohmygosh. These are so good.

Me: What? You ate some?? They're supposed to be fo-

Dad: Yeah, they're so good.

Me: You too??

Mom and Dad: Oh, we weren't supposed to?

Me: Uh, no, not really, these are for ice cream. That's okay. How much did you eat?

Mom: Ah, maybe this much (gestures toward cupped palm)

Me: ...there's one and a half sticks of butter in there!

Due to this unfortunate incident, we may have used less caramelized cornflakes than the recipe called for, but the world did not end at all. In fact, it is just beginning.

CEREAL MILK ICE CREAM RECIPE (from Momofuku Milk Bar)

Ingredients

For Caramelized Cornflakes (makes 18 oz; recipe adapted from Momofuku)

10 oz cornflakes
2 oz nonfat dry milk powder
4 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt (we used a teeny bit less because our tongues aren't calibrated to average salt levels)
6.5 oz (one and a half stick) unsalted butter, melted

For Cereal Milk (approximately 1 cup):

4 cups whole milk
14 oz caramelized cornflakes

For Cereal Milk Ice Cream (makes approximately 3,5 cups):

1 cup heavy cream
1 cup cereal milk
1/2 cup sugar (we used a teeny pit less)
1/4 tsp salt (we omitted this b/c the cornflakes added enough saltiness to the cereal milk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg yolks
4 oz caramelized cornflakes, to serve

Method

To prepare the caramelized cornflakes, preheat your oven to 275 F (140 C). Put the cornflakes in a large mixing bowl and crush them with your hands a few times. Combine milk powder, sugar and salt in another bowl, give it a stir and set aside. Add the melted butter to the cornflakes and then the sugar mixture and toss to combine. Spread out on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven until they caramelize, for approximately 35 minutes. Remove and let cool to room temperature.
To prepare the cereal milk, combine 14 oz of caramelized cornflakes and milk in a large mixing bowl and let steep for an hour. Strain the milk with the help of a fine-mesh sieve (make sure to press on the cornflakes with a spatula to extract as much liquid as possible), strain once again (through a finer sieve or cheesecloth this time), pour it in a container and set aside.
To prepare the cereal milk ice cream, pour the heavy cream in a medium bowl and place it in the fridge until needed. Combine cereal milk, sugar, salt and vanilla extract in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.
In the meantime, in a medium pot, whisk together egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the yolks while whisking constantly. Place over medium heat and stir until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon.
Pour the custard through a strainer into the chilled heavy cream and stir to combine.
Chill the mixture overnight, then freeze it in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Serve with the remaining caramelized cornflakes.

recipe from http://cafefernando.com/momofuku-milk-bars-cereal-milk-ice-cream/

S'more Cookie

2010-12-05T20:02:00.000-08:00

S'mores Cookies

Ingredients

1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1.75 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

2 Hershey bars (I used dark)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with foil.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in flour mixture until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and graham cracker crumbs. Drop cookie dough 1/8 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. You should fit 12 cookies per sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven and remove from oven. Push 3 to 4 marshmallows and a piece of a hershey's bar into each cookie. Return to oven and bake for 3-4 more minutes. Cool on counter.

Mochi Herb Cakes

2010-08-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

Our mom made these yummy mochi herb cakes. I can't tell you what the herb is because it's a family secret. Just kidding, I just don't know what it's called. It looks like a weed and has tiny yellow flowers, and we picked it by the fence surrounding the golf course at Blackberry Farm. But you could probably use any herb that tastes good with mochi.

To make them, put mochiko, finely chopped herbs, a pinch each of salt and sugar, and water in a bowl, and mix until it forms a ball, adding water as needed. Form into small patties and brown 1-2 minutes per side in a skillet with some oil over medium high heat until translucent all the way through.

Bran Poop Muffins

2010-08-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

They look like poop, help you poop, and taste like...anything but poop! At just 150 calories each, these muffins are nothing like the gummy “healthy bran muffins” that are hard to swallow. No, these babies are gloriously tender and moist with a fragrant orange hint from the zest, and have a lovely bran texture. The secret lies in the use of pureed dried fruit, banana, and yogurt. Only ¼ cup of brown sugar sweetens these muffins, which are flavored with the natural sweetness of dried fruit and banana. Walnuts rather than raisins stud these muffins with crunch and flavor, contrasting well with the toasty, lightly sweetened muffin flesh.

Do not fill the wells until heaping full; the batter will spill out of the tin and onto the oven floor, infusing your kitchen with forest fire scent. If you don’t have raisins, you can easily substitute any dry fruit such as apricots, cranberries, or blueberries with equally delicious results. Be careful to toast bran until just fragrant, and not let it burn.

Bran Poop Muffins

Makes 12

2 cup (125g) wheat bran
1 cup (120g) dark raisins or other dried fruit
1 cup, plus 1/2 (370ml total) cup water
1/2 cup (120g) plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 tsp of fresh orange zest (unsprayed)
1 banana, mashed
1/4 cup (50g) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil (canola works well)
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/2 cup (65g) flour
1/4 cup (35g) whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or spray with nonstick spray.

2. Spread the wheat bran on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for six to eight minutes, stirring every 3 minutes so it cooks evenly. Be careful not to let the bran burn; remove bran after you smell a lovely toasted aroma. Let cool for 5 minutes.

3. While the bran is toasting, heat 1 cup (135g) of the raisins with 1/2 cup (120ml) of the water. Simmer for ten minutes, or until the water is all absorbed. Puree the raisins in a measuring cup with an immersion blender (food processor or blender work too) until smooth.

4. In a large bowl, mix together the toasted bran, yogurt, 1 cup (250ml) water, then mix in the raisin puree, orange zest, brown sugar, and mashed banana.

5. Stir in the oil, egg and egg white.

6. Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and pour into wet ingredients. Stir gently with rubber spatula until the ingredients are just combined.

7. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, filling the tins all the way but not mounding the batter (batter may overflow onto oven floor and burn). Because muffin tins can vary in size, don’t try to make exactly 12 muffins; just fill the tins to the top. Sprinkle the tops with chopped walnuts, if using.

8. Bake for 21-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in one of the middle muffins comes out clean (a few tiny dry crumbs are okay, but no mushy stuff).

Greens

2010-08-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

Broad beans - sweet and delicious! Aren't they cute?

Steamed artichokes. Did you know that artichokes have a substance that inhibits our sweet receptors, and that the next bite of food we take sweeps these guys off of the receptors, and that this resets our sweet receptors and makes us perceive sweetness? Isn't that cool? No wonder food tastes sweet after a bite of artichoke.

Fresh chopped scallions from farmers market...mmmm

Blanched bok choy. Nature is so beautiful, no?

White Chocolate Chunk Almond Cookies

2010-08-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

We've made a lot of cookies, and these are some of the best. We mistakenly left out the white sugar, and made the cookies with just brown sugar. This worked even better because the chunks of super sweet and milky white chocolate chunks provided greater flavor contrast to the nuttier, less sweet (but still decently sweet) nutty buttery cookie. If you like white chocolate or almonds, or butter, you have to try these! Use good butter - Clover organic is the one we used, and we think it really made a difference by producing a richer, fuller butter flavor.

White Chocolate Chunk Almond Cookies (adapted from "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies" from Cook’s Illustrated May/June 2009)

1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

14 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted fresh organic butter

½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar (we forgot to add this and it was still delicious)

¾ cup (5¼ ounces) packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon table salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1¼ cups white chocolate chunks

¾ cup chopped almonds, toasted (optional)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whish for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use a #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet.

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

Lunch at Apple

2010-08-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Yummy salad with organic fruit, and a made-to-order thin crust brick oven pizza topped with rosemary potatoes, ricotta and another-cheese-I-can't-remember-the-name-of, and roasted tomatoes.

Black Bean, Tomato, Apricot Salad

2010-08-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

Pre-chopped romaine lettuce that comes in a bag is disgusting. But if you buy it fresh and cut it yourself, it's nutty, crisp, and fresh. (Ain't I profound? If it's fresh, it's fresh) Throw in some plump organic raisins, quartered farmers market sweet cherry tomatoes, toasted slivered almonds, sweet black beans, and chopped dried Turkish apricots. Why Turkish, you say? I wish I had a smart answer but the truth is that they were on sale.

Nuo Mi Fan (sticky rice)

2010-08-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

Quite possibly one of the most delicious things on Earth. Just steam some sticky rice with yi ren mi (I think it's called coicis seed in English) in the pressure cooker for 1 hour and let it sit in there for another hour to allow everything to get really soft and happy. Then add something nutty, sour, salty, sweet, meaty, and fresh. Here's the breakdown:

peanuts - toasted and crunchy (nuking them in the microwave for a minute or two usually does the trick)

pickled mustard leaves stir fried with pork belly meat, soy sauce, miso, and sugar

cilantro and scallions

sugar and salt, to taste

You can also add chili oil, Chinese sausage, thin egg strips, pickled radish, and anything else that strikes your fancy.

Asian flavoring agents

2010-08-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

Ready to be wrapped up and thrown into the hot tub! With a nice fatty chunk of pork belly. Why am I writing in fragments you ask? Good question my friend. That is because this is a very fragrant pouch of happy flavoring agents! Ho ho, I am too funny.

By the way, if you wanted to make one for yourself, just combine a bay leaf, some star anise, scallion white parts, sichuan peppercorns, dried red chili pepper, shiso (perilla) leaf, cilantro ends, cumin, fennel, and this Chinese spice (the round white things in the bottom left) called "kou ren." Wrap it all in a triple layer of cheesecloth, tie it, and throw it into a pot of water with whatever you want to add deliciousness to. Sorry, that does not include your hubby.

I don't want to give it away in the title!

2010-08-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

What is this? Of course you are stumped! Now don't even try to pretend. Nope, that's not right. Here's another hint:

Give up? Thought you would. Never in a million years would you have guessed that it is a...(drumroll please)...fig! Haha, got you, no? What do you mean it was obvious? You cheated didn't you? You little crook...

Fool Proof Sponge Cake

2010-07-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

Got this recipe from Baking Illustrated. Soft, vanilla-y, spongy, light, milky, buttery, eggy in a good way...what did you say? Your life is still not complete? I'm sorry, my ears really do trick me these days. Speechless? Ah, now that's much better.

Foolproof Sponge Cake

1/2 cup cake flour (2 oz)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (1.25 oz)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar (can probably decrease to 2/3 cup if you dislike sugar)
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease two 8-or-9-inch cake pans and cover pan bottoms with rounds of parchment paper or use paper baking cups.

Whisk/sieve the flours, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside. Heat the milk and butter in microwave on low power just until the butter melts. Add vanilla extract; keep the mixture covered and warm.

Separate the eggs, placing the whites in a large, oil-free metal mixing bowl and reserving the yolks in a small bowl. With hand-held electric whisk, beat the whites on medium-low speed until foamy. Gradually add 6 tablespoons of the sugar and the cream of tartar and continue to beat the whites to soft, moist peaks.

Beat the egg yolks with the remaining 6 tablespoons sugar on medium-high speed until the mixture is very thick and turns a pale lemon color, about 5 minutes. Scrape beaten yolks onto the whites, but do not mix.

Sprinkle/sieve the flour mixture over the egg mixtures and fold gently with a large rubber spatula until barely combined, 12 strokes if you're lucky. Make a well in one side of the batter and pour the melted butter mixture into the bowl. Fold gently with a large rubber spatula until the batter shows no trace of flour and the whites and yolks are evenly mixed, about 8 strokes. Also make sure that you have incorporated the butter into the mixture. There should not be visible grease/oil as you pour the mixture into the cake pans.

Immediately pour the batter into the prepared pans or scoop into the paper cups. Bake until the cake tops are light brown and feel firm and spring back when touched, about 16 to 18 minutes for 9-inch cake pans and 20 to 22 minutes for 8-inch cake pans.

Cool completely on racks. Run a thin knife around the inside of the cake pans and then invert them onto the racks (or onto cardboard rounds or tart pan bottoms) to release the cakes from the pans. Remove the parchment paper.

Strawberry Almond Genoise Layer Cake

2010-07-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

Baked this for our cousin, Bonnie, for her 23rd birthday! Happy birthday, Bonnie.

It's a vanilla genoise cake, baked in two 8-inch pans, each split into two and soaked with almond vanilla syrup. The cake is filled and frosted with a whipped mascarpone cream and cream cheese frosting with fresh strawberry coulis on the middle two layers, and is decorated with chantilly cream, strawberry coulis, and fresh strawberries and toasted almond slivers. Will post the recipe soon!

Kuromame

2010-07-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Our mom made these delicious Japanese style black beans, cooked in a pressure cooker with soy sauce, sugar, baking soda...and maybe some other secret ingredients. ;) They have a texture like mochi or sticky rice crossed with the perfect chestnut, and impart a sweet, savory, earthy black bean flavor. The beans in this photo were made from a variety imported from Japan, called Tanba Kuromame - I think they were $12 for about a handful. (...so ask your friend with big hands to buy them for you)

Almost The World's Best Popovers

2010-07-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

Why almost? Well, first the pros:

1. They are HUGE

2. The crust is nice and golden and crispy

3. The inside is moist, tender yet chewy, and custardy

What could make them better?

1. A sprinkling of cheese on top

2. Slightly less salt

3. We can live with huge, but we will live for ginormous (maybe turn the heat up to 500 next time)

After seeing Tyler Florence's favorite appetizer, giant cheese popovers, we were bitten by the popover bug and just needed to try making some. The guy on TV filled his custard cups all the way to the brim for maximum height, so we tried that but ran out of batter so we made four normal popovers, a midget, and an invisible one.

The key, according to Cooks Illustrated, is to start the popovers baking in a preheated pan with a little bit of hot oil in the bottom. The oven must be very hot initially - 450 degrees, and the pan should be set at the lowest possible rack to allow for maximum rise without burning the top. Later the temperature is turned down to avoid burning the top. In addition, the batter should be whisked until smooth to ensure ample gluten development, and then allowed to rest for 30 minutes for the gluten to relax and loosen, enabling the internal air pocket to push the doughy structure to greater heights. If you are still awake to hear this, they were delicious!

special equipment: 1 popover pan

1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

5 teaspoons vegetable oil

In a blender add the first four ingredients putting the liquid at the bottom. Blend on a low speed until smooth, about 15 seconds. Add melted butter and blend for an additional few seconds. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes before baking popovers.

While the batter is resting, 1 teaspoon oil to each cup and put the pan in the 475 degree oven. Remove the hot pan and evenly divide the batter among the five cups. Immediately return the filled pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 475 F. Do not open the oven during these first 20 minutes. Rotate the pan and reduce the oven temperature to 350 F. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until popovers are nicely browned.

Enjoy hot out of the oven with jam, sweetened condensed milk thinned with soymilk, pesto, or pastry cream.

3-Ingredient Chocolate Cake

2010-07-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

I did not have high hopes for this recipe, which we discovered in The Great Book of Chocolate by David Lebovitz (which is an awesome book, highly recommended). It has three ingredients and not an ounce of fat, but with our recent ice cream craze, we had a ton of egg whites sitting in the fridge begging to be used, to fulfill their lifelong desire to become a delicious dessert.

This cake is not meant to rise a ton because it doesn't have any flour for structure, but it will still be light. It's kinda like a souffle. When I first tried a bite directly out of the oven, I thought it was disgusting - like a paste of fatless bitter chocolate. So we suffocated the cake in plastic wrap and banished it to the fridge, where it spent the next few nights in darkness, accompanied only by some cold apples in the fruit drawer.

One groggy morning while groping around the fridge for some grub, we subconsciously grabbed the chocolate beast and sliced it into thin slices. Topped with some homemade pastry cream, it was amazing! The bitter fatless chocolate perfectly complimented the creamy, rich, vanilla-y silky smooth cream. And surprisingly, the cake was very moist. The intense bitter edge mellowed out as the cake sat in the fridge, and the result was still very chocolately yet not so sour. There are a few criteria for enjoying this cake:

1. You must like dark chocolate, not just milk chocolate.

2. You must have an open mind - don't think "rich chocolate cake." Think "exotic souffle-like dessert!"

3. You must be desperate to get rid of egg whites.

4. You must resist the urge to eat the cake right out of the oven. The chocolate needs time in the fridge to mellow out and for the flavors to blend.

5. You should serve the cake with something creamy, sweet, and vanilla-y. (whipped cream, pastry cream, creme anglaise, mascarpone mousse...you get the idea)

Considering it's so easy to make, and is relatively healthy, and tastes good, we highly recommend you try it.

3-Ingredient Chocolate Cake

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp (135 g) sugar

7 egg whites, room temp

Sift and whisk cocoa and 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar. Whip egg whites gradually with 2 Tbsp sugar until soft peaks. Fold the two together gently in 3 batches. Bake in a 9-inch springform pan with pan of warm water on the rack below (or do a waterbath with a pan that doesn't leak). Bake 35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes, remove from pan, and cool completely. Wrap in two layers of plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge overnight (for best flavor, 36 hours).

Strawberry Stracciatella Ice Cream

2010-07-10T22:08:00.000-07:00

Now we hate to brag, really - it is such a difficult thing to do. But this ice cream seriously is delicious beyond belief, so before you make it, be sure to mentally prepare yourself for the world's best strawberry ice cream. This recipe was adapted from Cook's Illustrated, and makes a smooth scoopable ice cream that is seriously scrumptious.

We bought fresh strawberries and hand picked only the ripest, reddest berries for this ice cream, sacrificing the underripe unfortunate ones for the dreaded fate of snacking on by merciless pearly whites and not-so-pearly whites. The egg yolks are organic, and the heavy cream and whole milk are organic and not ultra-pasteurized and fresh from Straus Creamery, so they had a sweeter taste than ultra-pasteurized cream (Or at least, we tricked ourselves into believing so!). We didn't have vodka so we soaked the berries in rum, and they did not freeze up icy hard, but stayed soft yet chewy. Served with 2% Greek yogurt and mint, it's a perfect summer dessert, if I may say so myself!

Strawberry Stracciatella Ice Cream

makes 1 quart unchurned, a mountain churned

16 ounces (3 cups) hulled and sliced very red fresh strawberries

pinch salt

1 1/4 cup (8.75 oz) white sugar

1 1/4 cup organic fresh whole milk

1 1/3 cup organic fresh heavy cream

7 large organic fresh egg yolks

1 teaspoon juice form 1 lemon

1.5 tablespoons white rum

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

melted high quality dark chocoalte

1. Toss strawberries, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar together in a saucepan. Mash berries gently with fingers until slightly broken down. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until berries have released juices and sugar has dissolved, 40 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, position a strainer over a medium bowl set in a larger bowl containing ice water. Heat the milk, cream 1/2 cup of the sugar, and the salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until steam appears (175 degrees). While milk is heating, whisk yolks and 1/4 cup sugar in medium bowl until pale yellow. Whisk half of the warm milk mixture into yolks, slowly, until combined. Whisk milk-yolk mixture into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring nonstop with wooden spoon until steam appears and foam subsides (180 degrees). Do not boil or the eggs will curdle. Immediately strain custard into bowl set in ice-water bath. Cool the custard to room temperature, stirring occasionally to help it cool.

3. While custard is cooling, set saucepan containing berries over medium-high heat and cook 3 minutes total.Strain the berries, saving the juices. Transfer berries to a small bowl; stir in lemon juice and rum or vodka, then cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge until cold. Stir vanilla and strawberry juice into cooled custard, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and fridge until 40 degrees or lower, 8 hours or more.

4. Pour custard into ice cream machine canister and churn for 20-30 minutes, until the mixture is moving very slowly and no longer increasing in volume. Add strawberries and juice, and churn for 1 minute. Spoon into a chilled airtight container and drizzle melted chocolate over the top in several layers. Freeze at least 2 hours.

Mini Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins

2010-02-23T07:15:00.000-08:00

Hey, these are good for you. Oats will keep your heart strong and blueberries will make you smarter. So you can have your muffin for breakfast and feel good about it too.

Mini Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins (adapted from All Recipes)

Dry:
1 1/4 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet:
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Mix-ins:
1 cup frozen blueberies, tossed in 2 Tbsp flour

Streusel Topping
1/2 cup oats
3 Tbsp white sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp butter

0. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

1. Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl with a fork. Mix wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix streusel topping ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

1.5. Butter a mini muffin tin and drop 1 blueberry into each cup.

2. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour wet mixture into dry mixture, stiring carefully until just combined.

3. Fill muffin cups 3/4 of the way full with batter. Drop 2-3 blueberries on top of each filled cup. Top each with a pinch of streusel topping.

4. Bake for 14-16 minutes, until blueberries are bubbly and tops are golden brown and delicious. Let cool for 4 minutes and enjoy with a glass of milk.

Spicy Salad and Roast Duck

2010-02-22T17:40:00.000-08:00

Avocados and spicy sauce are the perfect topper for this mixed greens salad. And instead of bacon bits, you could try roasted duck skin (we just had the roast duck on the side--it was delicious).

Salad (serves 3)

3-4 cups organic mixed greens

1 small beet, julienne

1/2 avocado, sliced

1/2 cucumber, sliced

1/2 bell pepper, sliced thinly

Spicy Dressing

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp 老干妈 hot sauce

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 Tsp dark vinegar

Arrange salad on 3 plates. Mix dressing in a small cup and drizzle over salad. Garnish with chopped cilantro and thinly sliced scallions. Enjoy with roast duck (we got ours from the deli at the Asian supermarket).

Salmon Sashimi

2010-01-16T22:09:00.001-08:00

Sashimi at a sushi restaurant can cost up to $20, and they give you so little! We bought this gorgeous piece of salmon from a Japanese supermarket and sliced it ourselves. Total cost? Under $7.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-01-16T21:55:00.000-08:00

We combined the chilling-the-dough-for-36-hours step from the NY Times best chocolate chip cookie recipe with the Cooks Illustrated browned butter chocolate chip recipe to create these illegally scrumptious demons. We tried two versions, with and without finely chopped walnuts. The nuts win, in our opinion.

These cookies were crispy on the edges yet chewy in the middle, and had that distinctly delicious hint of browned butter. The few improvements we would make include adding a tangy ingredient to cut through the buttery flavor, like perhaps some orange zest or cranberries, and using a high quality dark chocolate rather than semisweet chips (which were a little too sweet). Of course, some would argue that the addition of cranberries ruins the purity of this classic recipe. There is merit to that assertion, and these cookies are crazy good as is.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1¾ sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar
¾ cup (5¼ ounces) packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped walnuts, raw

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with foil. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.
3. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whish for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain. Refrigerate dough for at least 24 hours, 36 is even better to allow flavors and texture to develop.
4. Use an ice cream scoop to portion out dough, roll into spheres, and position 8 cookies on each baking sheet.
5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

Choclate-espresso Snowcaps

2010-01-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

Chocolate-espresso Snowcaps (recipe courtesy Martha Stewart)

Makes 18.
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons instant espresso
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 cup confectioners sugar, for coating

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, espresso, baking powder, and salt. With an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until well combined; mix in cooled chocolate. With mixer on low speed, gradually add dry ingredients; beat in milk just until combined. Flatten dough into a disk; wrap in plastic. Freeze until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place confectioners' sugar into a medium bowl; working in batches, roll balls in sugar twice.

Place balls on prepared baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies have spread and coating is cracked, 12 to 14 minutes; cookies will still be soft to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Whole Wheat Walnut Cranberry Brownies

2010-01-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be pretty cool to be able to have brownies for breakfast. With 2/3 cup of whole wheat and not as much sugar as most brownie recipes, these are healthy and delicious, not bad for a morning meal. Recipe courtesy MadeHealthier.com, with cranberries and extra walnuts added.

Whole Wheat Walnut Cranberry Brownies

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup 1% milk

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup walnuts, chopped

3/4 cup dried cranberries

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl combine the oil, milk, water, eggs, and vanilla. Now mix everything together including the chocolate chips and walnuts, be careful that you don’t over mix.

Pour the brownie batter into an 8×8 nonstick pan. Drop in a few more chopped walnuts on the top and bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Use a toothpick in the middle of the pan to check if it is done. Enjoy!

Zhong Zi

2010-01-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

Zhong zi is a delicious Chinese food that is basically sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaf and steamed. We added chopped kabocha (squash), flaked roasted duck meat, and goji berries to some of the zhong zi to add some interesting flavors. To eat it, unwrap the leaves and use chopsticks to hold the sticky rice and dip it in white sugar or maple syrup. It's chewy, sticky, and has the refreshing taste of bamboo leaf!

Zhong zi
sticky rice (uncooked, soaked for 1 hour)
bamboo leaves (soaked for 1 hour to soften)
string
mix-ins (kabocha squash, flaked duck meat, goji berries...anything else you think would be delicious!)

1. Take a bamboo leaf and form it into a skinny cone.
2. Fill 1/3 of it with rice, using a chopstick to push the rice all the way into the tip. Make sure you pack the rice tightly but not too tightly that it doesn't give at all when you squeeze it.
3. Add a mix-in, if desired.
4. Add more rice, packing it in with the back of a spoon or your thumb.
5. Add another mix-in, if desired.
6. Add more rice to within 0.5 cm of the rim of your bamboo cone.
7. Fold over the left and right sides of the bamboo leaf, and then fold down the top. Wrap tightly with a string and tie a square knot.
8. Put in a large pot of water and simmer for 4-5 hours until rice is cooked through.
9. To serve, unwrap individual zhong zi and dip in sugar or maple syrup.

Chocolate Cranberry Spice Cookies

2010-01-03T12:17:00.000-08:00

Adapted from Tish Boyle's chocolate cranberry spice cookies (The Good Cookie). Part of the reason for making these was to dispose of the rest of our "mascarpone butter" that resulted from overbeating that finicky mascarpone cheese.

Chocolate Cranberry Spice Cookies

1.5 cups all-purpose flour

6 tbsp Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cardamom (original recipe used cloves)

pinch of salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup mascarpone butter (from overbeaten mascarpone cheese)

3/4 packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1.5 cups coarsely chopped walnuts, plus 20-30 whole walnuts for pressing into tops of cookies

1. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. Use a hand mixer to beat butter and sugars at medium speed until light, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Beat in vanilla extract. Use a fork to add dry ingredients in three additions, mixing until just combined. Stir in cranberries and walnuts. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for an hour.

3. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with foil.

4. Use an ice cream scoop to drop dollops of cookie dough on sheets (12 per sheet). Bake for 15 minutes or until just set but still soft.

Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies

2010-01-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

We used a recipe adapted from Tish Boyle's book, The Good Cookie. Instead of butter, we used butter of mascarpone cheese (...we learned the hard way that marscarpone cheese forms butter when overbeaten) and the cookies turned out just divine. Tender and moist on the inside with a nice browned crust all around, and studded with pistachios, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, and chopped cranberries.

Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup mascarpone butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup chopped toasted unsalted pistachios
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chopped cranberries
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt, and set aside.
3. With an electric whisk, beat butter and sugars and medium high speed until light, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and eggs one at a time, mixing well afer each. Add the flour mixture and blend with a fork until just blended.
4. Transfer half of hte dough to another bowl and set aside. Add cocoa powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg to one half of the dough and gently mix until well blended. Evenly divide the mix-ins and add them to each dough.
5. Fill one side of a tablespoon with the light dough, and the other side with the cocoa dough. Roll both into a ball and flatten into a 1.5-inch diameter disk. The dough will be sticky, so it helps to spray your hands with Pam or cover them with water.
6. Space cookies 1.5 inches apart and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Blueberry Scones

2009-12-30T22:43:00.000-08:00

Adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe. I love blueberry-infused baked goods. I resisted the temptation to make these whole wheat and butter-free. They were rather delicious, in all their heavy-cream-butter-laden-blueberry-bubbling-golden-crusted glory.

Makes 8.

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling tops
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (sadly I did not have this, but I'm sure it'd be good)
1/3 cup heavy cream, plus more for brushing tops
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with rack in center. Place a baking mat on a baking sheet, and set aside.
In a food processor, process flour, 3 tablespoons sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter and pulse until the largest pieces are the size of peas. (I think the scones are flakier if the butter chunks are larger, so don't over-pulse if you like flakiness). Pour butter-flour mixture into a large bowl and stir in blueberries and zest.
Using a fork, whisk together cream and egg in a liquid measuring cup. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients, and pour in cream mixture. Stir lightly with fork just until dough comes together.
Form into large egg-sized balls and place on baking sheet, and press lightly to flatten (should make about 7 or 8 scones). Brush tops with cream, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer scones to wire racks to cool.

Avocado Mousse Sponge Cake

2009-12-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

Avocado Mousse Sponge Cake

What would you do if you found 40 avocados lying on the ground under a big avocado tree that belonged to no one and would just rot away if no one saved them? If you're like us, you'd snatch them up and make an avocado mousse cake. (but even that's not quite enough to use them all up, so we still have 30 or so sitting in our fridge...)

We used the Hot Milk Sponge Cake from The Cake Book (Tish Boyle) and an avocado mousse recipe adapted from wendyywy's blog (by "adapted" I mean we doubled the number of avocados and sort of doubled the rest of the ingredients....it wasn't very exact but in the end it didn't matter too much). After baking the sponge cake in a springform, cut into a 8-inch round cake and slice horizontally into two layers. Put one of the layers back into the springform, pour 1/2 of the avocado mousse over the top and sides, add the other layer and pour the rest of the mousse on top. Garnish with avocado slices, a sprig of mint, and a fork.

Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf

2009-12-26T17:10:00.000-08:00

The rice is infused with a lotus leaf aroma when it is steamed inside the lotus leaf.

We put kabocha (Japanese squash), nagaimo (a delicious white potato-like root vegetable), chopped salted meat, sugar crystals, and zao zi (this sweet dried red berry...I forgot the English name) on top of sticky rice. I think we could've soaked the rice a bit more, as it was a little too chewy in some places. But otherwise, a delightful lotus-leaf infused bundle of yum-yums.

Spicy Fried Rice

2009-12-26T16:50:00.000-08:00

My cousin Bonnie made this delicious fried rice for lunch. The red chili sauce provides most of the salt and can be adjusted depending on how spicy you like your fried rice. There is a wide selection of chili sauces in Asian grocery stores, so depending on the spiciness of the sauce you may need to adjust the amount in this recipe. I think it's pretty hard to go wrong with fried rice; as long as you watch how much salt you add (always taste before deciding to add more), you can put in any combination of diced veggies and flavorings you like.

Spicy Fried Rice

3 eggs, lightly beaten

3 cups steamed white rice

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

2 scallions, chopped

1 tbsp grated ginger

3/4 cup mild red chili sauce

2 tbsp canola oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 carrots, diced

1 cup frozen green peas

2/3 cup seasoned meat or bacon, chopped

1. Heat oil in wok over high heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, set aside.

2. Add eggs and cook over medium heat. Turn over when cooked on one side. Break it up into small pieces with the spatula and set aside.

3. Add red chili sauce to wok and fry until fragrant (1 minute). Add meat and grated ginger and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add white rice and vegetables and stir fry with meat and sauce (3 min). Add soy sauce and the egg and garlic and continue frying for about 4 minutes.

4. Serve with a garnish of chopped scallions.

Blueberry Banana Buttermilk Bran Muffins

2009-12-26T16:25:00.000-08:00

This recipe is adapted from Eating Well's Banana-Bran Muffins recipe:http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/banana_bran_muffins.html. I settled on this one after searching for a whole wheat blueberry muffin recipe that used buttermilk and bran...I guess a blueberry-bran muffin isn't what you'd call a classic muffin flavor, but these turned out okay and they're healthy, as far as muffins go.

Blueberry Banana Buttermilk Bran Muffins

2 large eggs

2/3 cup packed light brown sugar, plus more for sprinkling on top

1 cup mashed ripe bananas, (2 medium)

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup unprocessed wheat bran

1/4 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup whole-wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup frozen blueberries, tossed in 2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 6 large muffin cups with cooking spray.

2. Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in bananas, buttermilk, wheat bran, oil and vanilla.

3. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX! Stir in floured blueberries and half of the walnuts. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups (they’ll be quite full). Sprinkle with walnuts and brown sugar.

4. Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 35-40 minutes. If the tops start browning (or walnuts are on the verge of burning) place a piece of foil on top and lower the oven temperature to 375 degrees.

5. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Natto with Rice and Scallions

2009-12-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

Natto is a Japanese fermented soybean that takes some getting used to, but if you give it a chance you (hopefully) will find that it tastes delicious with white rice, salad, or just by itself. I had this for lunch today and the spiciness of the spicy sauce with the steamy white rice and sharp scallions combined beautifully with the savory fermented beans of the natto.

Natto with Rice and Scallions

2/3 cup cooked white rice

1 tbsp natto

1-2 tsp spicy sauce

chopped scallions

Cook rice according to rice cooker specifications. Serve in a small bowl topped with natto, spicy sauce, and scallions.

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