Indian Dosa!
So this month was my first time participating in the Daring Cooks Challenge! This month’s challenge was hosted by Debyi from http://www.healthyvegan.com, and she picked a recipe for a vegan dosa, with a coconut curry sauce. I was super excited, since I (shamefully) haven’t cooked much Indian food and have never even attempted these little Indian savory crepes.
I started out by chopping up all of the ingredients and putting them in cute little bowls:
Then I sauteed them. While I was doing that, John was hustling on the crepe batter and the coconut curry sauce. Because, well, I haven’t had a day off in weeks and I just don’t have the energy to spend hours on dinner! OK, and I was making 2 batches of jam at the same time, but still.
Then tossed in the spices to get nice and toasty.
Then I pureed some cooked chick peas and mixed them in with some tomato paste. Now at this point my confidence was at an all time low. As you can see, it wasn’t the most appetizing mixture. And well, I’m just not a huge fan of tomato paste. I decided to throw a little water and stock in and let it stew a bit, to let the flavors meld.
But I chugged along, because I was hungry and we had guests arriving to eat with us. I fried up a stack of crepes.
I stuffed the crepes with the filling and poured coconut sauce all over. And it was so good! I’ll never doubt the ability of Indian food to taste delicious even when it looks…well you know…
RECIPE:
Serves 4
Dosa Pancakes:
1 cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp curry powder
½ cup almond milk
¾ cup water
oil for cooking (I cheated and used clarified butter)
1.Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.
Curried Garbanzo Filling:
5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 bell pepper, finely diced
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP ground cumin
1 TBSP dried oregano
1 TBSP salt
1 TBSP turmeric
4 cups (30 oz) cooked or canned chick peas
½ cup (4 oz) tomato paste
1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.
Coconut Curry Sauce:
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp ground cumin
¾ tsp salt
3 TBSP curry powder
3 TBSP flour
3 cups vegetable broth
2 cups coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced
1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
4.Let it simmer for half an hour.
Bust out those heirlooms with a Tomato Galette!
This post is a shout out to my fabulous pastry instructor and mentor: Jennifer Altman, pastry chef of Baywolf Restaurant in Oakland. One day in class she shared her recipe for a tomato galette with me, and it remains my favorite way to celebrate gorgeous summer tomatoes. Oh yeah, and it’s quite simple. Well, if you know how to make galettes…
Let’s start with the dough. You need a pastry board or a counter top that you can spread out and get messy on. Spread out your flour.
Take half of the butter (which is very cold) and use a bench scraper to cut it into the flour, tossing constantly to coat.
Once the chunks are the size of lima beans, start cutting in the other half. Keep cutting until the last batch of butter is the size of quarters. This ensures that some butter gets broken down to coat the flour, while the rest remains in large chunks that will turn into flakes. It should look like this:
Then take your ice cold water and basically “flick” it onto the flour, tossing constantly. Keep going until the flour is shaggy. It’s ok if there are still some dry bits, just make sure that it will smash into a dough when you press it with your fingers.
Then comes the fun part: you smear it. Literally. You use the heel of your hand to smear it into strips on your board. This is like pie crust magic in the making. All those large chunks of butter are now in the form of long sheets.
As you smear the butter, use your bench scraper to scrape it off the board and throw it in a pile somewhere to rest while you work on the rest.
Once finished, smash it into a plastic wrapped disk and pop it in the fridge for at least an hour. The dough should look like marble, with the butter swirled in. Spend this time slicing your tomatoes and shredding some gruyere cheese.
Once it has chillaxed, roll it into a circle that is about 1/8 – 3/16″ thick. You’ve got a lot to do to this future galette, so moving quickly is important. The longer the dough is at room temperature, the warmer the butter gets. And warm butter is a no-no in flaky pie crust land. It also makes it nearly impossible to work with.
Then spread on some good dijon mustard. Not too much, just enough to give the galette a little kick.
Then spread on a thin layer of gruyere cheese. Obviously the better the cheese, the better the galette.
Now place the tomato slices on top. Make sure you trim the edges of your dough. I usually do this before I start piling on the filling, but I forgot this time.
Now fold the edges onto the filling. Some people are into pleats, but Jennifer taught me that any time you have dough folded onto itself, it’s nearly impossible to cook it all the way through. And thanks to her I too am a fanatic about not eating raw dough. Once your galette is finished being assembled, slide it on a parchment lined sheet pan and pop it in the freezer. This will help keep it from immediately melting into a shapeless blob when it goes into the oven.
Then you paint a little egg wash on the crust, and since it’s savory, sprinkle on a little chunky sea salt. Then bake it at 375 until it’s browned on top. Reduce the heat to 325 and continue to bake until the bottom is golden brown. It usually takes about an hour total. Let it cool for 10 minutes and top it with some creme fraiche (homemade if you got it) and some basil. I like to fry the basil leaves to give a nice crunchy contrast to the gooey yummy tomatoes and cheese. Now you dig in!
Honey Cupcakes with Salted Honey Buttercream!
Wedding cupcakes!
Honey Cake!
140 of them!
With salted honey buttercream on top!
With chunky sea salt on top! Yum yum yum…
I discovered honey cake when I lived in Tel-Aviv several years ago. I’ve tried many recipes, and this is by far my favorite one. While honey cake is traditionally served as a loaf or sheet cake that is drizzled with honey and almonds, it makes a fabulous cupcake.
Honey Cake Recipe (from Marcy Goldman)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup warm coffee
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup whisky
– Preheat the oven to 350°F.
– In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Make a well in the center and add the oil, honey, sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee, orange juice, and rye or whisky.
– Using a strong wire whisk or an electric mixer on slow speed, combine the ingredients well tot make a thick batter, making sure that no ingredients are stuck to the bottom of the bowl.
– Spoon the batter into prepared pan(s) and bake until the cake springs back when you touch it gently in the center.
– Let the cake stand for 15 minutes before removing it from the pan. Then invert it onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Berry Peach Trifles!
Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of me and John moving into our cute little apartment. To celebrate we had our landlords come down to eat dinner with us, as well as Nir (close friend and previous tenant), who allowed us to move in here by purchasing a home and moving into it! After all the chocolate I’ve been cooking, it’s time for a berry dessert! I do love a trifle, and my pastry boss (Rachel Leising, pastry chef extraordinaire) introduced me to this lovely combo…
I started by tossing blueberries, strawberries, raspberries & blackberries with lemon zest and sugar.
Then I cooked them in a heavy pot for about 7 minutes, long enough to have them release their juice,
Meanwhile I roasted some peach halves…
and baked a sheet of buttermilk cake.
I used a cookie cutter to cut circles out of the cake. I chose a small one and a larger one, to fit into the glasses.
Then I made a cream. I started by whipping some heavy cream, and then mixing in vanilla creme anglaise and homemade creme fraiche. I whipped them until I had a nice stiff and flavorful cream.
Then it was time to start layering! First I pressed in a layer of the buttermilk cake.
Then I ladled in some of the berry compote, to soak into the cake.
Then I added some thin slices of the roasted peaches.
And finally a big scoop of the cream mixture.
And repeat!
Delicious! And perfect for this hot weather, it actually feels like summer in San Francisco…
BUTTERMILK CAKE RECIPE (Flo Braker):
2 1/2 cups (250 g) sifted cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, room temperature
6 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
– Preheat oven to 350.
– Butter, flour baking pan and line with parchment.
– Triple sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
– Crack the eggs into a small bowl and whisk.
– Pour the buttermilk into a liquid measuring cup. Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
– Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream the butter with the paddle on medium speed until it is light in color, clings to the sides of the bowl, and looks satiny.
– At the same speed, add the sugar in a steady stream. When all of the sugar is added, turn off the machine and scrape the gritty, sandy mixture clinging to the sides into the center of the bowl. Continue to cream at the same speed for 4-5 minutes, or until the mixture is very light in color and fluffy in appearance.
– With the mixer still on medium speed, add the eggs a tablespoon at a time. continue to cream, stopping the mixer and scraping the sides of the bowl at least once. When the mixture is fluffy, white and increased in volume take the paddle and bowl off of the mixer.
– Add 1/4 of the dry ingredients, sprinkling over the top of the creamed butter. fold it in with a rubber spatula, then add 1/3 of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat, alternating dry and wet ingredients. With each addition, scrape the sides of the bowl and continue mixing until smooth.
– Spoon into pan and bake until done (the baked surface springs back slightly when touched lightly in the center and the sides begin to contract from the pan).
– Place the cake pans on racks and cool for 5-10 minutes before removing cakes from the pans. Cool cakes completely before icing or cutting.
Chocolate and Mint Happiness
My friends Carmen and Alex are getting married this weekend (congrats!) and they’ve asked me to make the cupcakes! Today I’m testing options for the groom’s cake, and he requested a chocolate and mint combination. I’m super excited, since I’ve never experimented with mint before. I also wanted to test out a different chocolate cake recipe than the one I normally use. Tonight is my weekly dinner and trashy TV (90210 is away for the moment, so we distract ourselves with True Blood), so I have a captive audience to taste my experiments.
So here goes…
I started by melting some chocolate.
Once the chocolate was melted, I added butter and stirred it around until it melted into the mixture.
Once it was all smooth I mixed in sugar.
Then I whipped it for a few minutes.
And then slowly whipped in some eggs.
I folded in flour, salt and baking powder and then piped the batter into cupcake liners.
They baked for about 24 minutes and came out looking like brownies… yummmm.
While they cooled I made a swiss meringue buttercream that I flavored with peppermint oil.
And then I started having second thoughts, because sometimes mint can just taste like medicine. So I whipped melted chocolate into half of the buttercream. At tonight’s tasting I’ll get the final say on which is yummier!
Time to assemble those little suckers. I used a fluted tip to poke a hole into the middle of the cupcakes.
And filled the holes with a chocolate mint ganache!
And then topped half with mint buttercream, and half with the chocolate buttercream. So tonight it’s a taste-off! Chocolate Mint vs. Chocolate Chocolate Mint!
Stay tuned for a winner…
Chocolate Souffle!
For the past several weeks I’ve had souffles on the brain. They just keep coming up in conversation. So when someone suggested souffle for dessert 2 nights ago, I had had enough. It was time. I recently bought “The Sweet Life” by Kate Zuckerman (The pastry chef from Chanterelle) and she devotes a whole chapter to souffles. So I picked out a chocolate one with a caramel base and jumped right in. First step: melt the chocolate down with some butter.
Then begin preparing my base by boiling up some caramel syrup.
I whipped the hot caramel syrup into some egg yolks until they were nice and fluffy.
And then made an Italian meringue. In an Italian meringue, you make a hot sugar syrup that you slowly pour into your egg whites as you whip them. This was where things went a little off for me. I don’t make souffles too often, but I do know that any time you make a meringue that will be folded into something else, it’s important not to over whip it. Once a meringue goes stiff there’s no turning back. I screwed up my timing on this one and definitely overworked my meringue.
Next I started assembling my souffle. I whipped together the caramel yolks with the melted chocolate.
Then I folded in my meringue. Definitely not my best work, but I got the meringue in without totally deflating it.
Then I poured the souffle mix into ramekins and let them chill in the fridge while I prepared a sauce.
Because really, you can’t have dessert souffle without creme anglaise… First I steeped my milk and cream with a vanilla bean.
Then cooked it with sugar and egg yolks until I had a nice custard…yum…I love custard…
Then it was time to bake those little ones. Important reminder when baking off souffles: just don’t open the oven. Leave them be. Pop them in, set your timer for 17 minutes and walk away. A successful souffle will add at least 50% to its height when baked, so I was feeling good about these guys!
Before we could devour them we cracked them open.
And filled them with that creme anglaise.
Total happiness. Enough to make you forget about healthcare reform. If only for a minute or 2.
CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE RECIPE (adapted from Kate Zuckerman):
3 1/2 oz butter
1 cup plus 5 tbsp sugar
7 1/2 oz dark chocolate
8 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp brewed espresso
1/4 tsp salt
– Melt 1 1/2 oz of butter and grease the souffle ramekins. Refrigerate and grease again, then coat with sugar. Put them back in the fridge.
– Place chocolate and 2 oz of butter in a bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt together. Once melted set aside.
– Put 5 egg yolks in a medium bowl. Discard the other 3 egg yolks.
– Combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp cream of tartar & 3 tbsp water in a heavy pot. Stir to blend and heat on low to melt the sugar crystals. Once they are melted, increase heat to high and boil until water evaporates and sugar caramelizes. Turn off heat and carefully pour in 2 tbsp water. Stand back because it will sputter out. The caramel will boil for a bit. Once it stops, slowly stream it into the egg yolks as you whip them. Continue whipping until the yolks cool and double in volume, about 2 minutes. Whip in espresso and salt.
– Combine 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar and 3 tbsp water in a small saucepan over medium heat and attach a candy thermometer. Meanwhile, place the 8 egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on medium high speed. Once the whites foam up, add the cream of tartar. When the egg whites are completely foamy and begin to hold the lines of a whisk, turn up the heat under the sugar syrup. While that heats up, slowly pour in 2 tbsp sugar into the whites, 1 tsp at a time. Keep whipping until they are almost, but not quite fully whipped. At this point the sugar syrup should close to 248 degrees. Once it reaches, slowly stream it into the whipping whites. They should be shiny and satiny. Keep whipping until they cool off.
– Add the melted chocolate into the whipped yolks and whisk until smooth and shiny. Take 1/4 of the meringue and mix it into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Fold the meringue into this, careful not to deflate.
– Pour into ramekins and smooth out the top with a spatula. Place them in the fridge until you are ready to bake them.
– Bake at 375 degrees for 17 minutes, until they have risen by 50%.
– Eat up as soon as they come out of the oven.
Whoopie Pies!
I’m back! With whoopie pies!
It’s my friend Bronson’s birthday and I volunteered for cupcake duty. He’s throwing a hobo themed party, and for some reason whoopie pies made sense. I know he loves chocolate, so chocolate cake it was. I needed to make about 60 cakes, so there was a lot of batter.
I baked them 6 at a time, and it was…time consuming. Luckily Pantea, Courtney and Zoey came over to help out and entertain.
They baked into adorable little cookie shapes.
I had a quart of raspberry puree in the freezer that I had made out of half a flat of raspberries a couple of months ago. I used them to make a raspberry buttercream.
And then we had whoopie pies!
Buttermilk Waffles!
Just a quickie, to let you know I’m still alive.
For my birthday this year John got me a waffle maker. As one usually does with odd kitchen items, I stored it away in the pantry and kinda forgot about it. Then while trying to think of things that cook themselves for a brunch party, I remembered about it. It was perfect. I measured everything out so that once my guests arrived I could just hand them bowls to mix and whisk and then all that was left for my broke-ass self was pouring the batter into the waffle iron.
We did 2 kinds, a cornmeal waffle with bacon bits in the batter and a sweet buttermilk waffle that I served with a whipped mascarpone cream and berries. A savory waffle and a sweet waffle. Here’s a pic of the sweet one.
Now that I know how easy they are to whip up, I see many more waffles in my future!
So I finally cracked.
I miss cooking. A lot. I’m on a little “holiday” from work, meaning I’ve got all the time in the world. But I’m not supposed to use my hands. It’s been 4 weeks or so since I started resting, and still no clarity as to what’s going on. I’m still in pain, and it seems to be spreading. Tomorrow I get to see a rheumatologist and start the lovely process of bloodwork. Good times…
In the meantime, I am bored. I’ve even resorted to arguing health care reform on my hometown’s local newspaper’s website. Sad. So tonight I cracked. I wanted food. Home cooked food. Despite my current useless culinary status, the CSA box just keeps on coming, and those veggies aren’t cooking themselves. So I went “comfort food”, to make me feel better about this annoying moment in my life. Creamed corn, caramelized carrots, lemony zucchini fritters, brown lima beans stewed in bacon. Easy stuff mostly. Stuff that doesn’t really need recipes or technique, just some attention. And some bacon of course.
And biscuits. Which was probably not the smartest move, but hey, at this point, what’s one more ibuprofen?
OK, I will officially stop feeling sorry for myself now.
Gnocchi!
FINALLY. John cooks for me. Granted there was a dinner party, and we were making an appetizer. But still. I love it when he cooks. And there’s no better way to make me happy than with homemade gnocchi.
He started by boiling potatoes and pushing them through a ricer.
Then he mixed in some flour, salt and egg.
And kneaded it into a dough.
Then he rolled out little rods and chopped them into little pillows.
Many many pillows!
And ok, so I had to do SOMETHING. So I made a sauce to toss those little gnocchi in. A cilantro jalepeno pesto, with a little cream. It was perfect, all I had to do was throw it all in the food processor. So no hurting of my delicate little hands…
And we served it with some sauteed sweet corn & zucchini, topped with a bit of pancetta and some parmesan.
And it was awesome.
CILANTRO JALEPENO PESTO:
2 bunches cilantro leaves
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup almonds
1 jalepeno pepper, seeded
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
– Process everything in the food processor until smooth scraping down the sides.
– Through the feed tube as the machine is running, slowly add 1/2 cup olive oil and continue pureeing until smooth.
I made that! 
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