Curiosity Killed the Cook

Curacao-ian Stuffed Cheese

2010-07-28T14:28:00.003-04:00

Curacao: It's actually part of the Netherland Antilles, but I'm counting it as its own country because I can.

I found this on Recipe Island - it was either stuffed cheese or iguana stew, and I'm all out of iguana.

The recipe said the cheese would keep its shape. It didn't.

But it was delicious - sweet and rich and perfect with some fried plantains:

Keshi Yena (Stuffed Cheese)

1 sliced onions
2 garlic cloves
1/2 chopped green pepper
4 small Edam cheeses
3 tomatoes, chopped and peeled
1/4 cup sliced olives
1 tablespoon capers
1 tablespoon parsley
1/2 cup raisins and cranberries
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
2 tablespoons mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter
3 eggs

Slice the top off the cheese and reserve. Gently scoop out the inside, leaving a 1/4 to 1/2 inch shell. The cheese should resemble a hollowed out pumpkin.

Sauté the remaining ingredients, except the eggs, in the butter.

Beat the eggs and stir into the mixture. Spoon it into the cheese shell, replace the top.

Grease a shallow baking dish and fill it with about 1 inch of water; set the cheese in the dish and bake at 350° F for ~1 hour, or until the cheese starts to brown on the top.
Serve hot with fried plantains.

Cambodia: Wait, what spices can we use?

2010-06-03T10:37:00.003-04:00

We started making coconut rice and red bean soup. Upon realizing the recipe called for no spices, Kevin dispatched me to find what spices are commonly used in Cambodia (tamarind, tumeric, ginger, lemongrass, and lime, apparently).

These, it turns out, were a poor addition to the coconut rice and red bean soup, so I am reproducing the original recipe here and strongly recommending the reader not add tumeric, ginger, lemongrass, and lime.

Cambodian Coconut Rice and Red Bean Soup

Simmer:

1 can coconut milk

1/2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbs cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

In separate saucepan, cook:

1/2 cup rice

5 cups water

1 can red beans

Until rice is tender

Poor coconut sauce over rice, eat.

Laos: Khao Sangkhaya (Coconut Rice)

2010-05-29T16:23:00.002-04:00

This is delicious – one of the best rice puddings I’ve had.

Recipe: Khao Sangkhaya
Serves 2

1 cups rice
1/3 cup coconut milk
30 g sugar
1 tsp salt
30 g coconut cream milk

For Sangkhaya:
1 eggs
30 g sugar
30 g coconut cream milk
1/3 tsp cornflour
1 Tbsp water of bay teui leaves

Soak rice 2 hours, drain, steam for 20 minutes over high heat. Mix coconut milk and sugar, add to rice and steam for 25 minutes.

Make the Sangkhaya: Beat eggs with sugar and coconut, then add salt and cornflour. Mix with the rice, stir, and steam for 5-10 minutes over high heat.

Ethiopian Yams - Yum.

2010-05-29T16:08:00.002-04:00

Saute in olive oil (until yam is crisp):

1/2 sliced onion
3 minced garlic cloves
1 tsp fresh minced ginger
1 small sliced yam

Then add 1/4 sliced red bell pepper, saute another minute or so.

Add:

2 Tbs split red lentils
2 tsp tomato paste
1 cup water

Bring to a boil.
Then add:

3/4 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp fenugreek
1/4 tsk ginger

Cook ~20 minutes, until lentils are tender.

Add salt, serve. Yum. :-)

Bhutan - The Only Mild Dish in the Country

2010-04-17T19:06:00.006-04:00

After much searching, I found a Bhutanese dish that did not include yak by-products or chili peppers hot enough to melt lead: Veggies Over Rice.

I think it's a winner. Kevin poured hot chili sauce on it first.

Bhutanese Veggies Over Rice

The Rices

Cook together

1 cup rice

1 tsp oil

cardamom
In a separate pot, cook together:

1/2 cup rice

4 whole cloves

1/4 tsp tumeric

When they're done, mix them together.

The Veggies

Saute in a little oil: green peas

Saute in a little oil:

1 onion, sliced

5 cloves, whole

1/4 bunch coriander greens

1/4 ginger, ground up with a mortar

1/2 garlic, ground up with mortar

cardamom

Eggplant, sliced into bitsized chunks

Broccoli, bitesized chunks

Remove eggplant and broccoli when they look done. Add potatoes (sliced,
boiled, peeled). Fry until they look brown.

Add into the potato pot:

The fried eggplant

The fried broccoli

The fried peas

Serve veggies over the rice mix.

Comoronian Rice Pudding with Pineapple

2007-04-19T19:35:00.001-04:00

Comoros is a group of four islands off the east coast of Africa, north of Madagascar. They have bizarre animals. The coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct for millions of years, but still living in Comoros. The four-foot-long “flying fox” fruit bat. The islands were once a major supply stop for ships traveling around the tip of Africa, and their mixed African-Asian-European-Malagasy population reflects that. Most of the population farm bananas, rice, coconuts, ylang-ylang, and pineapples.

This recipe is from a UN book on rice recipes from around the world.

Comoronian Rice Pudding with Pineapple
Serves 6

4 1/4 cups milk
1 can pineapple slices (including juice)
3/4 cup rice
Pad of butter
1 pinch salt
1/2 cup cream
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Boil the milk, add the rice and cook on very low heat for 1 hour. (Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan). Then stir in the cream, pineapple juice, and sugar. Pour into a baking dish, cover with pineapple slices, sprinkle with brown sugar, and add butter.

Bake for 30 minutes & serve warm.

Oops - Back to the Tour: Burkina Faso

2007-04-17T17:37:00.000-04:00

Sorry about that. Moved to St. Louis and forgot to blog for eight months. Still going around the world, though. Here’s Burkina Faso:

Peanut Butter Millet from Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is classified as one of the hungriest countries in the world. Almost 40 percent of the population is chronically malnourished. Their infant mortality rate is 91%.

For perhaps all these reasons, I couldn’t actually find any recipes from Burkina Faso. They eat a lot of millet, sorghum, yams, peanuts, and a kind of pounded peanut butter millet mash called Tô (rhymes with dough). So I cooked some Tô and counted my lucky stars.

It was tasty, if odd. It tasted like peanut butter and millet.

Peanut Butter Millet from Burkina Faso

1/2 cup dry millet
1 cup water
1/4 cup peanut butter

Boil the water, stir in millet, reduce heat, simmer (covered) for ~20 minutes, until the millet has absorbed all the water. Stir in the peanut butter.

Burundi: Plantains and Beans

2006-09-18T19:05:00.000-04:00

My mother just called.

"Oh hello sweetheart, guess what? I made that Okra Fried Rice you posted on your blog! It was fabulous!"

"What are you talking about, Mom, it wasn't good at all."

"Well, I omitted the okra."

"Ah."

"Also the soy sauce."

"Ok . . . "

"And I didn't have any fennel seeds, so I added parsley instead."

"Mom?"

"And I used bell peppers instead of onion."

"So when you said you made my okra fried rice . . . "

"It was really more of an honorary kind of thing. Oh! And I'm making your cashew lemon rice tonight!"

Sigh. Here is another strange dish that my mother is sure to mis-cook: Burundian Plantains and Beans.

This was a bizarre dish: filling and satisfying, but not particularly spectacular.

Recipe: Plantains with Beans
Serves 2

2 tsp oil
1/2 onion, sliced
1/2 cup cooked or canned kidney beans
1 green plantain (or a green banana), peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp salt

Fry the onion slices in the oil until they begin to brown, then add everything else and stir until the plantains begin to brown slightly. Add enough water to cover, and simmer over medium heat until the plantains are cooked all the way through. You might need to add more water if all of it evaporates. At the end, you should have a little water let over, but not too much.

Ascension Island - A Vegetarian Yorkshire Pudding

2006-09-13T18:14:00.000-04:00

Finding recipes from Ascension Island was next to impossible, since 1) only 1,000 people live there, 2) almost all of them are British, working on the Air Force Base, and 3) they like fish.

I eventually caved in and cooked a traditional British dish to celebrate their nationalitiy, if not their locality.

If anyone knows an Ascension Island favorite, I’m dying to hear it.

This recipe is modified from the Inn on the Cove Culinary Column, and was truly delicious.

Recipe: Vegetarian Yorkshire Pudding
Makes ~6 large “puddings”

6 tsp oil
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 onion, sliced
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place 1 tsp of oil in the bottom of 6 cups of a standard muffin tin.

With an electric mixer, beat the eggs until they are frothy, then beat in the milk. Mix in the flour and 1/2 tsp salt, and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until a smooth batter forms.

Pour batter into the 6 muffin tins, almost filling them to the top. Place the muffin tin on a baking sheet in case the batter overflows, then bake for 30 minutes. Do not open the oven door during that time! When they’re done, they should be golden, enormous, and puffy, with a crisp exterior and a soft, moist center.

While the muffins cook, make the filling. Saute the onions and carrots in a little oil over medium heat until the onions are translucent. Add the thyme and salt.

When the muffins are done, stuff their puffy centers with the onion-carrot mixture. Eat warm.

Kookoo Sabzi: A Super-Delicious Iranian Omelet

2006-09-12T12:24:00.000-04:00

This is a variation of another gem from ENO, traditionally served for dinner at New Year. A light and fluffy omelet, its tomatoes and vegetables make it sweet and its herbs make it so refreshingly flavorful I could eat nothing but this for a month and be happy.

Recipe: Kookoo Sabzi
Makes enough for 2

2 cups leafy greens (parsley, leek, dill, coridander, and/or spinach)
1 Tbsp oil
2 small tomatoes, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
2 eggs, divided
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp walnuts, chopped
2 tsp dried dill
Salt to taste

Boil the spinach (or other leafy greens) until they are soft and spongy, then drain the water. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat, then add the onions and sauté for a few minutes, until the onions begin to brown (but not burn). Then add the tomatoes and leafy greens. Add about a cup of water and let simmer over medium heat while you prepare the eggs.

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Beat the egg yolks gently, then add the milk and the baking powder. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into it.

Meanwhile, back on the stove, all of the water should be evaporated. (If not, just wait until it is). Pour the egg mixture on top of the vegetables and spread around with a spatula to fill the frying pan. Cook over low heat until the top of the egg mixture is cooked through, about 5 to 10 minutes.

To remove it from the pan, place a plate upside down over the omelet, and invert the pan. Sprinkle the omelet with the walnuts, dill, and salt. Serve warm.

Netherlands Antilles Applekoek

2006-09-11T14:00:00.000-04:00

The Netherlands Antilles are two small groups of islands in the Caribbean. Ruled by the Dutch since the 17th century, the islands absorbed much of Dutch cuisine, including this fantastic applekoek breakfast bread.

What a magnificiently delicious coffee cake! The cut-in butter makes the cake flaky and soft, a cross between a muffin and biscuit, and the sweetness of the apples makes it a perfect morning bread. This is my new favorite coffee cake.

Recipe: Netherlands Antilles Applekoek
Makes 1 8-inch coffee cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
2 apples, peeled and cut into wedges
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter. In a separate bowl, mix the egg and milk, then mix into the flour mixture. Pour batter into an 8-inch round cake pan. Press the apple wedges into it in a spiral pattern and dust with cinnamon.

Bake for 25 minutes, until apples are golden.

Guyanan Baked Eggplant

2006-09-09T21:44:00.000-04:00

I’ve read that Guyana’s food has been influenced by everything from Chinese immigrants to creole. This eggplant recipe certainly showed that. The spices were overwhelming: onions, curry, thyme, basil, ketchup, and garlic, mixed with eggplant - no bland fruit to begin with.

I mixed some sour cream with it to calm my mouth down, but braver souls than I might be able to eat it straight.

Recipe: Guyanan Baked Eggplant
Serves 2

1 eggplant
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
1 small hot pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 Tbsp ketchup
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp soy sauce
1 cup bread crumbs

In a large saucepan, boil the eggplant until its skin is tender.

Meanwhile, mix all the other ingredients (except bread crumbs) in a food processor or blender. Blend until they form a smooth paste.

When the eggplant is finished boiling, remove it from the water and let it cool slightly. Slice it lengthwise, scoop out its soft innards (leaving a shell of skin). Mix the eggplant innards with the blended ingredients, and blend again until smooth. Stir in the bread crumbs and spoon the mixture into the eggplant shells.

Place eggplants on baking sheet and bake at 320 degrees for 15 to 25 minutes.

Botswanan Greenleaf Vegetable

2006-09-08T18:43:00.000-04:00

I found this recipe in a precious collection from ENO, an online community of schools from around the world. It was submitted by the Borwa Community Junior Secondary School in Botswana.

I wasn't enthusiastic about it ("No spices?"), but it was delicious. The sweetness of the onions and tomatoes was all the spice they needed.

Recipe: Botswanan Greenleaf Vegetable
Spinach
Onions
Tomatoes
Pepper
Water

“Instructions for the preparation: Cut the spinach leaves into small pieces. Slice some onions, tomatoes and peppers. Wash the spinach with clean water. Put the spinach into a pot together with the chopped onions, tomatoes and peppers. Pour half a mug of water in the pot and add some salt and spices and pour 2 teaspoons of oil. Cook for about 20 min. Keep the pot closed until the water dries up serve with rice.”

Jagacida: Rice & Beans Cape Verde Style

2006-09-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

My 100th post! Time for a fried egg . . .

Toni Gifford submitted this recipe to the RecipeZaar 2005 World Tour, and it is tremendously delicious: warm flavors, satisfying textures, filling and tasty.

Recipe: Cape Verdean Jagacida
Serves 2

1/2 onion, sliced
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tbsp paprika
1 bay leaf
2 cups water
1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup cooked or canned kidney beans
Generous salt
1 fried egg

Warm the oil in a very large skillet, and sauté the onions in it until they are a light brown. Stir in the paprika and bay leaf. Add water, bring to a boil, and add rice. Lower the heat, add the beans, and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the water is absorbed. You will probably need to add a bit more water if the rice starts sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Serve warm, topped with salt and fried egg.

Brunese Sesame-Fried Vegetables

2006-09-05T18:40:00.000-04:00

Brunei, on the island of Borneo, is the size of Connecticut, and their sesame-fried vegetables are cartwheelingly delicious. This recipe is filling and somewhat heavy, but in a refreshing kind of way. The sourness of the lemon and tahini complement the sweetness of the onions and carrots.

Recipe: Brunese Sesame-Fried Vegetables
Makes enough for 2

1/2 cups rice
1 Tbsp oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 cup radishes, sliced into sticks
1 carrot, sliced into sticks
1/2 small cucumber, sliced into disks
1 Tbsp sesame tahini
2 Tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste

Cook the rice as directed. While it cooks, prepare the vegetables and heat the oil in a large skillet. Stir-fry the garlic in the oil until it begins to brown, then add the rest of the vegetables, and continue to stir-fry. Cook until the vegetables are cooked all the way through, lowering heat to avoid burning, if necessary.

When the rice is done, stir the vegetables into it with the sesame tahini and the lemon juice. Serve hot.

Abobora Refogada: Brazilian Pumpkin Hummus

2006-09-04T07:18:00.000-04:00

What a bizarre little stew. My new roommate and I ate it for a few moments in silence, not quite sure what to make of it. Finally she suggested adding cumin and layering it on pita bread. Then it was quite good. Pumpkin hummus. Huh.

Recipe: Abobora Refogada
Serves 2

1 can pumpkin
2 Tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, minced
Lots of salt
Cumin (though it’s not authentic)

Mix everything together in a frying pan. Cook over medium heat until the butter melts, then over low until it is warmed through. Season with lots of salt, and eat on pita.

Prebranac: Bosnian Baked Beans

2006-09-03T18:09:00.000-04:00

Paprika and onions take these beans to a truly delicious place.

Recipe: Prebranac
Serves 2

1 Tbsp oil
1 large onion, sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
1 cup white beans, canned or already cooked
3 bay leaves
1 Tbsp paprika
Lots of salt

Saute the onion and carrot in the oil until they begin to brown, then add the paprika, white beans, and ~1/2 cup water. Simmer gently until the onions and carrots are soft and water is gone, about 10 minutes. (If the water is gone before the carrots are done, add more water).

Serve with lots of salt.

Bermuda: Johnnycake Corn Bread

2006-09-02T07:52:00.000-04:00

Johnnycakes are apparently quite popular in Bermuda. There is nothing exotic about them – just regular cornbread.

Johnnycake
Makes 1 8-inch Square Loaf

1 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
3/4 tsp salt
5 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp oil
1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).

Mix the flour, cornmeal, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Mix in the egg, oil, and milk. Pour batter into greased 8-inch square pan. Bake 30 minutes, or until the bread begins to brown on top.

Belgium: Cream of Endive Soup

2006-09-01T12:09:00.000-04:00

I was surprised by how strong this soup is – I ended up adding a bit more cream to smooth it out.

Cream of Endive Soup

2 Tbsp Butter
2 chopped Belgian Endive
1 sliced onion
1 clove minced garlic
2 large sliced potatoes
2 cups vegetable stock
1 cup cream
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp chopped dill

Sauté the endive, onion, and garlic in the butter until they just begin to brown, then add the potatoes and stock. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes. Once the potatoes have cooled all the way, remove from heat and allow to cool a bit so it doesn’t explode when you put it in the blender.

Put it in the blender and blend until it’s smooth. Then return it to the saucepan, add the cream, salt, and dill, and heat until warm.

Gahwa and Muhammar - Sweet Rice and Cardamom Coffee from Bahrain

2006-08-31T20:06:00.000-04:00

Gahwa, a fragrant flavored coffee, is part of the traditional welcoming process in Bahrain. It’s delightful – an enchantingly-spiced coffee that doesn’t require a coffee maker.

I tried it with Muhammar, a Bahrainian sweet rice that was warm and wonderful with dates.

Gahwa: Bahrainain Coffee
3 cups water
1 tsp coffee
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp rosewater

Boil the water, add the coffee, and cook for about 2 minutes. Then add the cardamom and rosewater, and pour the mixture into a coffee pot, making sure most of the grounds stay in the pan. Allow the coffee to brew in the pot for five or ten minutes.
Muhammar – Sweet Rice Recipe
Serves: 3

3/4 cups rice, preferably basmati
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1/8 tsp saffron
3 cardamom pods, opened & ground up
1 Tbsp rosewater
5 dates

Boil the rice in 6 cups of water for about 10 minutes, until the rice is soft all the way through. Then drain the excess water and add the sugar, butter, saffron, cardamom, and rosewater. Cook over very low heat, covered, for about 20 minutes.

Bahamian Baked Banana Custard

2006-08-30T17:54:00.000-04:00

I remembered half way through making this that I hate custard. But I had already whipped the eggs, so I went ahead anyway – and I actually liked it. The bananas soften the egg taste that I usually find so overwhelming in custards. The tiny black threads that come with the bananas are a little off-putting visually, but few custards are pretty affairs anyway.

Bahamian Baked Banana Custard
Makes 1 8-inch round custard

4 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp lemon juice
dash of nutmeg, optional
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 cups milk
3 eggs, lightly beaten

Mix the mashed banana, lemon juice, nutmeg, and 2 Tbsp of the sugar. Spread over the bottom of a greased 8-inch cake pan (with very high sides). Cover with breadcrumbs.

In a saucepan, warm the milk. Mix with the beaten eggs and the rest of the sugar. Pour over the mashed bananas. Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes, or until the custard has set.

Bajan Sweet Bread – A Dense Coconut Bread from Barbados

2006-08-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

Bajan (“bay-junn”) is the Creole dialect spoken in Barbados, a mixture of West African and English that apparently sounds like a Liverpool accent.

This recipe has been sitting in my To Bake pile for a long time, waiting for a can of evaporated milk to materialize in my cupboard. The can appeared this weekend, so I baked the little devil.

When it came out of the oven, I was disappointed. It tasted like a sponge. I thought miserably: This is what I poured 2 1/2 cups of grated coconut into?

But I can’t bring myself to throw out edible bread, so I dragged it to work the next day, and miserably sat down to eat it for lunch.

And it tasted fantastic. The day after that, it tasted even better. And by the third day, I was actually looking forward to it. After that, it started getting a bit stale – but this is certainly a bread that should be allowed to cool a few days.

Bajan Sweet Bread
Makes 2 loaves

2½ cups grated coconut
4 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cups sugar
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 egg
11/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp almond extract

Grease two 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350 (F).

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, coconut, sugar, and raisins. In a separate bowl, mix the melted butter, egg, evaporated milk, and almond extract. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, divide in half (the dough will be very thick), and place in pans.

Bake until golden, about 1 hour. Let cool completely.

Peanut Butter Rice from Benin

2006-08-04T06:41:00.000-04:00

Vodoo is the official state religion of Benin, where about 60% of the population practice it. It’s also one of the poorest countries in the world. When I read that their three major foods are corn, yams, and rice, I really wasn’t expecting much in the way of delicious recipes.

But it surprised me. This rice with peanut sauce is actually a fantastic combination.

Rice with Peanut Sauce from Benin
Serves 3

3/4 cup rice
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 beef bullion cube (I used a veggie one)
1/2 cup water (or more)
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup diced onion

Cook the rice as per its packaged directions.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a medium frying pan, and add the tomato paste, salt, onion, and bullion cube. Saute for a few minutes, then mix in the peanut butter and water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the onions are soft, about 15 minutes (add more water if the mixture starts sticking to the bottom of the pan).

Pour sauce over rice and serve warm.

Azerbaijani Pilaf

2006-08-02T20:48:00.000-04:00

I’ve heard that lamb is quite popular in Azerbaijan, but it’s certainly not the only popular meat. I also found quite a few recipes that called for sheep, mutton, sheep fat, and sheep brains.

Finding a veggisaurous-friendly recipe was tough, but I finally tracked down Geudgea: a traditional Azerbaijan pilaf usually made with chicken. I left the chicken out.

Geudgea – Azerbaijani Pilaf
Serves 4
1 cups rice
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup diced dried apricot
pinch of saffron
pinch of salt

Cook the rice as per instructions on package, adding a pinch of saffron. In a separate pan, melt the butter and cook the raisins and apricot over low heat until the raisins swell. Pour the butter and fruit mixture over the rice and serve.

Rogel de Dulce de Leche: Crepes with Sweet Milk Jam from Argentina

2006-07-29T12:19:00.000-04:00

Rogel de Dulce de Leche: Crepes with Sweet Milk Jam from Argentina Makes about 6

1/2 cup whole milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
6 egg yolks
5 Tbsp browned butter
1 cup flour

First, make the dulce de leche. Heat the milk, sugar, and cinnamon over very low heat for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally so a skin doesn’t form. When the mixture has thickened to the consistency of jam, remove it from the heat and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, brown the butter in a saucepan, mix in the egg yolks, and add the flour. If the dough is too sticky to roll into a ball, add up to 1/2 cup more flour. Divide the dough into 6 pieces and roll each into a ball. Use a rolling pin to roll out each ball into a thin pancake.

Bake the pancakes on an oiled cookie sheet at 400 degrees (F) for about 10 minutes, until the pancake is golden.

Spread the dulce de leche onto the pancakes and serve.

Fluffernutter - (Almost) The Official State Sandwich of Massachusetts

2006-07-17T08:03:00.000-04:00

This was almost the Massachusetts State Sandwich. It’s a ridiculous story:

Massachusetts State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios (D) has a third-grader named Nathaniel, who went to the school cafeteria one day and was served a Fluffernutter: a peanut butter sandwich with a layer of Fluff – the famous marshmallow spread that was invented just north of Boston and is essentially pure sugar with a little bit of air whipped in.

Outraged that his son was served junk food in his school, Senator Barrios attached an amendment to the state’s junk food bill that would limit how much Fluff could be served up in public schools. (Ha)

Outraged at such an attack on local heritage, Massachusetts State Senator Kathi-Anne Reinstein filed a bill to make the Fluffernutter the Official State Sandwich.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine from Wisconsin was starting a new internship at the Boston Globe and found the Fluff Huff deposited on his desk. So many of us got a blow-by-blow account of how the Fluffernutter Fight went down, and the subsequent fallout.

Both senators eventually dropped their proposals, but Fluff sales went up 800%. One of those 8-ounce jars was me – I had to try it. After all the Fluff huff, I was expecting something a little more sinful. But it just tasted like an especially gooey peanut butter sandwich. Cute, but not something that screamed “Legislate me!”

Fluffernutter Recipe:
Makes 1 New England Icon

2 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp Fluff
2 slices bread – preferably mass-produced white bread with zero nutritional value

Combine.

Nepal: Vegetable Pulao

2006-07-16T08:54:00.000-04:00

This is another gem from the UN's book on rice. Most countries have some kind of fried rice variation, but I love the warm spices of the Nepalese version.

Recipe: Vegetable Pulao (Nepalese Fried Rice)
Serves 4

1 1/4 cups Basmati rice
1 1/2 tsp oil
1/3 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 bay leaf
4-6 gloves garlic, minced
2 black cardamom pods
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 inch ginger, minced
2-3 green chilies
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 large tomato, chopped
1/2 cup green peas
2 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp lemon juice

Wash and soak the rice for about an hour. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the cumin. When the cumin starts to turn golden, add the turmeric, bay leaf, garlic, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and chilies. Cook over medium heat for about a minute, then add the onion, tomato, and green peas. Cook for another 3 minutes or so, stirring.

Drain the water from the rice and add the rice to the frying pan, stirring and cooking for about a minute. Add the 2 1/2 cups of water and cook over high heat, stirring continuously until all the water is absorbed.

Add the lemon juice, lower the heat, and cook for another 5 minutes or so.

Czech Easter Braid

2006-07-15T07:38:00.000-04:00

The photos for this bread came out poorly - but the bread itself was delicious: a delicate, crispy crust, with a flakey yet soft interior and a lemony flavor. I ate it with delight for a whole week and it never went stale.

Recipe: Czech Easter Braid
Modified from Kathy Cutler's The Festive Bread Book
Makes 1 medium braid

1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tbsp warm water
1 cup flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp ground mace
2 Tbsp warm milk
1 egg
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1 egg white, optional, for glaze

Proof the yeast: mix it with the warm water and set aside for 5 minutes, until foamy.

Meanwhile, mix 3/4 cup flour with the sugar, salt, lemon meel, and mace. Cut in the butter until the mixture has the texture of wet sand.

To the yeast, add the warm milk and egg, then add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the last 1/4 cup of flour, turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead in the raisins and almonds until a smooth dough forms - about 10 minutes. Set in a greased bowl, turn to coat, cover, and let rise until double - about an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Punch down the dough and divide it into three pieces. Roll each piece into a long rope, and braid the ropes together. Set on a greased baking sheet, brush the top with egg white for a glaze, and bake until golden, about 45 minutes.

Anguillan-Style Black-Eyed Peas

2006-07-14T07:56:00.000-04:00

Anguillans seem to like lobster. I don't blame them. I loved lobster before I met that chicken on the subway.

This recipe is modified from Bob Green's Anguilla News website, submitted by Ijahnya Christian. Thanks Ijahnya!

Recipe: Anguillan-Style Black-Eyed Peas
Makes enough for 1

1/4 cup rice
1/2 cup black-eyed peas, canned or pre-cooked
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 small red sweet pepper, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1/2 stalk celery, chopped
2 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 avocado, sliced

In a medium saucepan, cover the rice with water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook for about 10 minutes, until the rice is tender but not falling apart. Add everything but the lime juice and avocado. Cook until the sauce has all been absorbed by the rice and beans, another few minutes. Spoon into a bowl, mix in the lime juice, and top with the sliced avocado.

American Samoa: Coconut-Banana Dip

2006-07-13T19:21:00.000-04:00

One could easily find Samoa on a map, just based on a list of their favorite foods:

OKA I'A (Raw Fish in Coconut Cream)

Taisi Moa (Chicken Baked in Banana Leaves)

Faiai Fee (Octopus in Coconut Cream)

Faiai Eleni (Herrings in Coconut Cream)

Lupe Tunuvilivili (Wild Pigeon Grilled on open Spit)

Pea Tunuvilivili (Chargrilled Wild Flying Foxes)

Puaa Tunuvilivili (Pig Grilled on Open Spit)

If I were not a vegetarian, I would have to try the chargrilled wild flying foxes. Never seen a flying fox, let alone ate one.

In researching Samoan cooking, I came across Ethnic Foods of Hawaii by Ann Kondo Corum, which includes a chapter on the cuisine that immigrants from American Samoa brought to Hawaii in the early 1900s.

Corum wrote that the people of Samoa adore a good pig, and, in cooking one, divvy its parts up to people based on rank. The head chief gets the heart. The talking chief gets the liver, cooked in a banana leaf. The cooks get seasoned blood (also the intestines). The commoners get things like neck bones and the rump.

As a cook, I should have gotten the seasoned blood and pig intestines.

Instead, I made coconut-banana dip.

This is a deceptively simple and drop-dead delicious dish. I ate it with some toasted crostini. It's about a billion times more delcious than hummus, which is saying something.

Fa'alifu Fa'I: Coconut-Banana Dip
Adapted from a recipe by Sandy McDonald, Magele Mose, Faataualofa Magele, and Karen Suaava McDonald
Makes about 1 cup of dip

1 green banana
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 medium onion, chopped into long pieces
Salt, to taste

In a medium saucepan,

Place the banana (peeled) in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil and cook until the banana is soft but not falling apart. Drain the water. Add the coconut milk and onion, and bring to a boil again, then lower the heat. Mash up the banana with a fork while you simmer the mixture over medium heat. When it has reached a thick, dip-like consistency, remove from heat, sprinkle with salt, and serve.

Inspirations: Breads of Beauty

2006-07-12T14:02:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I just like to look at pretty breads. Here are loaves I go to when I need some inspiration . . .

Fumbwa Elambani Na Mafuta Ya Nguba: Peanut Butter Spinach from Angola

2006-07-12T11:54:00.000-04:00

Peanut butter spinach: an unlikely combination that is my new favorite spinach dish, not an honor that is lightly pried away from the Catalan spinach salad.

The recipe is apparently popular throughout central Africa, traditionally made with fumbwa (or m’fumbwa), a wild African vine that grows in the Congo region. The delicious, subtle peanut flavor somehow compliments the texture of the spinach and the tang of the tomatoes in a way I never, ever would have suspected.

Fumbwa Elambani Na Mafuta Ya Nguba: Angolan Peanut Butter Spinach Recipe
Modified from the Congo Cookbook Makes enough for 1

1/2 lb. Spinach (or another green, like fumbwa, cassava leaves, collards, or kale)
2 cups water
1/2 cup tomatoes, diced
1/2 small onion, diced
1 Tbsp peanut butter
2 Tbsp red palm oil

Wash and stem the spinach. Boil the water, add the spinach, onion, and peanut butter. Cook over medium heat until the spinach is wilted and the water and peanut butter have turned into a thick-ish sauce. Scoop into a bowl, top with palm oil, and serve.

The Congo Cookbook suggested serving this with boiled yams, but it is flavorful and filling enough to stand on its own.

Switzerland: Basler Brunsli

2006-07-09T08:09:00.000-04:00

Here, at last, is another cookie my mother can eat. No wheat, gluten, corn, milk, peanuts, soy, or butter.

This is a surprisingly soft, chewy roll-out cookie from Switzerland. I found the recipe in the darling book Great Cookies by Carole Walter - a delightfully written and beautifully photographed book with a great many cookies I've actually never seen before.

Basler Brunsli
From Great Cookies by Carole Walter
Makes about 30

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
2 egg whites
3/4 cup superfine sugar
3 Tbsp Kirshwasser (I used water, worked fine)
3/4 pound almond flour - about 3 cups lightly packed
1/4 cup granuatled sugar (for rolling)
2 Tbsp sparkling sugar for sprinkling

Combine the chocolate, cocoa, and spices in a food processor for about a minute, until the chocolate is well-diced-up.

In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add the sugar 1 Tbsp at a time, beating until it forms a stiff meringue. Fold in the Kirschwasser, chocolate mixture, and almond flour. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper.

When the dough is chilled, roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness on a worksurface that has been sprinkled with about 2 Tbsp of granulated sugar. Cut with cookie cutters and place cookies on prepared pan. Let them air-dry for about an hour before baking.

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F, with baking shelves on the upper and lower thirds. Bake cookies for about 10 minutes, until the top is just beginning to harden.

Scottish Oatmeal Bannock

2006-07-04T07:22:00.000-04:00

This is a soft, sweet little bread, a little like a scone. It's often cooked or fried in a frying pan, but this recipe uses an oven. In the future, I'm going to try the pan-frying method.

Apparently, Scottish fur traders brought the recipe to the Native Americans of Eastern Canada in the 18th Century, and eventually the recipe morphed into a kind of frybread.

Scottish Oatmeal Bannock Recipe
Modified From Kathy Cutler's The Festive Bread Book Yields 1 8-inch round loaf

1 Tbsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oats
1/4 cup milk
4 Tbsp butter
1 egg
1/4 cup currants or raisins

Combine the yeast with the warm water and set aside to proof for about 5 minutes, or until foamy.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt and oats in a large mixing bowl.

In a medium saucepan, heat the milk and butter until the butter is melted and the mixture is warm but not too hot to touch. Mix into the yeast mixture, then add all of it to the oat-flour mixture. Mix thoroughly and beat in the egg.

Mix in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth – about 10 minutes.

Let rise in a covered, greased bowl until doubled in bulk – about 1 hour.

Punch down and knead in the currants or raisins. Roll into an 8-inch circle and place in a greased 8-inch cake pan. Cut into 8 wedges, cover, and let rise until double again – about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F, and bake about 25 minutes.

New England Raisin Bread

2006-07-01T08:09:00.000-04:00

Tra – la, it's July! Time to be patriotic in the only way I know how: bread!

This is New England Raisin Bread, which is beautiful with a lemony flavor, soft interior, crunchy exterior, lots of raisins, and excellent toast potential.

New England Raisin Bread Recipe
From Kathy Cutler's The Festive Bread Book
Makes 1 loaf

1 1/2 tsp yeast
2 Tbsp warm water
3 cups flour
1/2 cup warm milk
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

Proof the yeast by dissolving in warm water and letting sit for about 5 minutes, until frothy.

Mix 1 1/2 cups of the flour with everything else, then add the proofed yeast mixture. Mix in enough flour to make a soft dough, then knead on a floured surface until its smooth – about 10 minutes.

Let rise, covered, in a greased bowl until double in size – about an hour. Then punch down the dough, shape into a loaf, and place in a greased 9- by 5-inch bread pan. Cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes.

Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with sugar, bake in a 350 degree (F) preheated oven for about 35 minutes.

I love the way the raisins pop out of the top of the loaf as it bakes!

Greece Again: Vasilopita

2006-06-28T18:36:00.000-04:00

I know, we already ate Greek, but I couldn't resist this beautiful braided bread. It's a traditional Greek bread made on St. Basil's Day, i.e. New Years Day.

Vasilopita Recipe
Modified from The Festive Bread Book by Kathy Cutler
Makes 1 8-inch braided loaf

1 Tbsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
3 cups flour
1/4 cup chopped almonds, for topping

Proof the yeast by dissolving it in the warm water and letting it sit for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the warm milk, sugar, salt, butter, eggs, lemon peel, spices, and 1 1/2 cups of the flour. Mix in the yeast mixture, then add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Knead on a lightly floured surface until the dough is smooth - about 10 minutes. Then let rise in a covered, greased bowl until doubled - about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down the dough and divide in half. Flatten one half of the dough into a greased 8-inch round cake pan. Shape the other half into three long ropes, each about 9 inches long. Braid the ropes and attach the ends so it makes a loop. Press the loop into the top of the loaf and sprinkle the middle with chopped almonds.

Cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake 30 - 40 minutes, until light brown on top.

Index: Breads

2006-06-24T12:32:00.000-04:00

This Index Was Last Updated 11 September 2006.
Back to Full Recipe Index.
Or check out Breads of Beauty

Quick Breads

	Tea Brack Irish raisin quickbread
	Romanian Chocolate Walnut Bread From a Friend's Ex-Boyfriend's Romanian Mother
	Albanian Sweet Walnut Bread Half bread, half cake, totally drop-dead delicious
	Banana Mango Bread A zesty variation from Dominica
	Bajan Sweet Bread Dense coconut-raisin bread from Barbados
	Johnnycake Cornbread from Bermuda
	Applekoek A soft, light coffee cake from the Netherlands Antilles

Yeast Breads

	Pecan Bubble Bread A.K.A. Monkey Bread (Sans Monkeys)
	Vasilopita A beautiful Greek wreath bread
	Anadama Classic New England sandwich bread
	Babka Puffy Polish bread
	New England Raisin Bread Soft, delicious, lemony and delicate
	Oatmeal Bannock Sweet, scone-like wedges from Scotland
	Czech Easter Braid Flakey, lemon-flavored braid with almonds and raisins

Other Breads

	Croissants Flakey, fantastic French pastry
	Pizza Dough Very soft & lovely

Anadama Bread

2006-06-24T12:03:00.000-04:00

I love Anadama sandwich bread. Anadama is about as un-brown-bread-like as a bread can be. Light, fluffy, moist, tender, flavorful. The only resemblance to brown bread is the color. The corn and molasses make for a mouth-wateringly unique flavor and texture.

There are so many possible back-stories for this one – almost all of them cursing some poor woman named Anna.

The stories I've heard so far say the name originated when:

- An old New England farmer damned his wife for putting cornmeal in every darn thing.
- A Rockport (Massachusetts,) fisherman, fed up with his wife's cooking, added flour and yeast to his porridge one day, muttering, "Anna, damn her."
- A husband exclaimed approvingly "Anna, damn her!" while eating the delicious bread
- A sea captain carved on his great-bread-baking wife's grave: "Anna was a lovely bride, but Anna, damn 'er, up and died"

Interestingly, "Anadem" is Latin for a wreath or garland for the head, from the Greek verb meaning "to bind up."

Whatever. It's a good, sturdy New England bread that makes great sandwiches.

Anadama Bread Recipe
Makes a 9-inch loaf

1/3 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
5 Tbsp molasses
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup cornmeal
3 cups flour
2 tsp salt

Mix the warm water, yeast, and molasses, and set aside for about 5 minutes to let it proof.

Meanwhile, heat the milk and butter in a saucepan until the butter is melted and the milk is warm. Stir in the cornmeal and cook, stirring, for about a minute, then remove from the heat and allow it to cool.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, and cooled cornmeal mixture. Add the yeast mixture and mix until a soft dough forms.

Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky. It will be a very sticky dough, so you might need to add more flour, but try not to add too much, as it will dry out the bread. Instead of adding the flour directly to the dough, try lightly flouring your hands when the dough starts sticking to them.

Once you have a nice smooth dough, let it rise in an oiled bowl, covered, in a warm place, until it's doubled in size – about 2 hours.

Punch the dough down and stretch into a 9- by 5-inch rectangle. Roll it like a hot dog to make a 9-inch-long cylinder, and place it in a greased, 9-by-5-inch bread pan. Press it down until it fits. Cover and let rise again for another 2 hours, then uncover and bake for about 45 minutes.

The Please-Everybody Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

2006-06-21T19:30:00.000-04:00

This is the peanut butter version of the all-things-in-moderation chocolate chip cookie. It's large, but not particularly flat and not particularly puffy; crisp on the outside but soft on the inside; rich enough that you could eat one and be happy or have a second. A versatile, please everybody cookie.

This recipe is based on one by Kathy Bliesner, published in the AllRecipes "Tried & True" cookbook.

The Please-Everybody Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 12-15 cookies

1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda (for a puffier cookie, use baking powder instead)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp light corn syrup (For a moister version, use 3 Tbsp corn syrup and subtract 1 Tbsp white sugar. For a crisper version, add 2 Tbsp white sugar and use no corn syrup)
2 Tbsp water (For a moister, more chewy cookie, omit the water)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the rack on the upper 1/3 of the oven. A high baking heat firms the dough quickly, giving it less time to spread. If it spreads, it will lose moisture, and become crunchy and flat.

Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or foil. Do not use butter or oil – they will make the cookies spread (read: crunchy and flat). Also, do not place dough on a warm cookie sheet – that too will make the dough spread. If the cookie sheet feels too warm, stick it in the refrigerator for a few minutes – a cold sheet will add to the soft and puffy nature of your cookie.

Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt. Make sure you don't pack down the flour – more flour will make these cookies hard, thick, and crunchy.

In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Add the vanilla and egg, then beat until smooth and fluffy. Add the corn syrup and water, and beat until smooth and fluffy.

With a spoon or rubber spatula, mix in the flour mixture and chocolate chips until just incorporated. Don't spend too much time mixing here. The baking soda starts reacting the moment it hits the liquid mixture, so you want to get the dough mixed, formed, and baking quickly.

Drop the dough by 2 Tablespoon-fulls onto the sheets, about 2 inches apart. The goal with these cookies is to prevent spreading, so whatever shape you give these original cookies should be retained. Make these large. If they are too small, they won't retain moisture as well, and will become crunchy and flat.

Bake 12 - 14 minutes. The edges should turn a light brown, but the centers should just be coloring and soft. For a chewier cookie, bake less; for a crispy one, bake more.

Happy Birthday Charlie!

2006-06-18T20:04:00.000-04:00

We interrupt this blog to bring you a special birthday cake. My little sister, Charlie, turned 20 last Thursday, so I sent her an upside-down world map. It was a successful decoy, for my real plan was this cake:

It's a ginger pound cake with a buttercream basketweave pattern, covered by a field of daffodils and the merry woodland creatures who have come to wish Charlie a happy birthday. On the far left is a pigeon - Charlie's favorite bird ("I love pigeons! They look like they're up to something.") Then a giraffe ("Evil Giraffe"), then a blue penguin - Charlie once adopted a penguin and named it Gordon. Up front is a hegdhog with a daffodil behind one ear.

The animals are made from cupcakes that I carved up and patched together with Royal Icing.

I'm particularly proud of the daffodils (Charlie's favorite flowers).

The purple anenome-like flower in front is an aster, and the blue-green one in the background is a bachelor's button.

Happy Birthday, kid-o.

Cake Decorating Attempt #2: Farm o' Fudge

2006-06-17T08:30:00.000-04:00

My second attempt at cake decorating was rather less inspired than the first. I found instructions online for how to make a buttercream sheep, and so of course dropped everything and designed my entire cake around them. The sheep actually ended up a bit lame (literally - their legs kept breaking) - but the cake itself was fan-friggin-tastically delicious.

I call the decorating attempt: "Duck Pond & Barnyard After a Rain #1"

The strange orange contraptions on the side were supposed to be corn husks.

Alright! This one is behind me. Another attempt tomorrow - horray!

Cookie Experiment #7: Full Fat versus Non Fat

2006-06-16T05:49:00.000-04:00

Summary: Full-fat yogurt creates a moister, denser muffin. Non-fat yogurt produces a drier, more aerated muffin.

Joy of Muffins has a lemon poppyseed poundcake muffin recipe (delicious), which calls for plain yogurt. It says quite explicitly: "Do not use non-fat yogurt."

I just can't help myself. I had to test it.

The batter was different from the start. The full-fat yogurt (on the right below) produced a smoother, creamier batter. The non-fat (left) was clumpy and thick.

The resulting muffins, though, differed more subtly. The full-fat muffin (top photo, right) was definitely denser and moister. The non-fat (top photo, left) was more aerated and dry. But the differences were small. If I weren't eating them side-by-side, I would never notice the difference.

Still, the full-fat muffin is clearly superior. Sigh. Just once, I want the healthier version to taste better.

Patlicanli Pilav: Turkish Eggplant Pilaf

2006-06-15T20:07:00.000-04:00

This is a bit of an odd-ball rice dish. Tremendously tasty. The diced-up eggplant gives it a curious texture that you don't often run into. It's quite a popular side dish in Turkey, so I'm told.

Patlicanli Pilav
Makes enough for 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main dish

1 small eggplant
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup rice (preferably long-grain), rinsed
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup vegetable broth or water
1 large bunch dill, chopped
Salt to taste

Cut the eggplant into 1-inch cubes. (I left the seeds in, since I think they're pretty, but feel free to take them out.) Rinse the cubes and press them with a towel to get all the extra moisture out.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and quickly brown the eggplant cubes. Remove the eggplant cubes and set aside to let them drain.

Add the rice and tomatoes to the oil, and cook over medium heat, stirring for about 5 minutes. Add the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium and cook, covered, for about 5 minutes. Lower the heat the low and cook until all the broth is absorbed and the rice is tender (if the rice is not tender yet, add a bit more water).

Stir in the eggplant and the dill. Cover, set the heat to the very lowest setting, and let cook for about 30 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure it's not sticking to the bottom (if it is, add a little bit of water to loosen it up). Serve hot.

Mushroom-Stuffed Tomatoes from Croatia

2006-06-15T06:10:00.000-04:00

There's not enough paprika in my life. Having decided this, I realized I knew almost nothing about the spice, and immediately wasted an hour and a half reading about it. ADD drives me nuts, but at least now I know that paprika is a dried pepper that originated in South America, that Peru exports 75,000 metric tons of it per year, and that – bizarrely – Zimbabwe is a major producer.

None of which has to do with the recipe I finally cooked using it. This is from Croatia – a zesty, delicious stuffed tomato that uses sweet Hungarian paprika. According to the label, though, my sweet Hungarian paprika was not produced in Hungary, but in Peru – 2 ounces of that 75,000 annual metric tons.

Mushroom-Stuffed Tomatoes from Croatia
Serves 2

4 medium tomatoes
1 small onion, diced
2 Tbsp oil
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried marjoram
1 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 Tbsp flour
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup breadcrumbs

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

Saute the onions in the oil, add the mushrooms and spices, and cook for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms release their delicious mushroom-juices. Add the flour and the eggs and cook until the eggs start to solidify.

Meanwhile, chop off the tops of the tomatoes and scoop out their pulp. Stuff them with the mushroom mixture, top them with the cheese and breadcrumbs, replace their tops, and set them in a deep baking dish. Fill the dish with 1/2 cup water, cover, and bake for about 20 minutes.

Link - Link - Cookie! (Mocha Truffle, No Less)

2006-06-14T05:47:00.000-04:00

Heavens!

Last night, I checked the email account to which my comments are emailed. And there were a lot of comments!

"I'm popular!" I thought. "What's going on?"

Then I saw, at the base of the comment bonanza, an email from Cate at Sweetnicks. I was new blogger of the week! I was tickled pink.

Now I have a few dozen new comments to respond to (joy!) – but first, I need to say an enormous thank you to Cate from Sweetnicks for the link and compliments. Silly that a link should make me go skipping through my kitchen, waving my spatula like a wand and blessing the salt and pepper shakers – but it did. So thank you!

To really emphasize the thank you, I went straight to the Sweetnick blog, picked out the Mocha Truffle Cookies, and baked the little devils. Oh ho ho are they ever tasty. I only had 1/2 cup chocolate chips, so I used butterscotch chips in place of that last cup.

What an unfathomably delicious cookie. Sweetnick says not to bake them a second longer than 10 minutes - and she is completely right. 10 minutes make a lusciously moist and brownie-like cookie. Oh joy!

Anyway – thank you for the link, Sweetnick! (And the comments, everyone else – I am a girl who does like comments and will be wading through them soon!)

The Unfathomable Puffiness Of Being – A Tale of Polish Babka Bread

2006-06-12T19:38:00.000-04:00

I rarely exclaim during baking. When I do, it's usually a bad thing. (i.e., "My oven mitt is on fire!" or "Don't sit on that cream pie!")

But tonight, I opened my oven, and involuntarily cried, "Oh my god!" Never have I seen a bread puff so very much. From a regular-sized lump of dough, it had puffed straight up the sides of my 10-cup Bundt pan, out the top, and was reaching up to the top burner, crisping the top of its crown, on the verge of burning. I whipped it out of there and plopped it on my stovetop.

Just in time, too – it was just right. The insides are puffy, light, and deliciously soft; the crust gentle but firm. It tastes that way a good night sleep should, after a long and productive day.

Babka is traditionally served on Easter Sunday, but I baked it on a Monday in mid-June, and it worked just fine. A versatile bread. Splendid.

Babka
Makes 1 enormous loaf

2/3 cup warm milk
3 1/2 – 4 1/2 cup flour
1 Tbsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water
7 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
4 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped candied orange peel
1/2 cup almonds, chopped

Mix the warm milk and 1/2 cup flour. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside for 10 minutes to proof, then mix with the warm milk mixture, cover, and let rise for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks and sugar for about 5 minutes, then add the salt, vanilla extract, almond extract, and butter. Add the yeast mixture and enough of the flour to make a soft dough. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth. Let rise, covered, in a greased bowl for about 1 hour, or until doubled.

Knead in the orange peel and the almonds, about 10 minutes. Cover again and let rise for another 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Punch down the dough and scoop into a greased Bundt pan (a big one). Let it rise, covered, for another hour, then bake for an hour or so.

Whole Wheat Hummus-Stuffed Khobz

2006-06-11T19:21:00.000-04:00

This is another recipe from the wonderful blog Ya Rayi Our Rai, written by California School of Culinary Arts chef Farid Zadi. I combined his recipe for hummus with his recipe for whole-wheat khobz to get this layered, calzone-style sandwich.

This little devil is a perfect lunch food: portable, delicious, light yet filing. It is crispy on the outside and soft and smooth on the inside. Plus, all the little hummus-filled layers look cool. And looking cool is critical for a lunch food.

Whole Wheat Hummus-Stuffed Khobz
Makes 1 large khobz

The Dough
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3.5 Tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

The Hummus
1/2 cup cooked chickpeas
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 small garlic clove, minced
Salt to taste

For the dough, mix all the ingredients and knead the dough for about 30 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic. (Don't skimp on kneading time here – it's worth it!) Rub with oil, cover with plastic, and set aside to let it rest for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the hummus by placing all the ingredients in a blender and blending to a paste.

To assemble the khobz, roll the dough out into a 10-inch disk and spread the hummus evenly over the disk. Make one cut from the center of the disk to the outer edge. (See here for a demonstration). Peel this edge up, and roll up the dough around it to make a cone-shaped tube. This make the hummus layers.

Press the edges of the tube together to seal them, then very gently press the tube out as flat as you can without squeezing the hummus out the sides. Brush the tube with oil and cook on a frying pan over medium-low heat for about 30 minutes, flipping half way through.

Joy! My First Attempt at Cake Decorating

2006-06-09T18:33:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to learn how to decorate cakes, so last Sunday I gave it a shot. Wow.

This is a triple-layer white cake with raspberry-almond filling and buttercream roses. I did a basketweave around the outside to make it into a basket of flowers. It took almost all day Sunday to make, but oh was it worth it!

Building the flowers took the most time. At every stage, I thought: "That's great! I'll leave it like that!" Then I just kept adding more. I still had half a bowl of frosting left over when I was done!

Time for bragging. I love the way it looks. But the taste of the cake is stellar as well - light and fluffy yet moist. The raspberry-almond filling just breaks my heart. I have a new favorite cake.

Triple-Layer Raspberry-Almond Cake
Makes one enormous cake

2 3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cup whole milk
8 egg whites
2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup sugar
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
15 Tbsp butter, softened

Frosting
32 Tbsp butter
8 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp milk

Filling
1 cup blanched almonds, chopped
1 cup seedless raspberry jam

1: Make the cake.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 3 8-inch round cake pans, and dust with flour.

Mix the milk, egg whites, vanilla extract, and almond extract.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the dough resembles bread crumbs. Add the milk and beat until a smooth batter forms - about 3 minutes. Divide the batter evenly among the three cake pans and bake about 20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool briefly in the pan, then shake out onto cooling racks. Let cool completely - at least 2 hours.

2: Make the frosting & filling.

Cream all the frosting ingredients in a large bowl. Remove 1/2 cup of the frosting and mix it with the chopped almonds.

3: Assemble cake.

Once the cake layers are cool, dab a bit of frosting on the cake board, and set the first layer on it to anchor it. Gently spread half of the almond filling over the first layer, then spread half of the raspberry jam over that. Place the second layer on top of the first and repeat the frosting layering. Place the third layer on top, and frost the sides and top of the cake in a thin layer of frosting. Refrigerate for an hour, then apply a thick layer of frosting on the sides and top.

For the flowers, I used instructions that I found at Cake Central. The decorating information at Baking 911 is also highly useful.

Fiji: Spiced Dhal Soup

2006-06-09T06:15:00.000-04:00

This is a warmly-spiced, thick and creamy soup that needs a lot of salt. I enjoyed it, but I doubt I would make it again. It looks just like the Armenian Apricot Soup that I love, but it falls short of it by a ways.

Fijian Spiced Dhal Soup
Makes enough for 2

1/4 cup dry pink lentils
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1 cup strong vegetable stock
1 tsp oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 tsp ground red chilies
1/2 carrot, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp curry powder
1 tsp soy sauce

Soak the lentils, fenugreek, and mustard in a large sauce pan for about an hour. Drain the lentils, add the vegetable stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils have been reduced to a soft mush.

Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onions and garlic, and cook over medium heat until they are lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the browned onion-garlic mixture to the lentils. Also add the chilies and carrots, and cook for another 15 minutes, until the carrots are tender.

Allow it to cool a bit, then pour into a blender and puree.

Pour back into saucepan and add salt, turmeric, curry, and soy sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes. Pour into bowls and garnish with soy sauce.

Cookie Experiment #6: Melting Chocolate in Saucepan vs. Microwave

2006-06-07T05:59:00.000-04:00

This is the strangest thing. I have no idea why it's happened. I did this experiment on a lark, since I was going to be melting butter and chocolate anyway. I didn't really think they would produce different results.

Below: same recipe, prepared in same way. On the left, cookies made from chocolate and butter that was melted in a saucepan. On the right, cookies made from chocolate and butter that was melted in a microwave. (In both methods, the butter and chocolate were cut up before being heated, and stirred periodically to prevent them from clumping up.)

The saucepan cookies are obviously much tighter and puffier. The microwave cookies spread much more. It's possible that I let the microwave run too long, thus burning the chocolate slightly. I'll have to test this again in the future.

Since this cookie was supposed to be puffy, obviously the saucepan melting method is preferablem, and though the microwave cookie looks better, it is dry and not as delicious.

The dough was obviously different too: (again, saucepan-melted is on left)

Baffling. Why has this happened?

Cumin Ka'ak: A Crunchy Syrian Bread Stick

2006-06-06T19:41:00.000-04:00

This is a crunchy little pretzel with a fantastically delicious flavor from the cumin and the anise. They make great bread sticks, or can be shaped into pretzels for snacks. Don't let their humble appearance fool you – their spices pack a deliciously unexpected flavor.

Cumin Ka'ak
Makes about 80 long breadsticks

1/2 cup warm water
1 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups flour
1/2 cups margarine, melted
1 Tbsp anise seeds
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp caraway seeds
1/4 tsp mahlep, optional

Egg Wash
1 egg, beaten
Sesame seeds, optional
Plenty of salt

Mix water and yeast, and allow to sit for about 5 minutes, until it begins to froth.

Meanwhile, grind the anise, cumin, caraway, and mahlep in a coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle until they are fragrant and broken, but not powdered.

Melt the margarine and stir in the flour. Mix in the yeast until a soft dough forms. Mix in the ground spices.

Grease a clean bowl, place the dough into it, turn the dough over once to grease both sides, and let rise, covered, in a warm place for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Punch down the dough, and divide it into 40 small balls. Roll each into a rope about 10 inches long, and cut in half to 80 make 5-inch-long ropes. You can shape these however you like, then dip each into the beaten egg, roll it in the sesame seeds and salt, and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until light brown.

Armenian Apricot Soup

2006-06-05T22:11:00.000-04:00

There are lots of variations on this soup. This one is from The Soup Peddler's Slow & Difficult Soups by David Ansel, but other versions call for bell peppers, tomatoes, mint, allspice, cinnamon, cayenne, paprika, and any number of other ingredients.

I like this one the best. It is a thick, beautiful pink soup with a comforting texture and warm, carroty flavor.

Armenian Apricot Soup
Makes enough for 4

1 Tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
3/4 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 cups pink lentils
5 cups water
1 cup dried apricots, chopped

In a large soup pot, heat the oil and sauté the onion and carrots until the onion is transparent, about 10 minutes. Mix in the cumin, lower the heat, cover, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add the lentils and water, simmer, then reduce the heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes. (Add more water as needed to keep the lentils from sticking to the bottom). Then stir in the apricots, remove from heat, and let cool slightly before putting it in the blender. Blend to a puree and add a bit of salt.

Dominica: Banana Mango Bread

2006-06-04T18:43:00.000-04:00

This looks just like banana bread, but has the most subtle, deliciously zestly spring to the flavor. I've never tasted a bread like it before. I absolutely love it.

It's best hot from the oven. Once it's cooled, it still tastes delicious, but the zesty mango taste is more subdued.

Dominican Banana Mango Bread
Makes 2 loaves

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
3 cups cake flour (all-purpose will work too)
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 very ripe banana, peeled (the riper, the better)
1 small very ripe mango, peeled
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two loaf pans (8 1/2 x 4 1/2).

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

In a blender or food processor, puree the banana and mango.

Mix by hand the dry ingredients with the butter mixture in three parts, alternating with the pureed fruit. Fold in the walnuts and raisins (I like to sprinkle the walnuts on top - they're pretty that way). Mix just until incorporated – not too much! Pour batter into the pans and bake for 50 – 60 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then dump out onto wire cooking racks and let cool completely.

Chec cu Nuca si Cacao: Romanian Sweet Bread with Nuts and Cocoa

2006-06-03T08:52:00.000-04:00

Upon learning of my quest to cook every country on Earth, a friend of mine sent me a recipe for Romanian Chocolate-Walnut Bread. She's from Pennsylvania, but she dated a Romanian for three and a half years, which is a lot closer to Romania than I've ever been.

This is a beautiful quick-bread: spongy, soft and sweet, with a delicate crunch of walnuts and a decorative band of chocolate.

Chec cu Nuca si Cacao
Makes 2 loaves

1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 lemon zest
5 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 1/2 cups walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup powdered sugar (for dusting)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pans.

Cream the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each. Add the milk, lemon zest, and vanilla, and mix thoroughly.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and walnuts. Mix this with the wet ingredients. Pour about 1/2 of the batter into a new bowl and mix in the cocoa. (Add a bit of milk if it's too thick).

Into each loaf pan, pour a layer of the white batter, making sure to leave some batter for the top. Then pour in a layer of the chocolate batter, and top each with the last of the white batter.

Bake about 1 hour, until a stick comes out clean.

Let the loaves cool and dust with powdered sugar.

A New Twist on the Sugar Cookie: Algerian Semolina Sugar Cookies

2006-06-02T05:37:00.000-04:00

The sugar cookie is the Barbie of the cookie kingdom: sweet but standard. Truth to tell, I rarely bake them. With nothing to make my taste buds cry hark, the sugar cookie recipe usually only comes out to play when I'm missing ingredients for anything else.

But this is different.

The semolina gives this cookie a texture unlike any I've ever tasted. It is strangely coarse and gritty, yet delicate. The interior is soft, moist, and chewy. The flavor is buttery and delicious.

The recipe is from the wonderful blog Ya Rayi Our Rai, written by California School of Culinary Arts chef Farid Zadi. I cut the recipe by 1/3, since I really didn't need that many cookies, and I added the almond halves and coarse sugar, because I think they're pretty.

Algerian Semolina Sugar Cookies
(Recipe has been cut by 2/3 – now makes about 20 medium cookies)

2 2/3 cups semolina flour
1/3 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup + 1 tsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup almond halves, optional for topping
1/4 cup coarse sugar, optional for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients together.

Beat the egg yolk and butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat some more. Add the vanilla. Mix the wet batter with the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they are soft and puffy. Add to the rest of the dough and mix gently until it comes together. (If it won't, add a bit of water). (Zadi has a wonderful step-by-step slide show on his mixing method).

Pinch off walnut-sized pieces, shape into spheres, and place about 2 inches apart on an ungreased, parchment-lined baking sheet. Smush the spheres slightly to flatten. Roll the sides in coarse sugar and press four almond halves into the top to make a flower pattern.

Bake the cookies for 12 – 15 minutes, until light gold.

Pecan Bubble Bread

2006-06-01T05:13:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine swears this is called Monkey Bread. But he's from Wisconsin, where it's practically Arctic conditions all year round. I'm from Southern California, where we wear shorts in December. And besides, there are no monkeys in this bread.

It's one of my very favorite breads: crispy and sweet on the outside, puffy and soft on the inside – and you get to tear it off in little bubble pieces, which is just darn fun.
Pecan Bubble Bread
Makes one large wreath of bubble bread From Kathy Cutler's The Festive Bread Book

1/2 cup milk, warmed
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp active dry yeast (about 1/3 of a packet)
2 Tbsp warm water (think "warm bath" not "hot")
2 cups of flour
1 egg

Outer Coating
1 Tbsp butter, melted
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 – 1 cup pecan halves
Bubble Coating
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon

First, make the bubbles. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and set aside for about 5 minutes, until it starts to froth up. If it doesn't froth up, then you've killed your yeast. Start again.

Meanwhile, warm the milk in a saucepan, and mix with the sugar, melted butter, and salt. Add 1 cup of flour, the yeast mixture, and the egg, and mix until a batter-like dough forms. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes.

Place in greased bowl, flip to grease the other side too, cover, let rise in warm place about 1 hour, until about doubled in size, and then punch it down. Cut the dough into 32 pieces and roll each into a ball.

Now make the outer coating. Melt the 1 Tbsp butter and mix with the corn syrup. Pour into a large Bundt pan, and press the pecan halves into it to make a nice pattern.

Now make the bubble coating. Melt the 2 Tbsp butter, and mix in the brown sugar and cinnamon. One by one, roll each of the 32 bubbles in the mixture and place in the Bundt pan. (Place 16 balls on the bottom layer, then the next 16 in the spaces left by the first layer).

Cover the Bundt pan and let the bubbles rise for another 30 minutes. (If the dough comes up too close to the top of the Bundt pan, place the pan on a baking sheet before putting it in the oven). Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes. Cool for about 20 minutes in the pan, then dump out onto a wire rack to cool the rest of the way. It's best served still slightly warm.

A Week Without Wheat #3: Indian Cashew Rice with Lemon

2006-05-31T06:39:00.000-04:00

Oof! This is killer: soft with rice, crunchy with cashews, sour with lemon, sweet with onions, and just really, really, really tasty. It's also allergy-free - something my mother can actually eat.

Don't leave out the asafetida – it's the secret ingredient.

Indian Cashew Rice with Lemon
Serves 2 as a main dish or 4 as a side dish

1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 cup roasted, chopped cashews
3 whole red chilies, dried
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp asafetida (no more – really.)
1 large onion, sliced
1 tsp salt
3 cups of cooked rice
Juice of 1 lemon

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the mustard seeds and cashews, and cook (covered!) over medium heat until the seeds start to crackle and pop. Add the chilies, cumin, turmeric, curry, and asafetida. Cook, stirring, until the cashews are a light golden color.

Add the onions and salt, and cook until the onions are soft. Add the rice and stir until it turns yellow. Cook over low heat until the rice is warm. Add the lemon and serve hot.

Ducuna: Sweet Potato Odd Balls from Antigua and Barbuda

2006-05-30T06:04:00.000-04:00

I found this recipe on a website called Caribbean Choice. The person who submitted it spelled out the ingredients and the instructions in standard recipe format, but added at the end: "Hope you like it."

Many recipes online end with a similar sentiment, but for some reason I was touched by this one. No exclamation point, no overly excited and exuberant home cook – the period at the end of the sentence made it sound quiet and almost humble: "Here's my recipe. I hope you like it."

I do like it. These ducuna are sweet little creatures that remind me, for whatever reason, of the innards of an apple pie. The texture, flavor, and consistency is almost identical – except that this is not apple, it's sweet potato.

1/2 large sweet potato, grated
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup flour
Dash of all spice
Dash of cinnamon

Mix the grated sweet potato with the sugar and set aside, covered for about 10 minutes. Mix in the flour and spices until a soft dough forms. Spoon the dough into 3 packets of aluminum foil, folding the foil so little water will get in. Place in boiling water and boil for about 45 minutes, until they are firm. I, too, hope you like it.

Okra Fried Rice from Trinidad and Tobago

2006-05-29T07:30:00.000-04:00

The first time I ate okra, I had unwisely cooked it with polenta. No bean can be at its best when cooked with polenta. I forgave it.

I still had half a bag of frozen okra getting freezer burn, so last night I dove into okra yet again with okra fried rice from Trinidad and Tobago.

This is an interesting take on fried rice, with some wonderful flavors from the fennel, cloves, and garlic, but overall it was missing something. It feels very close to being delicious, but instead falls on the side of just "good."

Still, I think I will forgive okra again. I will give it another chance soon. It's such a cheerful-looking bean. It was brought down by its associates. And besides, I still have a third of a bag of the stuff getting freezer burn.

Okra Fried Rice from Trinidad and Tobago
Makes enough for 2

1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
2 oz frozen okra, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1 cup cooked rice

Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan, then add the garlic and onion. Cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat, until the onions are transparent. Add the okra and cook for another 5 minutes. Add everything else and cook until the rice is warmed through.

On the Shoulders of Bloggers: Phoebe's Fabulous Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies from A Spoonful of Sugar . . . Sort of

2006-05-28T07:38:00.000-04:00

I've been baking since I was four, but somehow I still forget the basics. For example: Always make sure you have the ingredients before you begin.

I set out to make Phoebe's Fabulous Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies, brought to me by A Spoonful of Sugar, when I realized I only had half of the 2 cups of oats I needed.

"Well," thought I, "Walnuts are kind of like oats."

So I diced up some walnuts and added them in place of the missing oats. Baked the first batch.

"Ah," I thought, pulling the bubbling, gooey mass of oat slime from the oven, "Maybe walnuts aren't that similar to oats."

The second batch turned out fine, though. I added another half cup of flour to goo them up a bit and somehow that worked. I have no idea what they were supposed to taste like, but the oat-walnut-extrafloured cookies I produced were mighty fine.

Thanks for the recipe, Spoonful! Next time I bake it, I'll be sure I have all the oats.

The (Ever-So-Slightly Modified) Recipe:
Makes about 20 medium cookies
12 Tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oats
1 3/4 cups plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups raisins

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl combine oats, flour, soda, baking powder and salt. Mix into butter mixture until just combined. Stir in raisins.

Drop the dough by heaped tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets, and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Croissants: A First (and Second) Attempt

2006-05-27T06:01:00.000-04:00

Everyone has a Little-French-Pastry-Shop story, but mine involves a trombone.

Or a trombonist at least. Yes, when I was young, I played the trombone. My little sister played the clarinet, and somehow we made it to adulthood without our mother killing us. I suspect this was because we both gave up the instruments by high school.

It might also have been because we didn't actually practice said trombone and clarinet at the same time, or, indeed, at home. We practiced at school, three days a week, in the early morning. Our mother would drive us over for practice, and, if we were early – and we always made sure we were early – we would stop for croissants at this Little-French-Pastry-Shop around the corner.

In winter, it would be mildly chilly - this was Southern California, a reasonable place to live - and the bakery was always warm and light. Most of the day's goods were still being prepared, but the basket of croissants was freshly filled. Those croissants were the fluffiest things I had ever eaten, their soft, buttery layers still warm from the oven. The three of us would sit in the early California sunlight and pull the soft dough from the croissants as the sun rose over palm trees.

Then we would go practice the trombone and clarinet for an hour, so the idyllic feel to the day rubbed off fast.

Not unlike my first try at baking croissant.

I prepared the dough carefully the night before, refrigerating it as instructed, and arose early the next morning to shape and bake them. Fifteen hours after beginning the process, I pulled them out of the oven and found that they were like tiny little hockey pucks.

Tasty, yes, but not fluffy the way a croissant should be. Fifteen hours of work and I had messed up the very first step: warm the milk, add the yeast. I hadn't so much warmed the milk as boiled it. The yeast, then, weren't so much given a warm wake-up bath as they were cooked in their skins.

My second batch did much better. Not killing the yeast always helps.

Here is the recipe I used. The process takes about 15 hours total, but only about an hour of active time – the rest of the time, the dough is cooling its jets and rising.

Croissants
Makes enough for 24 small croissants

1 1/2 cups milk
4 tsp yeast
3 1/2 cups flour
4 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt

Butter Layer:
3 Tbsp flour
3 sticks cold butter

First, make the dough. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it's warm to the touch, then remove from heat and whisk in the yeast. Allow it to sit for about 10 minutes, until it froths.

Meanwhile, mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Stir the milk and yeast in and beat by hand for a few seconds, until the dough is smooth and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 to 12 hours.

4 to 12 hours later . . .

Prepare the butter layer. (For a wonderful online demonstration on how to incorporate a butter layer, check out WookieHut Cuisine.)

Scatter 3 Tbsp of flour over a large, clean work surface, and roll the sticks of butter in it. Pound the butter gently with a rolling pin until it's soft, then flour your hands and knead the butter into one big ball. It should be malleable but not melting. Divide the butter into 8 segments, and flatten each into a small disk.

Scrape clean the work surface and re-flour. Turn the cold dough out onto the surface and push it into a rectangle, about 6 x 12 inches, with the narrow end facing you, like a business letter.

Lay out the 8 slabs of butter to cover the bottom 2/3 of the letter. Fold the top third down, then the bottom third up – exactly like folding a business letter.

Use a rolling pin to press the dough into a rectangle about 12 x 24 inches. Fold the bottom quarter up to the middle, the top quarter down to the middle, and then the whole thing in half. Do the business letter step again, then the quarter-folding step again.

Refrigerate, loosely covered, 2 to 12 hours.

Now to begin shaping. Divide the dough in half. For each half, do the following:

Roll it out to a 12 x 12 square. Cut it into two strips, each 6 x 12. Cut each strip into 6 triangles. Shape each triangle by pulling the bottom out slightly to make it wider, then rolling it up.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Allow to rise about 1.5 hours, until puffy, but not doubled in size. Brush with an egg wash.

Bake 20 – 25 minutes, until light brown.

A Week Without Wheat #2: Bakingsheet’s Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

2006-05-26T12:44:00.000-04:00

My mother is allergic to just about everything, except vegetables, fruits, and meat. None of these are good for baking. As a girl who bakes almost as frequently as she sleeps, this breaks my heart. I arrive home for Christmas or visits, and can’t share any of my wonderful baking with her.

So when I saw on Nic’s Bakingsheet the recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies, my baking-neurons perked up. Smelling potential, I scanned the ingredient list:

1 cup smooth peanut butter – that’s out, but I could use cashew butter
3/4 cup brown sugar – she’s not allergic to sugar yet
1 large egg – egg is the only dairy she can eat
1/2 tsp vanilla extract – fine, as long as it’s “natural” and not “artificial”
1/2 tsp baking soda – good, good
1 cup chocolate chips – fine if they’re dark chocolate, not milk chocolate

And . . . that’s it! Victory! A cookie my mother can eat! I grabbed my coat and was out the door to fetch some cashew butter before the recipe was finished printing.

I whipped up a batch of these flourless almond-butter cookies for her for Mother’s Day. A cookie my mother can eat – it’s as much a gift to me as to her. Thank you for the recipe, Nic!

A Soft & Deliciously Simple Pizza

2006-05-25T08:30:00.000-04:00

Italy should have been #103 in my quest to cook every country on Earth, but I fell out of alphabetical order around, oh, #3. So today it's #28.

I was dying – dying – to fix the recipe I found for Italian Parmesan Rice Bombs. I've never eaten a bomb. But the recipe called for 2 young pigeons, which I doubt my supermarket carries, and, besides, I'm a vegetarian.

So I made a pizza. My first pizza.

The dough is the best part: light and soft and about a gazillion times better than any store-bought pizza I've ever had the misfortune to eat. It's from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. It's a simple, light pizza that is equally tasty hot or cold.

A Soft & Simple Pizza

Dough
1/4 cup warm water
1 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup water
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Mix the 1/2 cup water with the yeast and set aside to proof for 10 minutes (until foamy – wake those yeast up and get them moving). Add the oil, 1/2 cup water, salt, and flours. Turn it out onto a counter and knead until it's smooth. It should be a little sticky for a crisp crust. Allow to rise in an oiled, covered bowl for about an hour.

Tomato Sauce
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 cup crushed tomatoes
1 tsp basil

Heat everything until the juices have evaporated and the sauce is thick enough to shape with a spoon.

Pizza
4 ounces mozzarella

Preheat oven to 500.

Spread, stretch, and roll the dough out into a 10-inch circle, or a rectangle, as I did. Set on floured pizza wheel or cookie sheet. Let it rest for about 10 minutes. Spread the tomato sauce over it, sprinkle it with mozzarella, and bake about 7 minutes, until it is lightly browned.

A Week Without Wheat #1: Tomato Rasam

2006-05-24T13:54:00.000-04:00

My mother was visiting all last week. She makes cooking . . . difficult.

The list of food items she is allergic to includes, but is not limited to:

Wheat, barley, rye, peanuts, lentils, milk, cheese, butter – all dairy but eggs actually - soy (beans, sauce, tofu, etc.), corn (including corn syrup and corn oil), beans (from green to kidney) . . .

When confronted with such a list, even the most hard-bitten waiter blinks in astonishment. Fortunately, I'm a girl who likes a challenge.

So here is the first of the Mother-Friendly recipes, one of my very favorite soups: a tomato rasam from India. (A rasam is a thin and overwhelmingly zestful soup). It takes literally 10 minutes to make; however, in the tradition of Indian cooking, it requires about twelve-dozen spices.

Tomato Rasam
Makes enough for 2

2 cups water
2 large tomatoes, chopped (more is perfectly wonderful)
1 tsp minced ginger (don't add too much of this – a little goes a very long way)
1 garlic clove (again, go crazy on the garlic)
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oil (olive or canola)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 whole red dried chilies
1 Tbsp unsweetened, shredded coconut

Boil the water in a large saucepan and add the other tomato and the ginger. Reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, puree one of the tomatoes and the garlic in a blender. Add the puree to the simmering broth, along with the curry powder, cumin, pepper, and salt. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

While it simmers, heat the oil in a separate pan. You're going to cook up the last of the spices to make them fragrant and happy. Add the mustard seeds and cook over medium heat (covered!) until the little devils start to crackle. Then add the red chilies and the coconut. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the coconut turns a light brown. If it looks like a weird little glob of coconut-paste, you're on the right track.

Scoop the coconut-oil-mustard blob up and add it to the simmering soup. Stand back, it will sizzle. Stir it all up and serve it immediately.

Wacky Cheerfulness & the Indian Stir-Fried Carrots

2006-05-17T09:27:00.000-04:00

One day last week, I went out for a run and encountered a parade. The paraders wore shirts that said they were parading for hunger. I rather thought they meant "against" hunger, but they were a cheerful lot so I let it pass.

The Boston police department had blocked off traffic for the paraders along most of my running route, but since I was on foot, they let me through. It was the first time I'd seen this major street free of cars, so I ran straight down the middle of it, on the double yellow line. It was a warm day with a perfect Atlantic breeze, and every few blocks a new band or singing group was playing to entertain the paraders: Gospel singers and hip-hop and even a country music group.

To celebrate the wacky cheerfulness of the event and the fact that I got to run down the middle of the street, I stir-fried some carrots when I got home. It made sense at the time.

I rarely repeat a recipe, but this is one I make all the time. The sweetness of the carrots, the heat of the spices, and the sourness of the lemon juice combine for a flavor I've never found anywhere else. And it's such a bright, cheerful dish.

This recipe is from Suvir Saran's Indian Home Cooking, and makes enough for 4 to 6:

2 ½ Tbsp oil
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1-inch piece of ginger, julienned
1/2 hot green chili, minced (I leave this out – I just can't take the heat)
3 whole dried red chiles
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 1/2 pounds grated carrots
3/4 tsp salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and mustard seeds, covered, until the seeds start to crackle (about 2 minutes).

Add the ginger, chiles and cumin. Cook until the ginger crisps a bit, about 2 minutes.

Add the carrots and cook until they start to change color, about 3 minutes.

Add the salt and the lemon juice, and serve.

Morocco: Sesame Cookies

2006-05-16T05:06:00.000-04:00

Moroccan cooking is a blessing upon the Earth, so richly flavored and textured that I could cook nothing but couscous dishes my whole life and be completely satisfied. I'll get back to some more couscous later, but today it's sesame cookies.

This recipe is a slightly modified version of one from Kitty Morse and Danielle Mamane's beautiful book The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco.

It's a very dry, coarse cookie, perhaps more like a sweet, crunchy, oily breadstick. When they came out of the oven, I didn't like them much, so I gave them an almond topping. Turns out, this was unnecessary: by the next day, they were so cool and sweet that they were a wonderful treat.

So let these sit overnight before eating them – they're much better the next day.

Makes about 15

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp cold water

Topping
Cinnamon for dusting
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tsp water
1/4 tsp almond extract
15 halved almonds

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix oil, sesame seeds, sugar, and vanilla, then add flour and baking powder, then the water, mixing with fingers until the dough has formed coarse crumbs.

Roll the dough into 2-inch balls, flatten, and set on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with a little cinnamon.

You can either press the almonds halves directly into the dough and bake them in, or cement them on later with the icing – take your pick.

Bake 20 – 22 minutes, let cool.

Mix the confectioners' sugar, water, and almond extract. Use the paste to glue the almond halves onto the tops of the cookies.

Let sit overnight.

Breakfast in Tunisia

2006-05-15T07:27:00.000-04:00

I had no idea my favorite breakfast food was from Tunisia. I suspect, since it's couscous, that it's popular throughout Northern Africa, but this version is called Tunisian Farka, so I guess it's mostly made in Tunisia.

It is outrageously sweet and delicious (despite the lack of added sugar), and the texture of the couscous and the crunch of the walnuts are enough to make anyone crumple up and trash their Lucky Charms boxes.

Tunisian Farka
Makes about 2 servings

1/2 cup couscous
1/2 cup water or milk
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 cup chopped, toasted nuts (I like walnuts the best)
2 ounces of chopped, pitted dates (about 10 dates)

Milk, butter, honey, or sugar for sprinkling over the top

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the couscous in a medium-sized baking dish.

In a large saucepan, boil the water and oil. Remove from the heat and pour in the couscous. Cover and let it stand for 10 minutes.

Fluff with a fork to prevent it from solidifying into sticky mass. Mix in the nuts and dates. Cover with foil and bake about 20 minutes. Serve with milk, butter, honey, sugar, or plain (it's quite good plain).

Index: Desserts

2006-05-14T17:17:00.000-04:00

Back to the Full Recipe Index.
(Last Updated 11 September 2006.)

Cookies & Bars

	Triple-Chocolate Fudge-A-Licious Brownie-Cookies Desperately decadent cookies
	Khatai Cookies A rich pistachio cookie from Afghanistan
	Keke Faasaina Coconut Puff Cookies from Samoa
	Super-Killer Choc-A-Licious Fudgy Almond Brownies A dense, nutty cross between fudge and brownie
	Austrian Cinnamon Sables A soft & sweet cinnamon sugar cookie, posted by Lovescool
	Chocolate To Die For Cookies Spiced with rum-soaked currants and cayenne
	Thin Mints Chocolate wonder-wafers from 101 Cookbooks
	Sesame Cookies A dense, subtle cookie from Morocco
	Algerian Semolina Sugar Cookies You've never had a sugar cookie like this before
	Allergy-Free Cookie: Almond-Butter Chocolate Chip No Wheat, Corn, Gluten, Milk, Peanuts . . .
	Phoebe's Famous Oatmeal Cookies . . . Sort Of An Interesting Variation Born of a Lack of Oatmeal
	Please-Everybody Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Moderately chewy, moderately crunchy, great peanut flavor - and chocolate!
	Mocha Truffle Cookies Fudgey little mocha balls from Sweetnick's place
	Basler Brunsli Soft, chewy, chocolate-almond roll-outs from Switzerland

Cakes

	Triple-Layer Almond-Raspberry Cake With a ridiculous number of buttercream roses
	Applekoek A soft, light coffee cake from the Netherlands Antilles

Cupcakes

Buttermilk Cupcakes with Browned Butter Frosting
Brain-pulsing sugary-ness

Sweet Breads

	Romanian Chocolate-Walnut Bread From a Friend's Ex-Boyfriend's Romania Mother
	Pecan Bubble Bread A.K.A. Monkey Bread (Sans Monkey)
	Croissants Soft, puffy, fluffy, buttery, oh yes
	Sweet Walnut Bread A tender, moist breakfast bread from Albania
	Mango Banana Bread A tangy, unique spin on banana bread

Scones

	Chocolate Chip Scones A soft & sweet scone from the Joy of Baking
	Coconut Scones Soft interior, crispy crust
	Coffee Walnut Scones Dense & delicious scones from 101 Cookbooks

"Other" Desserts

	Aland Pancakes A delicious rice custard from a tiny Swedish Isle
	Australian Creamed Rice Soft & sweet, easy on the nutmeg
	Belarusian Rice Pudding with Carrots Sweet but low-sugar comfort food
	Cinnamon-Ginger Rice-Shake A thick rice-based "milk" shake from El Salvador
	Aruban Bananas Baked bananas in syrup, perfect for ice creams
	Ducuna Sweet Potato Odd-Balls from Antigua and Barbuda
	Rogel de Dulce de Leche Crepes with Sweet Milk Jam from Argentina
	Baked Banana Custard A Weird-Looking Custard from the Bahamas
	Muhammar Bahrainian Sweet Rice with Dates

A Coconut Confection from the Dominican Republic

2006-05-14T17:02:00.000-04:00

Will it never stop raining in Boston? A week of solid downpour and counting.

Time for a reminder that some places in the world have coconut trees.

This recipe is from Caribbean Choice ("Your Gateway to the Caribbean"). They called it a biscuit, I call it a scone. It is warm and soft, with a fantastic sugary texture and a pleasing crunchy crust.

Makes about 15 medium scones

1 3/4 cups packed shredded coconut
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).

Mix the milk, coconut, and almond extract. Set aside.

Cream the margarine and sugar, then add the egg and vanilla.

Combine all the dry ingredients. Mix into the margarine mixture in three portions. Mix in the coconut mixture.

Drop by the spoonful onto a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake 25-30 minutes, until light brown.

Coconut scones, coconut scones, tra la.

On the Shoulders of Bloggers: Chocolate To Die For Cookies from Fresh Approach Cooking

2006-05-13T21:21:00.000-04:00

Some chocolate cookies are so chocolatey you just have to smile. Other are so chocolatey you raise your eyebrows in delight. And then there are those so densely chocolat-a-ricious that they actually make you sneeze.

Obviously I'm writing about the latter.

This is the Chocolate To Die For Cookie from Rachael's Fresh Approach Cooking blog. Their fudgy tri-chocolate richness combined with the unlikely pinch of cayenne and pepper set off so many of my taste buds that they called in my histamines for backup and I actually sneezed from the richness. Wow. Now that's a cookie.

After Rachael's near Greek-Scale tragedy of forgetting to add the flour, I was extra vigilant about all the ingredients and I suspect they all made it into the cookie. If not, it's the most versatile cookie in the world, because it was, as its name suggests, to die for.

Thanks for the recipe, Rachael!

Egyptian Baba Ghanouj & the Importance of Soaking Your Blender

2006-05-12T19:43:00.000-04:00

This was my first time making baba ghanouj, that zesty eggplant dip, and I forgot to soak my blender. Cleaning up "later" had seemed like a good idea at the time (10pm last night), but by this morning the eggplant residue had cemented itself to the blender blades. Not my best laid plan.

("But you know," said my sister as I bemoaned my crusty blender, "Only one plan in your life will ever be your best laid plan. All the others will be less than best." - "Yes, but that one's sure to go awry." - "Hmm. So maybe this was your best after all.")

Anyway, should you make baba ghanouj, always soak your blender.

Here's the recipe (from Anna Thomas's The New Vegetarian Epicure):

Makes enough for 6 – 8
(This is a popular dish all over the Middle East, but according to Wikipedia the tahine variation originated in Egypt)

3 lbs firm young eggplants
2 medium onions
1/2 head of garlic
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp tahine (sesame paste)
3 Tbsp lemon juice
pinch of cayenne

Roast the eggplant at 400 degrees for an hour, until the poor shriveled fruits collapse into a puddle of goo. Anna Thomas recommends scooping out the flesh and discarding the seeds and skin, but I like the seeds and skin, especially when blended into tiny bits by my crusty blender.

While the eggplant cooks, chop the onion and garlic. Cook them on low heat in a saucepan with the olive oil for about 45 minutes, until they are a soft, caramelized gold.

Combine collapsed eggplant, carmalized onion and garlic, and everything else in blender. Blend. Serve with pita bread. Soak blender.

Albania: Sweet Walnut Bread

2006-05-12T08:24:00.000-04:00

This is from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, bless their sugary souls. It was published as a cake, but it's more of a sweet breakfast bread. Sturdy yet tender, with a dense, moist crust of lemon glaze, I'm in love with this bread.

Moosewood said it was from Albania, and I'm inclined to take their word for it.

Makes one 9" x 13" bread/cake. I made a half batch and baked it in a bread pan.

The Bread:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup yogurt
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp lemon rind, grated
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

The Glaze (the very best):
3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground allspice
dash of ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and beat in the eggs.

In a separate bowl, mix the yogurt with the buttermilk.

In yet another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon.

Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture in three batches, alternating with the yogurt mixture. Stir in lemon rind and walnuts, then pour the batter into the 9 x 13 pan and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

While the cake bakes, make the glaze. Simmer all the glaze ingredients over low heat, covered, for about 15 minutes.

When the cake is done, pour the glaze over the cake and return it to the oven for 10 minutes.

Hideous! (And Tasty.) The Curious Case of the Maldivian Kaliyaa Birinjee

2006-05-11T05:31:00.000-04:00

Though it bears an uncanny resemblance, Kaliyaa Birinjee is not, in fact, mashed-up cow brains.

The coconut-rice dish from Maldives is one of those rare recipes that looks like sludge yet tastes like heaven. Only good can come from coconut-onion sauces, and this one is laced with fennel, cardamom, garlic, curry, and ginger, so it really packs a punch that the coconut smoothes out deliciously and delicately. It is a soothing yet spunky rice dish.

The original recipe demanded that I "crush" the onions with the ginger and garlic, but I find the verb "crush" a little alarming ("He crushed the rebellion with an iron fist" – "His spirits were crushed" – "The pedestrian was crushed under a donkey cart"), and besides I didn't know how to crush onion with garlic and ginger, so I just sliced the little devils. Worked fine.

Still, it looks like sludge, so I would never serve it to anyone I hadn't known for a few years.

I've actually been pendulating back and forth on when – or whether – to publish this monstrosity. In the glossy foodie-net, with its high-class edible porn, mashed-cup cow brains stick out. But last night, the Ugly Gourmet complimented the sludgy slime-fest that was my Aruban banana breakfast. It's comforting that someone out in the blog-o-sphere appreciates ugly food.

So here it is – this one's for you, Ug.

Kaliyaa Birinjee
Serves 5

5 cardamom seeds, soaked in 1/4 cup hot water
2 cinnamon sticks, soaked in 1/4 cup hot water
1 tsp fennel seeds, soaked in yet a different 1/4 cup hot water
4 large onions
3 cloves garlic
1 1-inch piece of ginger
1/2 cup ghee or oil
3 cups rice, washed and drained
8 cups coconut milk
2 curry leaves
Salt to taste

Soak the spices in hot water for a few minutes.

"Crush" (or slice) the onion, garlic, and ginger. Melt the ghee in a large saucepan, then add the water from the soaked spices (and for heavens sake, stand back). Stir (carefully) until all the water has evaporated. Add the onion mixture and the spices, and fry until the onion is transparent.

Add the rice and fry until it is a little dry.

Add the coconut milk, curry leaves, and salt. Boil until the liquid is just at the top of the rice, then reduce the heat and simmer until all the water has evaporated.

Serve in as nice as dish as you can muster.

Licking the Lucky Beaty – A Collection of Favorite Kitchen Moments

2006-05-10T20:59:00.000-04:00

When she was young, my sister called the electric mixer the "lucky beaty." She was a darling, dimpled little girl, half Native Alaskan with that gorgeous copper skin, long brown hair, and absolutely enormous puffy cheeks.

We helped our mom make gingerbread for Christmas every year. (Eventually, we tried to make such a huge batch that the lucky beaty blew a fuse and stopped beating.) But before that, when she was done beating it, our mom would hand each of us one of the detached beaters to lick. It was my favorite kitchen moment.

I've added other favorite kitchen moments in the left column, under "Licking the Lucky Beaty." Re-load the page to generate a new one.

Arbuan Bananas: Peeled, Sliced, Boiled, Baked, Eaten

2006-05-10T18:50:00.000-04:00

Hooray for mashy, mushy, marvelous messes. Achieving these messes is surprisingly easy, especially when you're boiling bananas.
This Arbuan recipe suggested serving these bananas with ice cream, but I wanted breakfast, so I used only 1/4th the sugar. Nice try, girl-o, but these are still dessert.

Serves 4
4 ripe bananas
2 tbs cinnamon powder
3 tbs vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
4 cups water

Peel the bananas and boil them together with the cinnamon, vanilla extract, sugar and water for about 20 minutes.

Bake the bananas in the oven at 400° (F) for 10 minutes.

Serve with ice cream, not for breakfast. They look hideous, but are truly delicious.

Rainy Day Comfort Food: Lebanese Mdardara, a Pot of Tea, and Robert Redford

2006-05-09T18:22:00.000-04:00

My umbrella actually turned inside-out in the wind today. First time ever. So I arrived home from Mother's Day shopping soaked to the bone and freezing.

Home is not much drier. My ceiling and windows are leaking again and my kitchen floor is an inch-deep in water from the leaking freezer, which has stopped freezing.

Obviously, it's time for some warm comfort food, a pot of tea, and a Robert Redford movie.

So I made Mdardara. This is one of my favorite comfort foods: warm, slow-cooked rice and lentils with soft and fragrant onions.

I've seen all sorts of variations on this recipe. This one has cumin, my favorite spice.

Lebanese Mdardara
Makes enough for 5

1 cup red lentils
2 cups rice
3 cups water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt (I actually use quite a bit more, but best to start slow)
1 onion, sliced into rings
1/2 cup olive oil

Simmer the lentils and water over medium heat for about 30 minutes until they're soft and mushy.

Fry the onions in the olive oil until they turn golden, then add them to the lentils. Add the rice, salt, cumin, and let everything simmer for 25 minutes. If the water is all absorbed before the rice is finished cooking, add some more water. Serve warm, on a stormy day, in conjunction with a Robert Redford film.

Madagascar and the Weirdest Banana Bread I've Ever Baked

2006-05-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

I've been reading a U.N. cookbook on rice. This is the recipe from Madagascar:

Riz aux Bananes
Serves 3-4

3 measures of rice flour
1 kg of bananas
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Preparation

"Mash bananas, put them in bowl and mix in the bicarbonate of soda. Add rice flour, little by little, until dough is liquid but thick. Depending on the consistency, not all the rice lour need be used.

"If you are able to find leaves from a traveller's palm, place small amounts of the dough in small leaves and fold the filled leaves to form a packet.

"Next, place the packets in a cooking pot and add water to the top of the packets. Cook them over medium heat until done, adding water to the pot if necessary. If you cannot get any traveller's palm leaves, put the dough in a bowl, cover the bowl, put it into a cooking pot with some water in the bottom, and cook in the bain marie.

"Stick a knife in the middle of the dough. If it is done cooking, the knife will come out clean.

Obviously, this is a recipe that is open for interpretation. I used 1 banana, 7 tablespoons of rice flour, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

Since I had neither traveller's palm leaves nor a formal bain marie, I put the dough in a coffee mug (traveller's palm, right?) and the coffee mug in a saucepan of water.

It came out looking like this:

That's rock-like on the bottom, moist in middle, raw on top. Not one to be put off by weird-looking bread, I sliced off a bit and ate it anyway. It tasted like rice flour mixed with banana then boiled in a coffee mug.

But it was pretty good toasted.

On the Shoulders of Bloggers: From the Pantry's Buttermilk Cupcakes

2006-05-08T18:27:00.000-04:00

Mother of mercy.

I have never – in my life – met a frosting so rich that I couldn't lick the fork I used to mix it up. Until last night. Honestly, it was so rich it financed its own private army of sugar and fat to invade and occupy my pancreas. I could feel my brain's right frontal lobe pulsing.

It started so innocently: baking up the buttermilk cupcakes that From the Pantry's Tanvi posted last December. (Technically they're from Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess, but From the Pantry introduced me to the recipe.)

The cakes themselves are feather-light and pillow-soft. I did something wrong to the batter and the cupcakes emerged with indentations as if they had been depressed by a giant thumb (why does this happen?), but they were still light and delicious.

"Not a problem," thought I. "The frosting will cover up the giant thumbprints."

So I made the brown butter frosting and slathered it onto the cakes to make them look normal.

The cupcakes ended up being about half frosting, half cake. As I waited for the frosting to set, I contemplated the number of calories and fat grams each seemingly simple cupcake must harbor.

Since I had no intention of actually eating any of the finished cupcakes, it didn't bother me too much. These little devils were bound for a bake sale, so I just applied some dinosaur-shaped sprinkles and sat marveling at them for a while. I'm sure they were stellar – they sold like mad.

Thanks for the recipe, Tanvi – for a sugar-hardened girl like me, it's quite an experience to meet my frosting match!

Cookie Experiment #5: Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda

2006-05-08T17:54:00.000-04:00

Summary: Baking powder produces a puffier cookie; baking soda a flatter cookie.

Some cookies call for baking soda, some for baking powder, many for both. They do different things and produce different cookies.

Baking soda reacts with the acids in ingredients like buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt, and molasses to produce carbon dioxide, which makes the cookie puff up. If you use too much baking soda, the cookie will taste slightly metallic.

Baking powder is about 25% baking soda, mixed with dry acid and cornstarch. The cornstarch prevents the baking soda and acid from reacting while they're dry, but when water is added, the two come in contact and produce carbon dioxide, which makes the cookie puff. Baking powder works in dough that doesn't naturally have enough acid to make baking soda work.

(Double-acting baking powder has two kinds of acid, one that starts reacting when you add the powder to the liquid mixture, and one that starts reacting in the oven. The double puff-up produces – not surprisingly – twice the puff.)

Substituting baking powder for baking soda makes a cookie puffier. Observe:

This is the same recipe. On the left, I used only baking powder. On the right, I used only baking soda.

Both are delicious, chewy cookies, but the baking powder version puffed up more and stayed puffed after baking. The baking soda version puffed slightly, but collapsed a little after coming out of the oven, making a flatter, more wrinkled-looking cookie.

On the Shoulders of Bloggers: Lovescool's Austrian Cinnamon Sable

2006-05-08T07:19:00.000-04:00

Google brought me into the blog-o-sphere. On the top of my Gmail account one day flashed the headline: "101 Cookbooks – Thousand Layer Lasagna."

Thousand Layer Lasagna. I clicked before I even registered what it meant. From there it was link-link-link through the food-o-sphere, overjoyed at the discovery of this whole new world.

When my link-fest brought me to Lovescool's Cinnamon Sable, I started printing.

Oh what a beautiful cookie – the soft cinnamon center, the crinkly sugar crust, that charming spiral hole in the center. But I live with the curse of the refrigerator cookie (impossibility of making a good one), so as my pile of printed blog recipes grew, this one gradually made its way to the bottom.

I dug it up today, threw caution to the wind, and baked it. A fantastically delicious cookie, but I couldn't make it look even close to pretty, so I applied some quick cinnamon icing. An amateur out, to be sure, but a delicious, soft and rich cookie nonetheless.

Thanks Lovescool!

El Salvador: Cinnamon-Ginger Rice-Shake

2006-05-07T20:28:00.000-04:00

In Monterey once, my mother and I were thrift-storing. In one particularly moldy, ill-ventilated hole-in-the-wall, we came upon a battered tube of metal. My mother practically turned cartwheels with glee at the sight.

"It's just a blender, Mom."

"No no no! It's a Vit-a-Mixer!"

"It's ugly."

"Is not."

She bought it for $10 and "to Vit-a-Mix" became a verb in our household. We Vit-a-Mixed up some soup for a quick snack. Strawberries were Vit-a-Mixed for sauces. Rice was Vit-a-Mixed into rice flour. When I started graduate school, my mom bought me a new Vit-a-Mixer, no longer the ugly tube of metal but a lovely, enormous blending demon.

Today I Vit-a-Mixed up some El Salvadorian cinnamon-ginger rice drink. I tell the Vit-a-Mix story because it's really the only one for this recipe, which is nice but not particularly worth repeating.

El Salvador: Cinnamon-Ginger Rice-Shake
Serves 2

3 cups water
2 Tbsp rice
1 large pepper (I'm a wimp – I left this out)
1 Tbsp sugar
Small piece of ginger
Dash o' Cinnamon

Heat the water, rice, cinnamon, pepper, and ginger. Cook for 1 hour on low heat, allow to cool, add some of the water, the rice, and the sugar to a blender. Blend. Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve warm and frothy.

Recipe Index

2006-05-07T06:29:00.000-04:00

Recipes	Collections
Desserts Breads & Baked Goods (Non-Dessert) Rice & Beans Veggie Dishes	On the Shoulders of Bloggers Around the World in 243 Recipes The Cookie Experiments Stories Without Recipes

Rice & Beans

	Walnut Lobio Kidney Bean Chili from Abkhazia
	BourauiZesty Rice & Tomato Dish from Greece
	Belinean Rice & Beans A smooth & soothing comfort food with coconut & thyme
	Shobji Khichuri Rice & Lentils with Cumin & Cauliflower from Bangladesh
	Layered Nasi Goreng Indonesian Fried Rice
	Uzbek Fennel Rice Rich & musty mushroom-rice

Veggie Dishes

	Soko ArazhanitMushrooms with Cream from Abkhazia
	Tamarind Potatoes Sweet-and-Sour Potato Dish from Afghanistan
	Okra "Fungi" Polenta from the British Virgin Islands
	Catalan Spinach Salad Garlic - Nut - Raisin Salad from Andorra
	Moussaka Eggplant Casserole from Akrotiri

Stories Without Recipes (Worth Repeating)

Voyeur No More - 22 April 2006

When the Refrigerator Warms - 25 April 2006

Defeated by a Cookie - 28 April 2006

A Veggisaurous Manifesto – 2 May 2006

"I don't need to read the help files! I've used computers before!" or "The Big Blog Browser Blowup" – 3 May 2006

Cookie Experiment #4: Brown Sugar vs. White ("Granulated") Sugar - 4 May 2006

Cookie Experiment #3: Creaming with an Electric Mixer vs. Creaming by Hand - 4 May 2006

Cookie Experiment #2: Melted vs. Softened Butter - 4 May 2006
Cookie Experiment #1: Butter vs. Margarine - 4 May 2006

On the Shoulders of Bloggers - Thin Mints - 5 May 2006

On the Shoulders of Bloggers - Chocolate Chip Scones - 6 May 2006

On the Shoulders of Bloggers - Austrian Cinnamon Sables - 7 May 2006

British Virgin Islands: Okra Fungi

2006-05-07T05:44:00.000-04:00

"Fungi" apparently means polenta in the British Virgin Islands.

Okra and polenta. Sounds like a strange combination, until you bite into it. Then you're absolutely certain that it's a strange combination. Why someone would combine these two foods in the first place is beyond me, but why they repeated it . . .

It doesn't taste bad. It tastes like polenta mixed with okra. I'm glad I ate it once.

Makes enough for 8

10 ounce package frozen cut okra
5 cups water
1 1⁄2 cups yellow cornmeal
2 Tbsp butter
1⁄4 tsp salt

Boil half of the water, remove from heat, and add the okra. Let it sit while you prepare the cornmeal.

In a saucepan, boil the other half of the water. Add the cornmeal in a slow, steady stream, stirring constantly with a whisk. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes, until the polenta is done, then mix in the okra, butter, and salt.

The recipe I used suggested serving this with Boiled Fish West Indian Style. I suggest serving it with more butter.

On the Shoulders of Bloggers: Chocolate Chip Scones from Joy of Baking

2006-05-06T06:20:00.000-04:00

My apartment is perfect. It's a small one-room bounded by a railroad track, a factory, a homeless shelter, and a parking lot; it's kitchen has 2 square inches of counter space; and the ceiling leaks when it rains . . . but one entire wall of windows faces east and catches the Boston skyline and the dawn.

In the mornings, my apartment glows like ripe oranges with sunlight. This morning I got up in that thick, early spring light, and made chocolate chip scones. It was one of those rare, almost fairy-tale mornings: glowing spring sunlight, an entire day spreading before me, a clean kitchen, a pot of steaming tea, and the scent of baking scones.

These were the chocolate chip scones from Stephanie Jaworksi's Joy of Baking – thick, delicate, and cake-like; sweetened by the chocolate, but still light enough for seconds (and thirds). Thanks, Stephanie.

On the Shoulders of Bloggers: Recipes I've Loved From the Foodie-Net

2006-05-06T06:05:00.000-04:00

	Chocolate Chip Scones Joy of Baking by Stephanie Jaworksi My apartment is perfect. It's a small one-room bounded by a railroad track, a factory, a homeless shelter, and a parking lot; it's kitchen has 2 square inches of counter space; and the ceiling leaks when it rains . . . [Read More]
	Austrian Cinnamon Sables from Lovescool I live with the curse of the refrigerator cookie (impossibility of making a good one) . . . [Read More]
	Thin Mints from 101 Cookbooks by Heidi Swanson The guy who work weekends at the front desk of my apartment building has long hair and plays an electric guitar shaped like a burst of flame . . . [Read More]
	Buttermilk Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting From the Pantry by Tanvi Mother of mercy. Honestly, it was so rich it financed its own private army of sugar and fat to invade and occupy my pancreas . . . [Read More]
	Phoebe's Fabulous Oatmeal Cookies . . . Sort of From A Spoonful of Sugar I've been baking since I was four, but somehow I still forget the basics. For example: Always make sure you have the ingredients before you begin . . . [Read More]
	Chocolate To Die For Cookies From Fresh Approach Cooking by Rachael Some chocolate cookies are so chocolatey you just have to smile. Other are so chocolatey you raise your eyebrows in delight. And then there are those so densely chocolat-a-ricious that they actually make you sneeze. Obviously I'm writing about the latter . . . [Read More]
	Flourless Cashew-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies From Bakingsheet by Nic My mother is allergic to just about everything, except vegetables, fruits, and meat. None of these are good for baking . . . So when I saw on Nic’s Bakingsheet the recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies, my baking-neurons perked up. . . . [Read More]

On the Shoulders of Bloggers: 101 Cookbooks' Thin Mints

2006-05-05T18:43:00.000-04:00

The guy who work weekends at the front desk of my apartment building has long hair and plays an electric guitar shaped like a burst of flame. He usually looks at me blankly when I come in, or grunts hello and goes back to his music.

Last Saturday, as I was going out for a run, he looked up from his strumming and said, "I loved your thin mints."

For one nano-second, I thought he was hitting on me. Then I remembered. I had put out a plate of home-made thin mints as part of my on-going bake sale. Mildly disoriented, I managed to say "Thanks!" and scurried out the door for my run.

What I really should have said was: "Actually, they aren't my thin mints. I got the recipe from Heidi Swanson's 101 Cookbooks blog. But on behalf of Heidi, thanks!"

It's a wonderful recipe – makes me feel like a Girl Scout again. So, on behalf of the guitar-playing guy who works weekends at our front desk (and on my own behalf): thanks, Heidi!

(My own edition is not as beautiful as Heidi's, but oh they are delicious)

Belarus: A New Spin on Rice Pudding

2006-05-05T17:43:00.000-04:00

I'm cooking my way around the world. Today, I stopped in Belarus for carrot rice pudding.

Almost every country has its own variation of rice pudding. The Canadians make it with maple syrup, of course; the Australians like nutmeg and cream; the Bangladeshi use cardamom; the Brazilians add egg yolks at the last minute.

The Belarusians use carrots. The carrots add so much sweetness of their own that the pudding needs less added sugar, which I'm all in favor of - for while I love sweets, I would prefer to greet 40 without diabetes. This is my new favorite rice pudding.

Serves 3-4

6 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp rice
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp sugar
Parsley, for garnish

Combine all ingredients (except parsley) in saucepan over low heat, covered, for about 35 minutes. Check every so often. When the milk is all absorbed, it's done. Sprinkle with parsley and serve warm.

Belize: Belinean Rice and Beans

2006-05-05T07:14:00.000-04:00

Rice and beans, rice and beans, the rest of the world eats quite a lot of rice and beans. Abkhazian lobio, Aland pancakes, Bangladeshi rice and lentils, Greek rice and tomatoes, nasi goreng, Nepali fried rice, Uzbek fennel rice. Truth to tell, my patience was wearing thin with rice and beans.

So when I realized that the only recipe I had ingredients for last night was Belinean Rice and Beans, I felt – for the first time in my Cook-The-World Campaign – bored. The only interesting ingredient was the coconut milk, so I made it. I half expected another spunky Caribbean dish: coconut, onion, garlic.

But no. The combination of thyme and coconut was immensely soothing. Maybe it's just because it was another cold and rainy May day in Boston, but I place this dish squarely in the warm and wonderful realm of comfort food.

I'll try to remember the strange soothingness of this Belinean dish when I tire in the future – as surely I will – of the relentless progression of rice and beans.

Belinean Rice and Beans
Makes enough for 8

1/2 pound red kidney beans (~2 cups, uncooked)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced
2 cups rice
1 cup thick coconut milk
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried thyme

Soak the beans overnight in water.

Combine beans, onion, and garlic in a pot with enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the beans are tender – about 20 minutes. Add the rice, coconut milk, salt, and thyme. Cook, covered, over low heat until the rice is done and all the liquid is absorbed, adding a little water if the liquid is absorbed before the rice is done.

Eat warm, preferably on a cold and rainy day.

Cookie Experiment #4: Brown Sugar vs. White ("Granulated") Sugar

2006-05-04T20:33:00.000-04:00

Back to Cookie Experiments

Brown sugar contains more moisture and so tends to produce a thicker, chewier cookie. Granulated sugar usually produces a crunchier cookie, but results do vary.

For example, here is the exact same cookie (the chocolate cookies of Stephanie Jaworski at Joy of Baking – a sinfully scrumptious cookie).

The original recipe called for 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar. Instead, in the first batch, I used only brown sugar, and the second, only white.

(Left = granulated sugar; Right = brown sugar)

The batches were made at the same time, and I treated them the same way* – mixing them the same way and cooking them on the same sheet. (I baked one sheet with the white-sugar-cookies facing the oven door, then the next sheet with the brown-sugar facing the door, to get a representative sample).

On the left, the granulated sugar cookie. On the right, the brown sugar cookie. These cookies began life in the oven as equal volumes of dough. The granulated sugar allowed the cookie to spread more, producing a larger, flatter cookie. The brown sugar produced a plumper, puffier cookie.

This recipe is for a quite moist cookie, so the granulated sugar version is only a little crunchy, but it is definitely crunchier than the brown sugar version, which is nearly brownie-like.

Neither is better or worse – pick the sugar that will produce the kind of cookie you're after: crunchy or chewy, flat or puffy.

* Experimenter's Note: At one point, Moosewood Book of Desserts fell off shelf above counter and landed in granulated-sugar dough. Managed to scrape all dough off; however, is possible that impact of highly-respected cookbook at critical mixing stage damaged dough's self-esteem. Further experiments needed, possibly tossing at dough Joy of Cooking, Baking with Julia, Maida Heatter's Cookies, etc.

Cookie Experiment #3: Creaming with an Electric Mixer vs. Beating by Hand

2006-05-04T20:23:00.000-04:00

Back to the Cookie Experiments

Summary o' Conclusions: The electric mixer seems the best method in theory, but experiments show no difference between a cookie made with a mixer and one made by hand. Further experiments are needed.

Introduction:

I always use an electric mixer to thoroughly cream the butter or margarine before using it. I then use the mixer to thoroughly cream the sugar into the butter, then the eggs (one at a time), then the vanilla.

The reasoning behind this is sound: butter from the refrigerator is dense and hard. Even after softening, it's too cold and hard to combine with the other ingredients. Creaming with an electric mixer makes it smooth, aerated, and ready for action.

I've read that beating the butter by hand is acceptable, but results in a cookie that's a little flat, since not enough air was whipped into the butter. My own experiments with this, though, have yielded ambivalent results.

The Experiment:

Here is the same cookie recipe. On the left, I beat everything together using a fork but didn't "cream" it. On the right, I cream the butter and everything else using an electric mixer.

The start.

Added sugar and eggs.

Close up, you can see how different their textures are. The creamed butter is whipped up into an aerated, light dough, while the hand beaten dough is thicker and heavier.

Once the flour is added, though, the textures appear almost identical.

A note on my baking technique:
I tried to control all the variables here that I could. I divided a cookie sheet in half, and cooked one half of it with mixer-mixed dough and one half with hand-mixed. The first batch, I baked with the mixer-mixed dough closer to the oven dough, and on the second batch, I baked with the hand-mixed closer. I chilled the pan before each batch. I wanted each bit of dough to be treated equally in every respect – except for mixing method.

The Results:

On the left, the hand-mixed cookie. On the right, the mixer-mixed cookie.

The cookies are almost identical. The hand-mixed ones are slightly more puffy than those mixed with an electric mixer. It's possible that the electric mixer warmed the butter more than hand mixing did, allowing the cookies to spread more before solidifying.

They tasted the same – light, puffy, and wonderful.

Conclusion:

Though the dough was obviously much lighter, fluffier, and more aerated when beat with an electric mixer than when beat by hand, the resulting cookies appeared the same.

It is possible that this was just an exceptionally stable recipe, and that further experiments on other recipes will reveal differences. Or it's possible that the cookie is such a versatile confection that it doesn't notice differences that more sensitive pastries and cakes would react to.

I'll continue to use my electric mixer, but it's good to know that Disaster won't strike if I need to beat up a batch by hand.

Cookie Experiment #2: Melted vs. Softened

2006-05-04T20:21:00.000-04:00

Back to Cookie Experiments

This is a contentious issue within the amateur baking community. For a batch of cookies, do you melt the butter or let it soften?

Again, it depends on what kind of cookie you're after. If you melt the butter, the cookie will spread faster, making it flatter and crispier than if you just soften the butter. This is great for a flat cookie recipe, but disaster for a puffy cookie recipe.

Observe the results below. On the left: Two cookies (meant to be puffy) made with melted margarine. On the right, the exact same recipe, made with softened margarine. The melted margarine allowed the edges of the cookie to spread in the oven, producing those hideous burned rims.

Please note: the difference between these two cookies is extreme - the melted margarine one is downright ugly - but I really did try to produce pretty cookies for both of them. I didn't know beforehand what they would look like, so I put the same effort into both. I'm frankly stunned by the difference.

Conclusions: Unfortunately, since this factor depends on other parts of the cookie recipe (i.e., whether it is meant for puffy or flat cookies), you'll only know whether you should have melted or softened after you've baked. A general rule of thumb, though: melting the butter is a gamble. It could cause the edges of the cookie to spread too fast, producing that ugly burned ring. Or it could help the cookie flatten and crisp up. Experiment.

One thing that is obvious, though: if you melt the butter/margarine, make sure you let it cool slightly before mixing in the other ingredients. If the dough is warm when you mix in the chocolate chips, the chips will melt.

"Can I substitute mashed-up peaches for baking powder?" Experiments in the Science of Baking

2006-05-04T20:13:00.000-04:00

When I was about 8, I was baking a coffee cake when I ran out of flour. Undaunted, I used sugar instead.

Several hours later, as my exhausted mother was scrubbing at the caramelized mess of batter that had cemented itself onto the bottom of our oven, I tried to explain to her what on Earth I had been thinking:

"Well, they're both white," I said.

Baking is a complex chemical process. Everything happens for a reason. I've learned this the hard way a million times. No ingredient is "bad" – they're just different, and they produce different results.

These are the results of experiments I have conducted. Pick your methods based on the cookie you're after. But, please, whatever you do, whatever you're baking, never, ever substitute sugar for flour.

The Experiments (More On the Way):

	Butter vs. Margarine Summary: Butter allows dough to spread more, producing a flatter, crispier cookie. Margarine holds dough more in its original shape, producing a puffier cookie. Read More . . .
	Melted vs. Softened Summary: Results vary. Sometimes melting is safe, sometimes it ends in disaster. Softening the butter, though, always works. Read More . . .
	Creaming with an Electric Mixer vs. Beating by Hand Summary: So hard to tell! The dough is definitely more aerated and light with an electric mixer, but the cookie itself seems the same as a hand-mixed one. Read More . . .
	Brown Sugar vs. White ("Granulated") Sugar Summary: Brown sugar contains more moisture and so tends to produce a thicker, chewier cookie. Granulated sugar usually produces a crunchier cookie, but results do vary. Read More . . .
	Baking Powder vs. Baking Soda Summary: Baking powder produces a puffier cookie; baking soda a flatter cookie. Read More . . .
	Melting Butter & Chocolate: Sauce Pan or Microwave? Summary: Saucepan. I think I need to do this experiment again, though - I don't know why the results were so dramatic. Read More . . .
	Non-Fat Vs. Full-Fat Yogurt Summary: Full-fat yogurt creates a moister, denser muffin. Non-fat yogurt produces a drier, more aerated muffin. Read More . . .

Cookie Experiment #1: Butter vs. Margarine

2006-05-04T20:03:00.000-04:00

Back to the Cookie Experiments

Some cookies call for margarine, some call for butter - when and where can the creative baker substitute?

Summary o' Conclusions: Butter allows dough to spread more, producing a flatter, crispier cookie. Margarine holds dough more in its original shape, producing a puffier cookie.

Below: Two examples of the exact same recipe for crunchy cookies. The one on the left was made using margarine. The one on the right, with butter. The difference is subtle, but noticeable: the margarine-based cookie is definitely puffier.

A Death in the Kitchen: Honoring a Fallen Herb with Uzbek Fennel Rice

2006-05-04T06:51:00.000-04:00

I am a murderer. In the last year, I have killed the following plants: dill, cilantro, spider plant, chrysanthemums, sweet marjoram, lavender, harlequin columbines, rosemary, basil, oregano, spearmint, and thyme.

As you might have guessed, I was trying to grow my own herb garden, thinking naively I would then have fresh herbs with which to cook. The steady death rate would make one believe I was voting one herb out of my kitchen every week.

The last, sturdiest, most hearty, hard-core survival-style herbs are now almost dead as well. The summer savory has keeled over, the sweet basil is shriveling, the chamomile thinning, the chives wilting, the parsley paling, the sage turning gray.

Today, I formally laid to rest my brave fighting fennel. It will be missed.

To celebrate and honor its life (which ultimately yielded me no usable fennel), I made a rice and mushroom dish from Uzbekistan.

Almost every country has their own variation of the mushroom-onion-rice dish. This one is different because of the fennel and coriander, which make it taste almost musty, as if you were eating it in a dark tavern, deep in the middle of a winter forest. I felt like I should soon be ordering the stableboy to ready my horse and fetch my cloak. Who knew fennel and coriander were enough to transport me into a Beauty & the Beast scene.

Uzbek Fennel Rice with Mushrooms
Makes enough for 4

2 cups rice
2 Tbsp butter
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 cups mushrooms
2 medium onions, sliced
1 tsp ground coriander
Salt to taste

Cook the rice about 15 minutes in boiling water. It should be almost-done.

In a frying pan, melt the butter and cook the fennel seeds until they start to brown. Then add the mushrooms and onions. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until the onions are translucent, then add a cup of water, bring to a boil, then lower the heat. Add the rice, coriander, and salt, cover, and cook over low heat for 10 more minutes, until all the water is absorbed.

Serve warm, in dark, musty lodge in middle of winter forest, to honor death of beloved plant.

"I don't need to read the help files! I've used computers before!" or "The Big Blog Browser Blowup"

2006-05-03T19:02:00.000-04:00

Last night, I opened my blog in Internet Explorer.

Ha.
Turns out not all browsers display blogs the same way. Safari fared slightly better. Most of the material was there - except for that big gaping hole where my post should have been.

I had been building on Mozilla, thinking that any application that ends with "zilla" could out-program, out-maneuver, and really just mash up and crush any other application.

I was supposed to be working on my thesis (due in 8 days), so of course I dropped everything and spent several hours performing high-tech, blog-saving HTML surgery: delicate class/table sutures, <> < /div > microprobes, Preview Button, Preview Button, Preview Button.

I got so frustrated I had to go make a rice pudding, but I think I've got it now.

So if this page looks ugly, rest assured, it's the browser's fault.

To celebrate my newly functional blog, here's the rice pudding. It's an Australian edition, with vanilla and nutmeg. I'm not a big fan of nutmeg, but I needed an Australian dish, so nutmeg it is.

Australian Vanilla Bean Creamed Rice
Makes 4

3 1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 vanilla bean (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
3/4 cup Arborio rice
1/4 cup cream
Nutmeg for garnish – don't be heavy handed

Bring to boil the milk, sugar, and vanilla. Stir in rice. Cover pan and cook on low, stirring occasionally for 40-45 minutes. Remove bean, stir in cream, sprinkle with nutmeg, serve warm.

Samoa: Keke Faasaina (Coconut Puff Cookies)

2006-05-03T09:17:00.000-04:00

I found this recipe on SamoaLive (Samoa's Premier Online Network). It was credited to Sandy McDonald, Magele Mose, and Mrs. Faataualofa Magele from Valoaga, Ta'I, and Karen Suaava McDonald of Teuila. It looks like a regular sugar cookie recipe, but with coconut milk, so I'm not sure how traditional it is.

The website also had an article on ancient Samoan cooking, but it was slightly beyond the methods available to a non-island, apartment-dwelling girl. To illustrate:

"If one caught octopuses while fishing, he makes a dish of them, the fai’aife’e. He scrapes coconut kernel, lights the oven and heats banana leaves. Then the coconut juice is squeezed out. Then one takes the octopuses and takes the ink out, and squeezes them together with coconut juice. Then the tentacles of the octopus are cut off. Then he takes the banana leaves, puts the fai’ai in it and puts two or three tentacles in each. Then all is wrapped up and baked. It smells ever so good when it is cooked."

Nothing says "Home" like the scent of sizzling tentacles in the oven.

Even a recipe sans octopi is pretty tough for a Boston girl to emulate, no matter how clever she fancies herself. The recipe for Faiai Limu, for example, gave the cook the following directions:

"One brings seaweed from the sea and puts it in a bowl of fresh water until the bitter taste is gone. Then take coconut kernel juice squeezed out of coconut kernel and mix together. Then take the banana leaves, put all in and cause it to bake. When it is taken out of the oven, serve it, it is excellent, particularly for old women."

Old women seem to make out like bandits in Samoa. Luau Fui is apparently good for them too:

"Only taro leaves and salt water are put together and cooked. When it is taken out of the oven, it is given only to sick people who drink medicine. Old women like it very much."

Anyway, I baked cookies.

The website called these Keke Faasaina, and the original recipe would have made about 60, so I cut it down. I also rolled the dough in dried coconut before baking, thinking, as long as I was going coconut, I might as well go all the way.

I love these cookies. The baking powder and high baking heat make them puff up deliciously. They are lightly crispy on the outside and super-ultra soft (like feather pillows) on the inside. The bottoms can burn quickly, though, so pull them out as soon as the edges turn a bit brown.

Makes 15 – 20 large puffs

4 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp coconut milk
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour
Shredded coconut for rolling.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. (I hesitate to use oil for the pans in this recipe, since I love the puff-up, and oil will surely make them spread)

Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the egg, vanilla, and coconut milk. Mix the baking powder and flour, then add to the butter mixture. Roll walnut-sized balls of dough in shredded coconut, place on cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart, and bake 9 – 11 minutes.

Akrotiri: Moussaka - Casserole o' Eggplant

2006-05-02T21:42:00.000-04:00

Eggplant at last. All is well in Boston.

I cooked this last night, after running 10 miles in a most un-May-like freezing wind. I was starved, wind-chapped, and frozen, pacing around my kitchen eating peanuts while waiting for this thing to cook. But when it was done, oh . . .

One of the things I love about running is that everything tastes better after a long run. Your body has literally been burning itself for fuel, so food becomes a bushel of fresh, crisp kindle applied to dying embers. Even my hamstrings rejoice: fuel! In sum: this casserole from Akrotiri tasted like joy itself.

Akrotiri is a small country on the southernmost tip of Cyprus, jutting out into the Mediterranean at about the same latitude as Beirut. I do mean small. It's about 1/10th the size of Rhode Island, and most of that is taken up by a large salt lake and marshlands. Most of the people who live there are British citizens, working for the air force base.

The moussaka dish is technically Greek, but popular in southern Cyprus, where they make it in terracotta pots. The only terracotta pots I had contain flowers, so I just used a casserole.

Makes enough for 4

2 lbs eggplant, courgettes, or a mix, trimmed and sliced lengthways
2 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced
1 lb beef, lamb, or pork, minced (I left this out)
2 large tomatoes, grated
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 glass red wine (I left this out too)

White Sauce:
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
3 cups of boiling milk
2 eggs
Pinch salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

The original recipe called for frying the eggplant and potato slices in the oil, but I blanche at the thought of that much oil, so I only used a bit. They should brown, but not cook all the way through.

Remove the eggplant and potato, add the onions to the oil, then the meat. Remove the onions and meat from the pan. Add the tomatoes, spices, and wine, and cook until the liquid is absorbed.

Make the white sauce: melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, add milk gradually and whisk until the lumps are gone. Add salt and pepper, bring to a boil, remove from heat, stir for 1-2 minutes, then add the eggs and stir until the sauce is well mixed.

Make a layer of the potatoes and eggplant in the bottom of the casserole dish, spread the tomato mixture over it, layer the onions on top, pour the white sauce over everything, and top with a bit of cheese.

Bake for about 50 minutes, until the top is crusty.

Ireland: Tea Brack and an Abrupt Change of Continent

2006-05-02T17:36:00.000-04:00

I had never considered that one might powder a green mango, until I started cooking from Survir Saran's Indian Home Cooking. A typical recipe from it might call for a dozen exotic ingredients: ground, heated, and tempered to turn old potatoes into something startling.

Enchanted with these new spices, I have been cooking from this book for the past several months: paging through the possibilities, singling out the most promising with Post-Its, and venturing off to my local Indian grocery with lists of spices to try. The recipes are vibrant and (for me) complicated, setting me spinning through the kitchen, mincing, heating, mixing, and dicing faster than I ever did before – a sizzling cooking experience followed by eyeball-popping food.

So, today, when I opened for the first time Theodora Fitzgibbon's 1969 cookbook A Taste of Ireland, I was charmed by its simplicity. Except for the meats, I already have every ingredient on my shelf. The buttermilk scones are just buttermilk, flour, and baking soda. Every other page is a black-and-white photo of rural or urban Ireland in the late 1800s. It is a gray, rainy day in Boston, and I felt calm just reading it.

The potato is well-represented, of course. The recipe for "Chocolate Sandwich Cake" (based on mashed potatoes) got marked with a large Post-It note. But since it is so cold and rainy today, I had to bake some bread.

This is a wonderful, dense, sweet quick-bread, an unyeasted variation of the traditional Irish barm brack. It had quite a thick crumb, possibly because I used whole wheat flour, but that was fine with me. It felt like it should be a heavy bread: sturdy, sweet, and solid.

Makes 1 loaf, 8" x 4" x 3"

1 cup sultanas
1 cup raisins
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup tea or 1/2 cup tea and 1/2 cup Irish whiskey
1 1/3 cups flour
1 beaten egg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Let the sultanas, raisins, brown sugar, and tea soak overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 300 degrees, and add the flour and eggs to the raisin mixture. Mix, then add the baking powder and spices. Pour into a greased pan (8" x 4" x 3") and bake about 90 minutes. Once it's cooled, brush the top with honey.

A Veggisaurous Manifesto

2006-05-02T08:10:00.000-04:00

My sister went veggie one Thanksgiving to annoy my grandmother (it worked). Later, she added some principles and declared "Nothing with eyes!"

("What about clams?" "Also no clams.")

I went veggie while riding the Boston subway one afternoon. It's a ridiculous story, but the honest truth. It happened like this: I was sitting in one of those plastic subway chairs on the Red Line, going into Cambridge, and studiously avoiding eye contact with other passengers – when I looked across the isle to see an unshaven, rather wild-looking man staring at me. It wasn't a pleasant stare.

"You should be alarmed right now," said I to myself. "Or at least uncomfortable."

But I wasn't, and when I started thinking about why I wasn't, I realized that if it came to anything unpleasant, I would fight like a cat, red in tooth and claw. And then, in one of those very strange flashes, I realized: so would a chicken.

It's not really an ethical stance. I know we're built to eat meat, and I think that's fine. But when I see packaged meat at the grocery now, I shudder. It really meant something to that animal – meant everything - and it means almost nothing to the people who will eat it. The ultimate horror is not to be killed for food, but to be killed for food by someone who is utterly bored with the process, for whom you're just one more meaningless pulled trigger in an 8-hour day of pulling triggers at a minimum-wage job. I would want the chance to take some handfuls of my attacker's hair, eyes, and flesh with me – to make sure my death meant something to him, if only some bloody scratches.

So when I got off the subway, I was a vegetarian. It's too bad, because I really love the taste of meat. If I could hunt the animal, put some effort into it, give its death some kind of meaning beyond a 50-cent-off coupon, I might go back – but the only animals around here I could hunt are the pigeons in the Boston Common, and, frankly, I prefer a good head of broccoli.

Bangladesh: Three Cheers for Cumin and Cauliflower!

2006-05-01T19:32:00.000-04:00

This recipe was too sweet to pass up. I found it in a UN cookbook (of all unlikely places), and the instructions include:

"Put onions with butter in saucepan and fry a little."

Each instruction thereafter is "Put x into pan and fry a little more." In recipes from other countries, the style of English changed just a bit – essentially, every recipe had its own accent. The UN translators apparently aren't assigned to cover cookbook syntax – and I'm very glad!

This recipe is soft, delicious, and filling (not to mention really very good for you). The rice and lentils combine into a paste that holds all the vegetables together, and the slight sweetness of the lentils matches the cumin wonderfully. I'll be making this again.

Shobji Khichuri
Makes enough for 2

1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp rice
2 Tbsp red lentils
1 chopped carrot
2 Tbsp green peas
1 small potato
1/4 cup chopped cauliflower
2 green chilies (I left these out)
1 tsp salt
1 cup water

Put onions with butter in saucepan and fry a little.

Add cumin and bay leaf and fry a little more.

Add rice, lentils, carrot, and green peas and fry a little more.

Add potato, cauliflower, green chili, salt, and water, and fry a little more.

Bring to boil then cover saucepan.

Turn off burner after 20-25 minutes.