Cinnamon apple madeleines, using coconut oil

I finally got the bump in the madeleine.

I haven’t baked madeleines much lately. The non-stick pans are great. I’ve switched to coconut oil for baking in the last few months. It’s healthier and better for the environment than palm oil. Measuring coconut oil can be hard, depending on the weather it can be either solid or liquid. In the summer months it’s clear looking and runny, like a vegetable oil. When I put it in the fridge it became too hard to scoop out.

Coconut oil melts at about 76°F. Since the weather has cooled, the coconut oil is a soft solid at room temperature. When you spoon it, it resembles large clumps of wax, not smooth like palm shortening. I eyeball the measurements usually, but you can melt it and pour into measuring cups for more precision (and let it re-solidify if you want a solid shortening). I don’t find the taste of coconut very prominent in the end results, but if you really hate coconut then you might notice it. Buying it in the larger jars makes the price more reasonable, and it does last a long time (shelf life and usage).

Cinnamon apple madeleines

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar*
• 1 tsp molasses*
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1/3 cup melted coconut oil**
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinch of salt

*or a scant 2/3 cup brown sugar

** you can use melted butter or organic shortening instead

For more of an apple flavor, maybe add a splash of apple brandy.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix sugar and molasses thoroughly, beat in eggs, apple sauce, coconut oil, and cinnamon. Then mix the rest of the dry ingredients till smooth. Fill madeleine pans and bake for about 12mins, till the edges are browned. This makes 2 dozen full size madeleines.

The side scraping paddles are great for brownie batter too.

-Lina

smoked salmon brown rice sushi

Leftover short grain brown rice (short grain white rice always good too), the last few pieces of smoked salmon in the package (smoked wild coho salmon, but any kind works), and half a cucumber = quick sushi. With the saltiness of the salmon, you don’t have to season the rice or use any soy sauce.

Refer to http://eatyet.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/egg-nori-roll/ for rolling instructions.

-L

Curry quinoa lentils and brown rice

It’s the end of the month and I’ll push this one over the finish line. I like to get at least one post per month. This is healthy whole grains, high in protein, tasty, and way easy. And everyone should have a rice cooker.

Curry quinoa lentils and brown rice pilaf(?)

• 2/3 cup quinoa
• 2/3 cup brown rice
• 1/3 cup lentils (any type that is whole with skin)
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 dried chili
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cup water

Wash and strain the grains, if you aren’t washing it then you’ll need more water (1/2 cup), but quinoa requires washing. Put everything in a rice cooker, and let it cook on regular.

If using the stove top, put everything into a small heavy bottom and bring to a boil with the lid on, then turn it down to a low simmer and cook covered for 35-40mins. Remove bay leaf and chili, give it a mix in the pot before serving.

You can use vegetable or chicken stock if you like, just watch the salt. This goes great with almost anything.

-L

Amaretti blueberry shortcake

This was the birthday cake I made for my grandmother a few weeks ago. Like the Japanese style strawberry short cake, this is 2 layers of sponge cake with cream chantilly (whipped cream) as frosting. The crumbs are crushed amaretti cookies.

Amaretti blueberry shortcake

sponge cake:

• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract + 1/2 tsp almond extract (or just 1 tsp of amaretto)

cream chantilly (whipped cream):

• 1 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract + 1 tsp almond extract (or amaretto)

rest:

• apricot preserve
• 1 pint of fresh blueberries
• 8 to 10 amaretti cookies
• parchment paper

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs and sugar till very pale yellow and is 3-4 times the original volume using a mixer. Cut parchment paper into circles to fit two 8in round cake pans (fold the paper in halves till you can’t anymore and snip the ends to fit). Oil pan with the parchment thoroughly otherwise it’d be hard to get the bottom out of the pan. Sift in flour and baking powder, fold with large metal spoon and add the vanilla while folding. When fully incorporated pour into pans and bake for 25mins. Check the other cake post for more images.

Beat cream and sugar till it forms soft peaks, add extracts and beat a little more. Put away till cake is completely cooled.

When cakes are cooled peel off the parchment paper, spread on apricot preserve, cover layer with blueberries then spread the whipped cream over. Put on the next cake layer, and thin coat of preserve. Frost cake with the remaining cream.

Crush about 8 or 9 amaretti cookies in either a food processor or in just a freezer bag with something heavy. To get the crumbs on the cake you will need either a cake stand or a second person holding the plate of cake on an angle over a large baking sheet to catch run off.

Top with any remaining blueberries. If you don’t have amaretti cookies, you can just crush up nilla wafers, ginger snaps, graham crackers, or almonds.

-Lina

Sweet potato latkas

some edges got a little too dark, watch the oil temps

Sweet potatoes are something I’ve been experimenting with recently. In general I don’t like really sweet vegetables (yams, pumpkin, squash, carrots, parsnips, etc.) But they (sweet potatoes, and the other veggies) are very good for you, high in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. In the coming days I will post more on sweet potatoes.

Latkas are potato pancakes that can be made in different ways. They can be served plain or topped with almost anything; apple sauce, sour cream, or just ketchup (personal fav).

• 1 medium/large sweet potato*
• 1 small/medium onion*
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp  pepper
• oil for frying

* the ratio is about 3:1 of sweet potato to onion

Peel then shred sweet potato and onion, mix together with the rest of the ingredients. Heat up a heavy bottom pan (I prefer cast iron) with 1/4 – 1/2 inch of oil on medium high. I used grape seed oil, it has a very high smoking point, great for frying. Scoop mixture into pan (about 1/4 – 1/3 cup per portion), try to spread out mixture to about 4 inch in diameter, it should be a thin layer. When edges turn golden brown (3mins?), flip and cook until bottom is browned. Drain on paper towels. Add more oil in pan when needed. They should be crispy on the edges and tender inside. You can also keep them warm in the over while frying up more.

I think used half the mixture (made about and then refrigerated the rest to use the next day.

-L

deconstructed summer rolls

I had all these ingredients to make summer rolls but I ran out of rice wraps before I could use up all the filling. The next day I made lunch out of the leftovers; ‘deconstructed summer rolls’ or ‘cold rice vermicelli with shrimp’. I love cold noodle dishes in the summer and this is very light and refreshing. Makes a small light lunch for two.

• 6-8oz dried rice vermicelli (thin rice noodles)
• 1/2 lb shrimp (cooked and halved lengthwise)
• 1/2 seedless cucumber sliced or shredded
• 1/2 small onion thinly sliced
• 1 carrot shredded (not shown in picture)
• 1 avocado sliced
• cilantro and/or basil (or mint) chopped

dressing:

• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup water (more if you find it too salty)
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• 1 scallion chopped (optional)

Cook noodles according to package instructions, drain, then plunge into large bowl of cold water before draining again. Prep the veggies; you can put the carrot and cucumber thru the shredder attachment on a food processor to save time (just drain out the excess liquid). Mix up the dressing. (You can make more and store in the fridge for later use on noodles or a dipping sauce for dumplings or anything fried.) If you don’t have cooked shrimp on hand, just boil raw shrimp with shells on till they turn totally pink, rinse under cold water, peel and slice. Plate the noodles and assemble everything on top anyway you like and spoon on dressing when you are ready to eat. If you like, you can finish it off with some chopped peanuts or almonds on top.

-Lina

san francisco food tour day 1

From April 17th-21st, I was in San Francisco for the very first time. My sister and I decided to take a sister trip and so we did. I call it a food tour, because honestly, we mostly ate. We saw the sights as well, but food played a large part of our trip. This will probably be a full 4 day series of all the yums we had. We arrived at 11am. Checked in by noon. Hopped on a cable car and started our “day”.

Our first stop for the day was Fisherman’s Wharf. We were complete tourists this time around, and we were okay with that. The weather was beautiful. Sunny, cool breeze, and not too hot. A friend of mine suggested we find Boudin Bakery (http://www.boudinbakery.com/) and get some clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. It was indeed a treat. I’ll probably say this over and over, but the seafood in SF tasted so fresh. The clam chowder was rich in flavor, and the ingredients were well cooked, and the bread was fabulous. It’s also fun to see the bakers making cute animal shaped sourdough breads.

And what meal would be complete without dessert? Lucky for us, Ghirardelli Square was close by. We made our way uphill to Ghirardelli Square (http://www.ghirardellisq.com/ghirardellisq/), which has been there since the late 1800’s.  My sister and I opted for hot fudge sundaes. She had the brownie hot fudge sundae with dark chocolate syrup, while I had the original hot fudge sundae with milk chocolate syrup. I promise it tasted as delicious as it looks. Three scoops of vanilla ice cream, with three pumps of hot fudge, topped with whipped cream and a brownie.

After our tasty treat and a tiring trip back to the hotel, we took a mini break. We stayed at Hotel Nikko (http://www.hotelnikkosf.com/) in Union Square, and let me tell everyone. What a wonderful place to stay. The staff was friendly and extremely helpful with directions and suggestions. The room was gigantic and the bathroom even more so. The beds were cozy and the pillows were fluffy. Nap time was an awesome time. I can’t even say I missed my bed because this was much nicer. Hah. The hotel sports a full service spa, indoor pool, a Japanese fusion restaurant called ANZU, which we didn’t get a chance to eat at, but it’s a pretty good spot according to yelp.

Luckily, Union Square has tons of restaurants. It’s a more touristy spot, with all sorts of shops and malls around the corner, but it was definitely a good place to stay. So after an hour of rest, we ventured out to the surrounding areas and tried to get some shopping in. Shops close early in SF. 8pm on a Friday? That’s just not normal to me. Anyways, we decided we needed to eat again. And, walking back to the hotel, we spotted a sushi joint called Hana Zen (http://www.hanazenrestaurant.com/) and decided to give it a try.

My sister is the sushi fanatic, and she got her usual salmon nigiri and hamachi roll, but that night they were serving otooro, which is fatty tuna belly. Apparently, it’s a delicacy to have and it’s seasonal so you can’t get it just anywhere or any time of year. Other places we went to didn’t have it available. Anyways, the waiter convinced her to try it, and she did. She was soooooo happy because it was so amazingly good that she paid for dinner that night. Hah. I, on the other hand, had the steak terriyaki. I’m somewhat of a steak terriyaki snob and only have 2, now 3, places where I love it. I like meat medium well to well done, and usually when it’s cooked that long, the meat is tough and hard to chew. Well, the meat here was grilled, tender and juicy and it was topped with an excellent terriyaki sauce that wasn’t too tangy or too sweet. Veggies on the side along with steamed rice. It was delicious.

That my friends, concludes day 1. It may not have seemed like much, but it was definitely plenty. We knew the next day was going to be an early day, so we basically called it a night and hopped into our comfy beds. Day 2 is going to be fun filled with pictures from the Cherry Blossom Festival.

– Chelle

Scallion and potatoes

(before baking)

Here I just threw some red scallions and red potatoes together into the oven. It’s really simple and tasty. The scallions really permeate the potatoes and the olive oil.  Spring onions are in season so this would also take advantage of them and the weather (being not too warm to use the oven).

• 2lb red bliss potatoes 
• 1 bunch of scallions or 1 spring onion
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450. Cut potatoes into 4ths or 8ths depending on size. Slice scallions on the diagonal into long pieces.  Toss together with a few tablespoons of olive oil, few dashes of salt and pepper in a baking dish or cast iron pan. Bake for 25mins or till potatoes are done.

 

-L

Fried Goodness at the Texas State Fair

A belated posting…

If your eating sentiments lean towards Templeton the Rat then the Texas State Fair is for you. A fair, is a veritable smorgasbord orgasbord orgasbord…

But woe to you who counts calories and attempts in infiltrate this epicurean fantasy world. Woe, I say! You are not wanted here, nor do you belong. As I’ve grown older I, like Remy in Ratatouille, have become more conscious of what I’m cramming in my cramhole. But once a year I revert to 12-year-old form. Back when I could have reduced logging camp cooks to tears for want of hash and flapjacks. That occasion is the Texas State Fair.

Now I have heard it said that other state fairs, specifically the Minnesota edition, are the best when it comes to the audacity and creativity of their fry cooks. Lies. In Texas, a fried peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwich is considered standard fare (pun intended). This is the Fair that invented (or at least perfected) the corn dog. (More on this later) In Texas, it takes something really crazy to generate interest. Two years ago, someone found a way to fry Coca-Cola.

So every year on the occasion of the annual Texas-Oklahoma football game I endeavor to nomnom as many unusual fried delicacies as I can find. The reason why this post is so late is it takes me awhile to recover. It’s a great time, and the pre-game tension and post-game glories are as important a part of the rarified dining experience as the bubbling cauldrons of oil and the oozing grease.

WARNING: What follows is not for the faint of stomach. Do not attempt this: you take your life into your hands.

The most exotic stuff can be found on the west side of the Cotton Bowl by agriculture exhibits (where you can view a pig with a nutsack the size of a deflated basketball, a sight to behold). As you might guess this is one of the highest traffic areas of the fair, but pleasantly also the area with the cheapest beer (another necessity). My first mission was the winner of the annual fried food contest: Chicken-Fried Bacon.

I was actually surprised this hadn’t happened earlier at the fair, it’s not exactly a new invention. The original iteration of the dish was created (like the Frankenstein monster) by Frank Sodolak, owner of Sodolak’s Orginal Country Inn in Snook, Texas, according the entertaining book Texas Curiosities by John Kelso. Solodok’s version is six double-breaded strips, deep-fried in oil, and served with a side of cream gravy. As Jayne Hurley, a senior nutritionist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, is quoted in the book:

“I’ve never heard of anything worse. They’ve taken fat, they’ve double-coated it in fat, they’ve fried it in more fat, and they’ve served it with a side of fat.”

Yes’m, and God Bless Texas. As you can imagine, Sodolak’s has been a desired road-trip destination for some time for my friends and I, but I have never made it happen. By the by, for you confused Yankees, the term “chicken-fried” doesn’t mean there’s any chicken in the dish. Just like the famous chicken-fried steak -which was invented in Texas- it refers to the way it’s cooked: fried, like chicken. (Fun fact: CFS isn’t actually the state dish of Texas, chili is. It is the state dish of Oklahoma because they weren’t good enough to come up with anything good on their own. They had to borrow from us, just like when they’re searching for college football players. Yet another example how football explains America.)

So back to the CFB…someone either took the idea from Sodolak’s or came up with it on their own (a logical assumption in an environs given to pushing the fried envelope), and figured out a way to prepare it for mass consumption. Thus we have the Fried Food Fanatics’ Holiest of Holies.

Well I’ll be damned if after all that ballyhoo…it wasn’t good. It tasted like the flimsy, artificially enhanced bacon you would get in an elementary school cafeteria, coupled with fried-chicken skin from a third-rate chain. In other words, it tasted like grease, and not good grease. I blame quality of ingredients. CFB at the State Fair was definitely the Icarus of the trip. Hopefully when I finally do make it to Sodolak’s my faith will be rewarded.

So after that disappointment I needed a beer and some dessert. I needed….

FRIED COOKIE DOUGH!! Which was easily the winner of the day. The sharp chocolatiness of the hot fudge and the chocolate chips merged perfectly with the more robust flavor of the dough. In addition, the contrast between the crispiness of the fried shell and the still-creamy dough was a revelation. I will come back for more next year.

Then it was game time. Texas won 45-35, later finished with the same record as Oklahoma, yet got shutout of the Big 12 title game only to watch OU choke in a national championship game the Longhorns could have won. I digress, but this photograph of an artifact that I found under a bleacher gives a good indication of the kind of atmosphere one can expect.

Back to the fray, it was time for a break. And by break, I mean a huge turkey leg, which was probably the best one I’ve ever had. Oh, and another Shiner.

Incidentally, I’ve read that Shiner Bock, once popular in the Northeast, has suffered from a backlash due to the unpopularity of another well-known Texas export. This is unfortunate. My family has long been a Shiner fan and the brewery is only a 20-minute trip down Hwy 90 from our country house. If you don’t like the well-known bock, may I recommend Shiner Blonde (a pale lager which the Spoetzel Brewery has brewed continuously since 1909), Shiner Hefeweizen (an unpasteurized Bavarian wheat beer), or Shiner Black (a very dark brew due to its roasted malts). Besides, don’t hate on our beer. It’s not our fault, our beer laws are bass-ackwards.

Then it was time for Fried Smores, another winner in the annual contest.

As you can see from the picture, the smore (What’s a smore? A bar of chocolate and toasted marshmallow in a graham cracker sandwich so-called because you want “s’more”…you Philistine) is deep-fried and cut diagonally. It was interesting enough. The chewy, sticky and flavorful marshmallow paired curiously with the crispy crust. But the graham cracker flavor, so integral a part of the magical smore combination, was lost in the frying process. While the cookie dough was enhanced by the frying process, after eating the fried smore you couldn’t help but regret that it wasn’t just a regular smore.

While I was waiting in line for the fried smore, my cousin Grace came over with the most consistently great of fried deserts, fried Oreos.

How best to describe the goodness? Like the fried twinkie (which wasn’t sampled on this trip), fried oreos may seem exotic but they’re at pretty much every Tom, Dick, and Harry fair out there. So when I’m on a mission for exotics I tend to overlook them. But they’re a lot like that basketball player on your team that isn’t a star and no one ever talks about but all the sudden you look down and they have 12 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Fried Oreos are a consistent triple-double threat. They’re like the Hakeem Olajuwon to the wow factor and raw power of the fried Twinkie’s Shaquille O’Neal.

I would pick Hakeem/fried Oreos every….single….time. The process of being coated in batter and fried has the same effect on the formerly crispy cookie as dunking it in milk. It’s soft but not soggy, and the chocolate has become almost gooey. I’ve always thought of powdered sugar as possessing a kind of ephemeral sweetness. On most fried desserts the sugar is a kind of unnecessary accoutrement, but on the fried Oreos it does its job perfectly, putting down a perfect base sugariness to the sweetness of the cookie and the batter. Good every time, and I managed to pick a few off of Grace.

My final dessert wasn’t part of the plan, but it hit me in the nostalgia so I had to try it. Fried Honey Bun.

When I was a kid I would eat Honey Buns for breakfast every time I went to my Nana’s house. It was a flavor of my childhood, so I just had to have it fried. Unfortunately the results were predictable. There’s really no point in coating fried dough in fried dough. That’s just redundant. This dish could never figure out what it was doing. Plus the frozen Honey Bun really didn’t take well to frying, parts of it weren’t completely defrosted. Also all the powdered sugar served to do was to collide headlong with the honey and make it too sweet. Ah well, had to be done.

It was about time to go and my body was about to shut down from all the conspicuous consumption, but not before once more sampling the best (and most phallic) food the Fair has to offer…

A Fletcher’s Corny Dog. That’s “corny,” not “corn.” That would be like calling St. Peter’s Basilica “a church.” It’s not just a corn dog, it’s THE corn dog. It demands the “-y.” After you eat a corny dog, you really can’t enjoy corn dogs. They are as shadows, crude pencil drawings of the most beautiful work of art; the most transcendent concerto rendered into Muzak.

Not all corny dogs at the Fair carry the proud name of Fletchers, so take heed. The Fletcher family introduced their corny dogs at the State Fair in the late 30s. If they weren’t the first to look at a hot dog and say, “Needs to be covered in cornmeal and deep-fried,” then they certainly proved to be the best at it. They’re fried creations have proved successful enough to get the heiress to the Fletcher corny dog fortune kidnapped in December! That’s right. Some states have land barons, cattle barons, oil barons, and timber barons. Texas has all that plus corny dog barons. If that ain’t nouveau riche then I don’t know what is.

I don’t think I can really do it justice. However, a word of caution: Yes, there is a ketchup dispenser, but if you put anything but mustard on your corny dog a native Texan has the legal right to sock you in the face. It was in the original list of grievances that the Texan delegates listed in our Declaration of Independence from Mexico signed on March 2, 1836, at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

As always at the State Fair, there is one that got away. I couldn’t find fried guacamole. “I’ll be back next year,” I groaned to myself on the ride home, popping Tums like they were Pez, “if I don’t die right now.”

by Alex (who’ll get an avatar eventually)

Broiled Sardines with Lemon and Herbs

It’s our 1 year anniversary today! It kind of snuck up on us so we didn’t plan anything. But the sardines are really really good.

Broiled Sardines with Lemon and Herbs

• 8 sardines
• 1 lemon
• 2 tsp (or more) coarse sea salt
• 1 heaping tsp coarse ground pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• sprigs of fresh thyme, oregano, or rosemary
• chopped parsley to garnish

Preheat oven to 450. Or if your broiler is separate, preheat that.

Cut Lemon in half and then into eights, altogether 16 slices. I prefer organic lemons in this situation because you will want to eat all of the lemon (with peels).

Prep sardines, I like to cut off the heads then gut them and rinse them under running water to scale them.

Pour oil, salt, and pepper into broiler safe dish, I used a cast iron pan.

Rub each fish inside and out with the oil/salt/pepper.

Stuff a small sprig of herb in each fish along with 2 slices of lemon. Depending on the size of the fish it might not really fit but it’s ok if it’s all hanging out. If using rosemary, use sparingly, it can be overpowering here.

Turn on broiler and put the fish under it for 15-20mins, maybe longer depending on size of fish. It’s done when the fish skin is golden/crisp and the lemons are slightly caramelized. 

Sprinkle on some parsley and the end.

The lemon juice and olive oil with the fish creates a bit of sauce and it’s great with some rice, couscous, orzo, or pasta.

-L