summer salad

I wound up wandering around the Union Square greenmarket yesterday and started getting inspired by all that's fresh and fruity. Picked up an in-season cantaloupe and some orange mint and found, when I swung by Whole Foods to round things out, that some gorgeous wild salmon was on sale. So I put together:

Salmon Ceviche and Cantaloupe Salad
0.5 lb salmon
1 small jalapeno, diced
1/3 red onion, diced
Juice of 2-3 limes
1/4 cantaloupe, balled or chopped
Mixed greens
Orange Mint
Salt to taste

Put the salmon, pepper, and onion in a bowl with lime juice to cover and let it "cook" for an hour in the refrigerator.

Make melon balls, out them over the salad greens, and pour the salmon over; the lime juice serves as a light dressing. Top with shredded mint and salt, toss, and serve.

best icing ever

This cake has been making the rounds on food blogs, thanks to The Cake Slice bakers - I didn't bother snapping a picture before it was devoured because mine (like everyone else's) looks pretty much like a creme-covered cylinder. Check here if you want eye candy: http://tendercrumb.blogspot.com/2009/04/chai-cake-w-honey-ginger-cream-tcs.html

I did make a few changes to the recipe:
1) I creamed the butter and sugar, then added eggs and dry ingredients. I like the smooth cake texture produced by this order of things.
2) I didn't use chai tea - instead I infused the milk with cardamom seeds (12 pods) and substituted a teaspoon and a half of garam masala for cinnamon and ground cardamom. I haven't had the original recipe, but as a lover of cardamom, I was not unhappy with the change in the balance of flavors...

Lastly, this frosting is AMAZING. I think I may have to make a cake to complement it properly - it was kind of better than the chai cake. Maybe something with peaches will work...

i AM martha stewart

Well...maybe not. But I'm kind of in love with her "Cookies" book for three reasons: 1) the thematic organization, 2) her use of coarse salt, 3) the number of fast, easy recipes. This was one of those: Peach Drop Cookies.

I am also not Martha Stewart because I have an immense amount of trouble with food photography. Yeah, I know she doesn't do her own food styling - and probably didn't even write the "Cookies" book - but she does get most of the credit. So here's my attempt at making her food pretty, in a tiny New York apartment with terrible lighting...

an experiment

Well, I got a late start this morning because I was out late busting out my old-school MJ moves on the dance floor (sadly, I have not yet mastered Thriller) in memoriam. But...I had ALL kinds of ideas bopping around in my head this morning for baked treats. I cut my Central Park tanning session short to pick up some cherries and try the least labor-intensive of the recipes I thought up...

I am a huge fan of beer bread. I usually make this recipe with Brooklyn Lager, and throw some coarse sea salt on top for texture and taste. On a side note, this also comes out great with sage and onion chopped in.

Thus: I decided to try making a sweet beer bread instead of savory. I moved from lager to porter to find something sweeter (Smuttynose Robust Porter, which has some great smooth chocolaty notes) which would go better with fruit and sugar. I started out creaming together a bit of butter and sour cream with dark brown sugar; I was hoping the sour cream and the molasses in the sugar would complement flavors in the beer. I also tossed in an egg. The original beer bread recipe only uses beer and flour, but I wanted a slightly cakier texture. From there, I tossed in the beer - using only half a bottle because the new recipe has more wet ingredients than the base recipe - and some flour and a bit of baking powder to ensure everything rose properly. I just got a new cherry pitter (there should be pie appearing here sometime soon), so I tossed in about a dozen cherries to sweeten things up and take down the beer flavor.

Here's the end product:


The result is very tasty, but is more in the "sweet-savory-dense breakfast fruit bread" universe than the "cake" one. I think I could have used a bit more sugar. On the whole, though, the beer and cherry flavors were pretty well balanced and everything came together nicely. Here're the amounts I used, if anyone wants to try this and make edits! :-)

1/2 stick butter
1/2 c. sour cream
3/4 c. dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 bottle stout porter
4 - 5 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 lb. Bing cherries

molasses bars

I found this recipe in my mom's copy of the Silver Palate and made this it for the first time when I was in high school. In the ten years since I first tried it, I've whipped it out time and again for bake sales, parties, and rainy days, and have had it greeted every time with the same enthusiasm. The Silver Palate recipe is actually for cookies, but I prefer to put the batter in a single cookie pan and make bars. They come out just a little thicker and moister that way, and the cookies are so buttery that they always run together anyway. Enjoy!

Molasses Spice Bars

1 1/2 sticks butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan, add sugar and molasses. Mix thoroughly. Lightly beat egg and add to butter mixture; blend well.

Sift flour with spices, salt and baking soda, and add to mixture in saucepan. Blend well. Batter will be wet.

(Note here: This recipe, like most, calls for salt. I almost never use salt in my baking and I've never had any complaints)

Line a 10x15 cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spread the batter across. It might be hard to get it completely spread out, but try to get it within a couple of inches of the sides. Bake for about 10 minutes till the edges turn darker brown.

The finished product will turn out something like this:

grandma's fruit cake

My grandmother always made the moistest, most delicious fruit cake. I was delighted to find, when I got my hands on the recipe, that it's incredibly simple. I don't believe in keeping great family recipes under lock and key, so here it is:

1/2 c. sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla (or other liquor)
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Cinnamon sugar
Berries, apples, pears, or stone fruit

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the butter and sugar and then add the eggs and vanilla (I often use other booze - the version pictured below has Grand Marnier in it). Toss in the flour and baking powder and blend well. The batter should be pretty thick.

Spread it into a buttered or sprayed pan; 8x8 works, as does a 9" pie plate. This recipe is also good for 12 cupcakes or 24 mini-cupcakes. The batter will probably be spread pretty thin, but don't worry - it rises a lot. Press fruit into the top so the pan is pretty much covers the cake's surface, then sprinkle the top with cinnamon sugar.

Bake 35 - 40 minutes for a pan, 15 - 20 for cupcakes. Don't bother with a toothpick test - the fruit keeps the cake too moist for this to work.

Below: Half-strawberries pressed into mini-cupcakes made from this recipe.

after-work dinner/simultaneous lunch prep

I'm not going to bother adding a picture because this recipe, while tasty, is not much to look at. After the pizza party documented below I was left with a bunch of eggplant, pasta sauce, and mozzarella. So, I created the following lazy, but healthy and flavorful "eggplant parmesan rice casserole."

1 small (1 1/4 lb) eggplant, chopped into 1-inch cubes
1/3 c. short grain brown rice
1/3 c. basil tomato sauce
1 oz. mozzarella (I've been using vegan mozzie and it's pretty good)
Red pepper flakes to taste

Toss the rice in a rice cooker for 1 round till the button pops (about 15 minutes). Brown rice takes a while, so I like to get it cooked al dente before I add the other ingredients.

When the rice is mostly cooked but still a bit chewy, place the eggplant in the rice cooker. Add a couple of tablespoons of h2o at this point if the rice is starting to stick; the eggplant has plenty of moisture (don't drain it!) so it'll keep the rice from drying out once it starts steaming.

Open the cooker every few minutes to toss the rice and eggplant. When the eggplant starts to soften add the tomato sauce. Cook until the eggplant is soft but not disintegrating. Dump the whole thing in a bowl, toss with mozzie and pepper, and enjoy!

The best part of this is that the rice cooker method gives you plenty of down time. I use these moments to clear up my kitchen, to bake, and (most often) to prepare ingredients for my next day's lunch. Lately I've been broiling tofu (I cut a block into 32 slices - about 3/4" x 1 1/2" x 1/4" each) and tossing it in a salad with mixed greens, papaya, lime juice, and cumin. It's low calorie, full of protein, and it travels well to work. Suggestions for variations welcome!