Autumn Pancakes 01/13/2011
 These pancakes are courtesy of a 17lb pumpkin I bought last fall. I have since made everything from pumpkin chilli to banana-pumpkin bread. This pancake, made with spelt flour is probably my favorite. I used the Michael Ruhlman ratio app from my Iphone for the ingredients ratio and it worked perfectly. The basic ratio for pancakes is 4 parts flour, 4 parts liquid, 2 parts eggs, and 1 part butter. In my case I split the liquid ration to 2 parts liquid to 2 parts pumpkin. Ingredients: 8 oz flour 4 oz milk 4oz fresh pumpkin (pureed) 4oz eggs 2oz butter 1.5 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1 tbs sugar (optional) 1 tsp vanilla (optional) Instructions: Combine wet and dry ingredients separately. Add sugar and vanilla optional). Combine wet and dry ingredients, whisking just enough to incorporate them. Cook in a lightly oiled pan over medium heat. Happy Eating. Whole wheat loaf with Milk & Honey 09/29/2010
 The recipe for the above loaf is thanks to Donna Bocian Currie on her blog http://cookistry.blogspot.com/. Her recipe is milk and honey with saffron. I went a slightly different route using coconut milk, honey, & mint. I also used whole wheat flour instead of bread flour. I originally planned to follow the exact recipe, but I didn't have any milk, bread flour, or saffron at home and I didn't want to make a special trip to the grocery store. It made more sense to just use what I had available. I'd never had bread made with coconut milk, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it worked really well. It also came out much better than I expected considering I had my oven on warm instead of bake. The bottom formed a much harder crust than the top, but it was nice and soft which is how I like my bread to be. Here's the link to the actual recipe - http://cookistry.blogspot.com/2010/09/botd-milk-and-honey-bread-with-saffron.html. Coconut Corn Soup 09/27/2010
 I had a delicious soup on Friday morning that stayed on my mind all weekend - a fresh corn soup that was served cold. It was creamy, flavorful and delicious. I knew I had to recreate it for myself. I picked up some fresh white corn from my local farmers market on Saturday morning in anticipation of having corn soup the next day. My version of the soup is a lot less richer that the version I had at the restaurant. Despite loving the soup, I found it a little richer than I would have preferred. In my recipe, I added coconut milk in place of cream. It was really easy to make. I cut come corn off the cob and threw it in a blender with some chopped leeks and coconut milk. At the last minute, I chopped a pear and threw it into the blender as well. After blending, I cooked the soup over medium heat for about 10 minutes. I served it at room temperature with some fresh chopped basil and tomatoes from my garden. It was really yummy!!! I've been craving sweets a lot lately, so this was a great way to enjoy something sweet. Spiced Shortbread Cookie 09/23/2010
 I discovered Peanut Flour at Trader Joe's last week . I love discovering new things to cook with. It is always so exciting! I made up my mind to use the flour in a dessert and in a savory dish. Of course, dessert came first. I really wasn't sure how best to use the peanut flour, but I was open to experiment, which is what I love the most about cooking. I like to have an open mind and let the ingredients lead the way. For the dessert, I settled on a shortbread cookie recipe I really like [flour (3/4 cup), butter, (1 stick) ,raw cane sugar (1/3 cup), cinnamon, (1/4 tsp) cardamom (1/4 tsp), vanilla extract (1 tsp) & orange blossom water (1/4 tsp)], but replaced 1/4 cup of the flour with peanut flour. The peanut flour made the dough very soft, but I managed to press it onto a mini-tart pan and filled up the pan with the dough. I like to make cookies this way, because I can cut the large cookie into wedges after baking. The result was soooooo good! The raw can sugar also known as jaggery, which I got from an Indian grocery store, added a delicious and light maple-like flavor that I fell in love with. The peanut flour added a delicate texture with a burst in your mouth effect. It wasn't overwhelming either. There was just a hint of peanut flavor that complemented the jaggery and the spices really well. For a picture perfect look, I sprinkled some powdered sugar over the top. East meets West 09/15/2010
 Wednesdays are my favorite days at work because its CSA veggies day. We get tons of veggies thanks to the Crown Heights CSA. To motivate my clients to try some of the vegetables they may not be familiar with, I make myself lunch with the veggies. Soon enough they start to poke their heads in the kitchen trying curious about the awesome aroma making its way around the building. Today I made a stir-fry with Chinese broccoli, Leeks, and baby Bok choy seasoned with garlic powder, soy sauce, and fresh rosemary. Its definitely unusual to add rosemary to an Asian dish but, hey it works! It looked and tasted amazing. 3 Comments Mixed Berry Tart with Basil 08/31/2010
 Cooking and baking are a medium through which I express myself or rather a means to channel feelings and emotions I don't know what to do with. When I'm in the kitchen nothing exists for me but the ingredients before me. The actions of chopping, dicing, whipping, grating, folding, kneading etc. allow me to focus my thoughts. Lately, I've been experiencing something I can't quite place. I'm not sure that I dislike it, but I can say I like it either. Emotions can sometimes be complex - happiness, sadness, clarity, confusion, peace, and unease can sometimes exist at the same moments or for a continued period of time. I tried to capture that complexity it a dessert last weekend - a tart with raspberries + blackberries from the farmers market tossed with a sherry vinegar reduction, sugar, salt, and chopped fresh basil from my garden then baked in a rice flour crust. I really liked the crust; it came out perfectly. I'm becoming a huge fan of rice flour. I got the recipe from the crust from Chaotic Cooking(http://chaoticcooking.wordpress.com/2007/02/22/rice-flour-pie-crust/). The entire tart was a perfect balance of sweet + savory. Oh, I forgot to mention, there's a hint of black pepper as in the tart as well. I told you the flavors were complex. Cheers to being human!  I really loved the sponge cake I made with Japanese sweet potatoes last weekend and couldn't wait to try it again this weekend. This time, I topped it with fresh raspberries and powdered sugar. I swear this photo does this cake no justice! I took this photo last night. I didn't want to wait till morning to take the picture I was ready to dive in. Baking this cake is a lot of fun and it really does taste soooo good. I still have some sweet potatoes left over so I'll be making another cake this weekend. I have to think of a fun twist to the cake. Maybe chocolate...maybe rum... Check out my last post for recipe and directions for the cake in my previous post. Lemon-Vanilla Sponge Cake 08/19/2010
 I'm so glad to be finally baking again. The weather cooled down enough in the past few days for me to crank up the oven again and it was well worth the effort. I made a modified version of the Victoria Sponge cake from Harry Eastwood's Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartbreak. I've never been a conventional baker and this book is right up my alley. It is full of recipes for incredible looking and tasting desserts made with fruits and vegetables. I'm not a big fan of most dairy free/sugar-free/wheat-free etc. desserts because they often lack any nutritious ingredient. I prefer to include good stuff instead of focusing on removing the so called bad-stuff. The good news with baking with fruits and veggies is that it requires less sugar due to the natural sweetness the fruits and veggies add. You also don't need butter or oil. I'm really not sure why but my cakes come out moist, light and fluffy without them. The secret ingredient however, is rice flour. Something magical happens when rice flour is mixed with a veggie like zucchini, eggs, sugar, baking soda and vanilla extract. You end up with an incredible fluffy & moist cake that you just can't get with regular flour. Go figure! On this particular baking adventure I experimented with some Japanese sweet potatoes sitting on my counter top.  I decided on a Lemon-Vanilla Sponge Cake which I made by adding 200g Japanese sweet potatoes (peeled + finely grated) into a batter of 3 medium eggs with 150g of brown sugar (whisked together for 5 minutes), 100g rice flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla extract , and 1/2 tsp lemon extract. I combined the ingredients together and poured the batter evenly into two 9 inch baking pans. I placed the pans into a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. I removed the cakes from the pans and let cool for about another 20 minutes. Once cooled, I spread creme fraiche onto the top of one of the cakes and placed the second cake on top. For the topping I crushed some roasted almonds with dried rosemary and spread it over the cake. Then sprinkled some powdered sugar in the center of the cake. I decided at the last minutes to slice some strawberries and place them around the powdered sugar. A taste of El-Salvador 08/11/2010
 Plantain-Stuffed Pupusa One of my favorite things about living in New York City is that I get to taste food from all over the world. I recently visited the Red Hook Ball park in Brooklyn. Actually, I didn't visit the park at all. I went straight to the food trucks that were selling all sorts of yummy Latin American food. The friend I was with insisted I try the Pupusa. Pupusa (popular Salvadorian food) is a hand-made corn tortilla stuffed with all sorts of goodies including cheese, pork, squash, spinach, chicken etc. I ordered two pupusas - one stuffed with beef and other the with loroco (vine flower bud from Central America) and cheese. They were both REALLY good. My friend offered me a taste of her plantain-stuffed pupusa that was so delicious that I dedcided to make my own. First, I got some corn-meal dough (masa harina) and some very ripe plantains. Then I added some water to the corn-meal and kneaded to form a sticky dough; peeled and mashed the plantains into the dough; and added some chopped basil and salt to taste. I heated a skillet with about 1 table of oil, allowed the oil to heat, formed the dough into balls and flattened them with my hand before placing them unto the hot skillet. It doesn't require much cooking. Just until brown on both sides. Traditionally, pupusas are served with picked cabbage, but I ate mine with sauteed mix of dandelion greens (from my garden), green onions and basil. Yum! Visit to BK Farmyard 07/23/2010
I recently visited the most beautiful site in the entire New York City - the formerly abandoned front lawn of the High School for Public Service in Brooklyn. Stacy Murphy and Farmer Bee of BK Farmyards (http://www.bkfarmyards.com/) along with the students of the school have created a mind-blowing 1 acre (and growing) farm. They also run a weekly farmers market where harvests from the farm are sold. I was blown away by how beautiful the farm looked. All of the vegetables were breathtaking. It is really inspiring to see youth in urban places connect with nature in this way. |
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