Eatyet’s Weblog

I don’t like making pancakes usually, I find it labor intensive and messy. Yes, I have trouble juggling the act of pouring (batter), flipping, and keeping them warm. But German pancakes are ridiculously easy and foolproof every time. It’s not a pancake in the fluffy sense; it’s more like a crepe but thicker and has a crispy edge. You will need a well seasoned cast iron skillet and an oven, the physical labor ends when you pour the batter into the skillet and swirl (that is till you take it out and serve).

German pancake (adapted from Real Simple magazine)

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup yogurt(plain, and on the thin side) or milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• dash of cinnamon
• 2 tbsp canola oil
• butter, powder sugar, and cinnamon to top (optional)

Coat cast iron skillet with the oil and place in the oven and preheat to 450º (for at least 15mins). Beat all the ingredients together till smooth. Carefully pour the batter into the hot skillet and swirl it to cover the bottom, quickly push it back into the oven. Bake for 10mins or till puffed and golden (it will deflate once out of the oven). Butter and dust with cinnamon and powder sugar.

-L

According to wikipedia, clafoutis is made with cherries, while ones made with other fruits; are called ‘flognarde’. It’s supposed to be something in between a cake and custard. I tried using a Donna Hay recipe for Plum Clafoutis but I had only two eggs (called for three), no heavy cream and blackberries instead of plums. So with two eggs and a can of coconut milk I manage to make something clafouti-like; it’s on the creamy custard side but still holds it’s shape (not runny).

Blackberry Coconut Clafoutis (or Flognarde)

• 1 can (14oz) coconut milk (full fat)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 pint blackberries (fresh or frozen)
• organic shortening or butter for greasing pan
• sugar to coat pan

Preheat oven to 350º. Mix everything (except blackberries) till smooth. Grease a pan (I used an 8in square glass dish, but a large oval baking dish would be prettier), add about 2 tablespoons of sugar to the dish and swirl it around to coat. Pour batter into dish, and stud with blackberries. Bake for 40-45min till top is browned.

        Fresh organic blackberries aren’t on sale yet, and frozen ones work great here.

-L

I will eventually get around editing (photos) and writing up more soon (I have a backlog). But here’s another quick madeleine recipe for the time being.

It’s also my addition to Mansi’s Monthly Mingle over at http://funnfud.blogspot.com/

 Orange Hazelnut Madeleines

• 1/3 cup organic shortening or butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup hazelnut flour/meal
• 3/4 flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• zest of 1 orange or 1 1/2 tsp orange oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cream together sugar and shortening, then incorporate one egg at a time. Mix till completely blended. Add in hazelnut flour, orange zest (or orange oil), vanilla and mix thoroughly. Then add flour and baking powder, mix briefly till smooth. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease pans with shortening or butter (or cooking spray). You can get make 2 batches of the full sized pans or about 3 batches of minis. Bake for 18-20min (for full sized pans, 13-15 for minis) when the edges just turn golden brown. Cool for 5min before popping them out.

If you have some kind of hazelnut extract or liquor (1-2 tsp) you can leave off the vanilla and really up the hazelnut flavor.

-Lina

Empire Cafe, located off of Westheimer & Dunlavy (Houston, TX) is a quaint little spot that I’ve loved going to for years.  It’s a great place to go on any given day, but especially great on a beautiful day, as they have plenty of outdoor seating. I enjoy going with friends and having a glass of wine with one of their decadent desserts (mmmm Italian creme cake). I behaved and did not get one that night. I know…For shame! I like that it’s within walking distance of the many boutique, thrift, and antique shops down Westheimer.

So this past Friday, my brother, sister and I hit up Empire because my brother wanted the Friday special. Friday special? I ask. See that delicious glazed salmon pictured above with asparagus and other veggies served over rice? That is the Friday special. My brother was kind enough to let us taste a bit of it. Absolutely delicious. The salmon was cooked just right and didn’t have that fishy taste salmon sometimes has.

I started backwards with this post, but my brother also ordered a mojito and I thought it looked pretty interesting. Mojitos are mojitos, but this was darned good. It wasn’t as strong, which I appreciated. I think for most people, you’re not there to get drunk. You’re there to enjoy the atmosphere and have a good drink on a lovely day.  I think next time, I’ll grab a mimosa.

And a meal with my family wouldn’t be complete without an appetizer. That night we had *dips of the world*. An appetizer with baked pita bread and three different dipping sauces; a spinach & artichoke dip, black bean dip, and a marinara sauce. Personally, that spinach & artichoke dip was my favorite. I ate most of it. heh =)

–Chelle

I’m not quite sure why, but I’ve craved pancakes like no other recently. Normally, I make pancakes from scratch for the whole family, but I live alone now and so I’ve got to find quicker alternatives to get my breakfast in before work. Well, I went shopping at Williams Sonoma because I had a gift card there and saw this pancake mix. There were a variety of choices, but I’m a buttermilk kind of girl, so Flappin’ Jack is what I picked.

Now, the recipe calls for 1 cup of mix and then 1 cup of water or milk, but I thought it was a little too liquidy and not quite thick enough for me. So, I’ve been using 1 cup of pancake mix and about 3/4 cup of milk. The pancakes are still super fluffy and oh so tasty. The recipe says it yields about 6 pancakes per cup of mix, but I usually end up with about 3 decent sized pancakes.

I really couldn’t have picked a better pancake mix. It was delicious and I savor every bite. Sure, you can add your favorite fruits, but if you just want a quick buttermilk pancake fix, this will definitely do it for you. I miss the baking and cooking. Till next time!

P.S. The pancake man on the container creeps me out…just a little bit. ^_~

–Chelle

The hubby loves cereal (mainly Nature’s Path Optimum Power) and soymilk in the morning, afternoon, late at night, and whenever he feels like eating something. He doesn’t really miss it when we go weeks without buying any but when it’s there he’ll go thru a box in two days (maybe three). I tried buying in bulk, but it still doesn’t feel like much of a deal. The cheapest organic cereals are plain puffed grains of some sort. I prefer granola, but most of the granola I see at the stores aren’t organic and they are still expensive. A one pound bag of organic rolled oats is moderate in price. To make a bowl of oatmeal you would use less than you would normally consume in a bowl of granola.

So here’s my attempt in trying to solve my cereal dilemma, involving some cheap organic puffed brown rice and organic rolled oats. However, with the added costs of nuts, fruits and other extras, I don’t think I can conclusively calculate it as a real savings. But it’s tasty and makes use of my new glass container.

Granola cereal with almonds, coconut, and raisins

• 2 1/2 – 3 cups rolled oats (I eyeballed it)
• 2 cups puffed rice or kamut
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 2/3 cup flaked coconut
• 2/3 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup golden syrup or maple syrup/rice bran syrup (more or less according to your taste)
• 1 tsp molasses (optional)
• 1 tbsp of oil or more if needed

Makes about 2 1/2 quarts (roughly)

Preheat oven to 350º. Coat large mixing bowl with the oil. Mix everything except the raisins together in the bowl with the liquids. Pour and spread evenly onto a parchment lined sheet pan. Bake for 20mins (or till golden brown), stirring it half way thru. When cooled mix in raisins, and store in an airtight container if you intend to keep for long. The non-airtight container is ok for a day or two (which is exactly how long it’s gonna last here).

Will be making more soon, but I ran out of raisins, and walnuts might be cheaper.

-L

This was the dough after 7 hours in the fridge. This is a 4qt bowl and I also had another 1.5qt bowl of dough.

I finally bought a copy of ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day’ by Jeff Hertzberg, Zoe Francois. For the past year and a half I’ve been working with the ‘No-Knead Bread’ recipe but with more yeast and less than half the incubating time. And the pot baking method really insures great crust every time. With the ‘five minute’ method, the dough is drier than I’m used to, but it’s still considered a wet dough. The refrigeration makes it easier to handle, and the idea of always having readied dough on hand is great. Of course it’s not literally five minutes but it’s less labor intensive than making a batch of cookies or a cake. Hardest part might have been trying to make room in the fridge for the dough.

After resting. The chunk may have been a bit larger than the recommended grapefruit sized 1lb ball.

The book suggests a baking stone and a broiler tray for hot water to create steam (to form a crisp crust). So I went out and bought a cheap round pizza stone. The top of the bread looked perfect but the bottom was not crusty at all. Maybe it’s the stone or my placement of the steam tray (right under it), but the bottom of the loaf was very light and did not form a proper crust. I tried a second smaller loaf and baked it longer, but the bottom still wasn’t browning.

The first loaf.

On the second day, I tried baking a loaf in my enameled cast iron pot. I couldn’t slide the dough in perfectly but it proofed up beautifully. It was sort of football shaped while the other loafs came out more disk shaped. The pot once again made the perfect crust all around and a lighter crumb inside (much larger holes). Also, the dough has gained a little more flavor on the second day. There’s enough dough left for one large loaf or two small ones. Maybe I can mix new dough into the old and build on the flavor?

-L

Micro greens.

Every year, my herb aspirations grow. I don’t have the greenest thumbs but I keep trying. This year I am growing cilantro again which I haven’t tried in years. I always screw up and they go straight to seed. Last year I had pretty good luck with basil, rosemary, oregano and micro greens (which were zero effort). The rosemary and oregano had survived the winter and started to grow on their own since March, and some thyme that didn’t really do so well are also making a comeback. I sowed the seeds for basil, cilantro, dill and micro greens a few weeks ago and everything is sprouting. I’ll give the micro greens another week or so before I start trimming.

These are wet pots, they are terra cotta inside glass which you fill with water and it’ll stay moist for 2 weeks. Basil for indoors.

This is the big outdoor pot of basil.

This is mint and chives I left in a box over winter. They never really got very tall.

I have 3 pots for cilantro, fingers crossed.

Oregano, the other half of the box held a rosemary plant which has been transplanted to a larger pot. I added some more oregano seeds to the empty side, hopefully the oregano will also start to expand on it’s own.

The rosemary was very reddish, it’s slowly getting greener. I hope it will grow into a small bush.

Don’t know how the thyme will fare this year. I had to transfer boxes so it’s kind of a mess.

And http://www.terracycle.net/main_plant_food.htm for organic fertilizers made from worm poo.

 -L