Archive | Uncategorized RSS feed for this section

Hooker Mountain Farm, VT

30 Oct

IMG_3936

Last weekend, my friend Michelle and I drove up (well, Michelle did all the driving while I snapped photos of fall leaves through the window) to Vermont to take a pie-making class with Joy the Baker. But, oh no, the fun did not stop there.

After the class ended, we continued on the road for another hour to Cabot, VT, where we spent the night at our friend’s farm, Hooker Mountain Farm. The farm specializes in pork, beef, chicken, maple products (maple soda!), and soon, whiskey and hard cider.

IMG_3919

We arrived at the farm Continue reading →

Tags: , , ,

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

15 Aug

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

I just made a batch of Smitten Kitchen’s Maple Cluster Granola. She uses an egg white in her recipe as a protein “glue” that creates wonderful clusters. Genius. Since I have a “nothing to waste” attitude, I saved the yolk and immediately made room in the freezer for my Cuisinart ice cream bowl.

As I was putting the container of fresh-baked granola away in the pantry, I re-discovered my bag of Culinary English Lavender (grown in Long Island). With lavender, a little goes a long way, so I always have what feels like an endless supply of purple buds.

And so, Honey Lavender Ice Cream.

IMG_1145

I just got back from a trip to visit California’s Bay Area and Sierra Mountains. Lavender seems to grow wild there, and in many other places, so if you have fresh lavender accessible, skip the purchased bag and go pick some!

This ice cream smells and tastes like a delicate flower, in a good way. I am almost tempted to lather a cold honey-lavender-ice-cream-mask all over my face, but the temptation to just eat the ice cream is much greater.

(psst…since we are on the subject, have you ever tried Dr. Bronner’s Lavender soap? It’s my favorite!)

IMG_1143

Pair the ice cream with fresh strawberries or white peaches. Or serve it over your favorite summer fruit crumble, cake, or pie.

IMG_1149

Find more Figs in my Belly ice cream recipes and flavors in the Recipe Index.

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

adapted from Bakeology by Lisa, using David Lebovitz technique

I used 1% milk and one fewer yolk than the original recipe because it was convenient for me and a touch healthier, without compromising on taste or texture

  • 1 cup milk (I used 1% milk, but you could use whole if you want)
  • pinch of Kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 tablespoons culinary lavender
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 4 egg yolks (large or extra large work fine)

Place the bowl of an ice cream maker in the freezer for at least 24 hours.

Place the milk, salt, honey and lavender in a small pot and heat, stirring with a rubber spatula, until just scalding. Turn off the heat, cover, and let the mixture infuse for one hour.

Meanwhile, place the heavy cream in a bowl and place a mesh strainer over the top. Set the bowl of heavy cream into a larger bowl. Surround the larger outside bowl with ice water.

After an hour, re-warm the milk/salt/honey/lavender mixture. Mix the egg yolks in a small bowl. Very slowly and stirring constantly with either  a whisk or a rubber spatula, pour some of the milk mixture (about 1/2 cup) into the yolks.  Pour this mixture back into the pot with the remaining milk mixture. Continue to cook the custard over low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Once thickened, pour the custard through the mesh strainer into the bowl of cream sitting in the ice water bath. Stir everything together and let it sit in the ice water bath until the ice cream base is chilled. Once chilled, refrigerate the mixture for a few hours. Churn it in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Easy Chocolate “Wartime” Cake

4 Mar

IMG_2130

Raise your hand if you don’t like mayo?! There’s always someone who has a weird, jiggly story to kill the mayo buzz. When you think about it though, mayo is just egg yolk, oil and vinegar. No bigs.

Over the years, I have learned to get along with mayo (especially when you add garlic and call it aioli). If you are still not ready to commit to slathering your sandwich with mayo, maybe a taste of this awesome chocolate cake will get you past your fear…

Mayonnaise is the secret weapon in this cake. It replaces the butter and all but one egg.

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

This recipe hails from Cooks Illustrated’s The Science of Good Cooking cookbook. It is a “wartime” cake because ingredients like butter and fresh eggs were scarce during World War II, so cooks came up with cakes that worked without them–often using mayonnaise.

Ready for some science?! Mayonnaise contains lecithin, an emulsifier that helps keep the oil in the mayonnaise suspended in micro-droplets. These small droplets aid the oil’s ability to coat the flour’s protein particles, leading to a supremely tender cake. The test kitchen even tried replacing the mayonnaise with butter and an egg, and oil and an egg, but those cakes were less moist and the crumb less velvety than the mayo cake. The final recipe calls for an extra egg paired with the mayonnaise to give the cake an even richer flavor and springier texture. Now thats my kind of science.

Just a little more tasty science: To deepen the chocolate flavor of the cake, the recipe calls for “blooming” the cocoa powder and a touch of chocolate in hot coffee. Cocoa powder contains solid particles of fat and protein with tiny flavor molecules (!) trapped inside. Dissolving the cocoa in hot water causes these flavor molecules, which would otherwise remain imprisoned, to burst forth, amplifying overall flavor. The roasted notes of the coffee reinforce the nutty, roasted notes in the chocolate.

Are you on board yet?

IMG_2118

If you get bogged down with the science, just remember that this is an “Easy Chocolate Cake.” It’s one of those dump-and-stir cakes: mix the dry, mix the wet, dump and stir.

Whether it’s the mayo, the coffee, the cocoa or the science, this is the darn best chocolate cake I have had in a long time, if ever. There’s a magical top layer that forms after baking that I just wanted to cut off and call my own.

If you have any birthdays, occasions, celebrations or cravings, this is the cake you should make. And by gosh, get over your fear of mayo!

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

Dust the cake with confectioner’s sugar, dollop it with whipped cream, or drizzle it with yogurt (Greek vanilla works nicely!). My new favorite crunch-tastic topping? Rainbow sprinkles!

Easy Chocolate Cake

from The Science of Good Cooking cookbook

Serves 8

1 1/2 cups (7 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour

1 cup (7 ounces) sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) Dutch-processed cocoa

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

1 cup brewed coffee, hot

2/3 cup mayonnaise

1 large egg, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

confectioners’ sugar or whipped cream or yogurt (optional)

1. Heat the oven to 350. Grease 8-inch square baking pan, line with parchment paper, grease parchment, and flour pan.

2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in large bowl. In separate bowl, combine cocoa and chocolate. Pour hot coffee over cocoa mixture and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Gently whisk mixture until smooth, let cool slightly, then whisk in mayonnaise, egg, and vanilla. Stir mayonnaise mixture into flour mixture until combined.

3. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top with rubber spatula. Bake cake until toothpick inserted in center comes out with few crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes.

4. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack, 1 to 2 hours. Cut into squares or rectangles and serve either straight from the pan or out of a serving plate. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, dollop with whipped cream or yogurt, or enjoy as is.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Fig Season is here!

23 Aug

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Figs, oh glorious figs! End of summer/early fall is the typical season for fresh figs. Too bad they aren’t usually sold at the farmer’s markets in New York City. One of these days I’ll have to befriend a Brooklynite with a backyard fig tree.

Figs are perfect sliced in half and enjoyed raw, but there is so much you can do. Below I found some fig-sparation from around the web. What do you like to do with figs? Has anyone dried drying them or making jam?

I planted this fig tree at my parents’ house over 5 years ago. Unfortunately I never seem to be back home when the figs are ripe.

IMG_4988

A Sweet Spoonful’s Fresh Fig, Fennel, & Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

The Kitchy Kitchen’s Fig + Brandy Clafoutis (figs pair so well with booze!)

David Tanis’s Baked Figs and Goat Cheese (I love that he uses the fig leaf, too!)

Delightful Crumb’s Honey Lavender Poached Figs

Shutterbean’s Fig & Olive Oil Cake

Not Without Salt’s Fig and Melon Salad

A Stack of Dishes’s Boozy Fig Onion Jam with Bacon

My go-to fig galette: Take dough and roll it out. Spread the bottom of the dough with jam. Top with fresh sliced figs and sprinkle with a dash of sugar. Fold up the dough into a rustic shape and brush with egg and a touch more sugar. Bake until golden.

IMG_0068

Tags: , , , , , ,

Chicken Pizza with Broccoli, Kale, and Lemon

25 May

Today I spent an hour cleaning only half of the refrigerator and let me tell you, it was not a pretty site. We’re talking spills of who knows what that must have occurred who knows when. These spills had overtime created a nice crevice to cake onto and into. I was on my hands and knees scrubbing away at the mess, taking shelves out, getting sprayed by my own sink, slipping on the water that dripped onto the floor.

Today I found a hidden mold creature in my backpack. After taking a closer look I realized that it was a dried apricot from 2 months ago that somehow got stuck to the bottom of the backpack and had begun growing a rancid-smelling and deep gray-green mold. I quickly zipped up the bag and threw it in the corner. I am still contemplating whether I should just suck it up and clean my backpack or just throw it away and never look back.

Today I took a walk to the farmer’s market. I am sort of in this in-between phase where I don’t want to buy too many groceries because I am skipping town for good in 4 days but I need just enough to get me by until then. Anyway, I bought some kale and broccoli and then I made a pizza for myself for dinner. I ate my pizza alone in my empty (literally no furniture except my bed and desk) apartment, staring blankly into my computer screen.

Of course while I was making this beautiful pizza I felt so inclined to munch on everything in site. And then after I ate this beautiful pizza I proceeded to eat a bowl of cereal after. Why? For silly reasons of sheer boredom, laziness, and comfort.

I love food. I love sharing food. I love the idea of food. But sometimes, actually a lot, I feel the need to shove my face for emotional reasons. I’m trying to work on that. Let’s just say its an ongoing process that has its ups and downs. I’m sure many of you can relate. Or not. Whatever. I’ll beef it up with myself.

Well as the old saying goes, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Make this pizza, try not to munch while its baking, enjoy it at a table and not on the floor of your deserted apartment, enjoy it with a friend or a family member, and drink a beer with it instead of a bowl of cereal. Ok?

Great. Because this pizza really deserves more credit than I gave it tonight. It is easy to prepare (especially with Trader Joe’s amazing already made pizza dough). I guess that lately I’ve been into the whole approximating of ingredients (aka lazy method) cooking and recipe writing. Again, whatever, that must mean I’m a good enough cook, right? And you should be, too.

Chicken Pizza with Broccoli, Kale, and Lemon

makes 1 pizza

*Note 1: As you can see below, I really just approximated everything

**Note 2: If you really want to impress, check out the Pioneer Woman’s BBQ Chicken Pizza

Ingredient Ideas

1 breast of chicken

barbecue sauce

1 pizza dough (from Trader Joes, homemade, or whatever you prefer)

some sauce

some cheese (I used pepper jack and Parmesan)

Some sliced garlic

Some curly kale

Some broccoli

Some lemon zest

A squeeze of half a lemon

Preparation Ideas

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Salt your chicken breast. Coat the breast with barbecue sauce on both sides. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. When done, chop it into bite size pieces.

2. Turn the oven up to 475. Stretch your pizza dough into a nice shape and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet sprinkled with a mix of flour and cornmeal (I love the crunch of the cornmeal on the bottom of my pizza crust, mmm!).

3. Spread your dough with some sauce, cheese, veggies, more cheese, chicken, lemon zest, and lemon juice squeeze. Bake for about 10-15 minutes.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →