Raspberry Muffin with Brown Sugar Hazelnut Streusel

Steven’s parents have a raspberry bush in their yard and I was the lucky recipient of some of the delicious berries. I ended up eating most of them but I managed to set aside some (it wasn't easy) to bake with. The muffin base is adapted from the Cook’s Illustrated recipe for blueberry muffins but I replaced the blueberries with raspberries and topped them with a brown sugar hazelnut streusel. The muffin base recipe was absolutely delicious; it'll be my master muffin recipe from now on.

Notes:
- You can use blueberries and omit the topping for the original blueberry muffins
- I cut the sugar down from the 1 cup called for in the original recipe to 1/2 cup with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar on top for the streusel. I found this was the perfect amount of sweetness since Bettina and I don’t like our muffins too sweet.

Raspberry Muffins with Brown Sugar Hazelnut Streusel
Sour Cream Base Recipe adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
2 C flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 1/4 C sour cream

For Raspberry and Hazelnut Streusel
1 1/4 C raspberries
2 Tbsp finely chopped hazelnuts
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp flour

Preheat the oven to 350ºF, adjust a rack to the middle position. Spray a 12 cup regular size muffin tin with some nonstick spray.

Whisk flour, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl and set aside. Whisk egg, sugar, and vanilla together until combined, then whisk in the sour cream and melted butter.

Scatter half the berries in the flour mix and scatter the rest in the sour cream mixture. Add the sour cream mixture to the flour and fold to combine, take care not to smush the raspberries too much. There should be not large pockets of flour but small streaks may remain. Do not over mix. The batter will be very thick.

Divide the batter evenly into the tin (a very large cookie scoop is excellent for this). Mix all of the ingredients for the streusel together and top each muffin with a small spoonful, then spread the filling out over the top of the muffin.

Bake for about 20 – 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Gently pick the muffins out of the tin and cool them on a rack, flipping them out may cause the topping to fall off.

Strawberry and Blue Cheese Salad

Remember the strawberry and cheese scene in Ratatouille? Remy first takes a bite of the cheese, which creates an upbeat, robust swirl of flavor. Then he takes a bite of the strawberry and tastes a more delicate, twinkling ripple. But together, they create an exciting taste epiphany that ignites bright yellow and red fireworks that dance and sparkle. For me, my taste epiphany came with the combination of strawberries and blue cheese. The sweet and light summer berry paired perfectly with the strong salty flavors of the blue cheese, each with their own captivating fragrance. Now this may not be a combination for everyone, maybe it's just me (I hope it's not too weird combining blue cheese and strawberries), but I loved every minute of this salad. Sadly strawberry season is nearing an end or already over and this was one of the last dishes that I made with this year's berries.

Notes:
- At the time I only had Romaine lettuce but I think this salad would have worked much better with baby spinach greens, which are richer and can better handle the strong flavors in this salad.
- Strawberries are often paired with balsamic vinegar so naturally I made a balsamic honey vinaigrette
- I chose berries that weren't extremely sweet because I didn't want them to overpower all the other flavors in the salad.

Strawberry and Blue Cheese Salad

I don't have an exact recipe since salads are more of "throw stuff in" sort of dish for me but the main players are:
Greens: Baby spinach preferably (but Romaine pictured here)
Strawberries
Blue Cheese: I used Danish blue but I'm sure Gorgonzola would have worked also
Pistachios: they added a nice crunch and lively light green color

Optional:
Bacon: I love bacon, but this salad didn't need it (I used it here though)

Crisp your bacon if using, and set aside to cool on a paper towel lined plate. Crumble before serving.

Crumble your blue cheese, roughly chop the pistachios, quarter the strawberries.

Toss everything together with the vinaigrette.


Balsamic Honey Vinaigrette
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 - 1 tsp honey
Freshly ground pepper (no salt because there was enough from the cheese and bacon in the salad)

I add all the ingredients to a small clean jar and shake until everything is emulsified. I find this is the easiest way to make a small amount of dressing. Alternatively you can whisk everything together while drizzling in the olive oil.

Cool Link:
Check out how the tastes visualizations were developed for Ratatouille (the best movie of the summer if not the year, hands down).

Tiramisu Brownie

The idea of a tiramisu brownie/brownie tiramisu has been brewing in my head for a while now. I wanted the main flavor components of the brownie to be chocolate, espresso, marsala, and mascarpone but I was unsure about how to execute this idea. I debated whether I should make a fudgy or cakey brownie, if I should dip the brownies in espresso, if I should use espresso or both espresso and marsala in the brownie base, and etc. Myriam's 3rd Browniebabe Event served as the perfect occasion to play around with this idea.

One route I considered was a fudgy brownie flavored with espresso and marsala with mascapone cheese swirls. In the end I took a more traditional route and made an espresso flavored brownie, which mimics the espresso soaked ladyfingers, and layered it with a mixture of mascarpone, whipped cream, and marsala, and topped with chocolate shavings. I feared that dipping the brownie in espresso would make it too soggy and heavy since it was already a very dense, fudgy brownie (though this may work with a cakier brownie). Another possibility was to lightly brush a bit of strong coffee or espresso onto the brownie but that can be for another time. The end result was pretty to look at and delicious to eat. With so many different ideas to experiment with, all the more reason to make many more tiramisu brownies!


Notes:
- I tend to make my baked goods with less sugar, so I used 6 Tbsp of sugar in the brownies instead of 1/2 C.
- You may not use all of the filling but this stuff is so delicious, you can just eat it with a spoon (I'm guilty of this).
- I skipped the raw egg yolk (traditionally added) in the filling because I didn't want to deal with it. You can also whisk the egg yolk with the marsala over a bain marie to create a zabaglione for the filling.

Tiramisu Brownies
Espresso Brownie Base
3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pats
1 Tbsp instant espresso powder (or sub 2 Tbsp of Kahlua - I have not tried this)
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C AP flour
Pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mascarpone Filling
8 oz. mascarpone
1/2 C marsala
1/4 C sugar
1 C whipping cream

Topping: Dark chocolate

Make the brownie:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line a 8 x 8 baking pan with a sheet of foil to make the brownies easy to lift out. You can grease the foil but I didn't.

Melt the butter and chocolate in a large bowl over a bain marie or in a microwave on low power, about 30% (whisk between intervals to insure even heating).

Whisk in the espresso powder to the warm chocolate. Then whisk in the sugar, salt, vanilla, and eggs. Finally add the flour and mix until just incorporated (do not overmix).

Spread the batter into the baking pan and bake for about 17 to 22 minutes. Start checking the brownies early. A toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies should come out with moist crumbs.

After the brownies are done, set them aside to cool while you make the filling.

Make the filling:
In a large bowl, whisk together the mascarpone, sugar, and marsala until smooth.

Meanwhile in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. I like to whip it with the machine to soft peaks and then whip by hand to stiff peaks so I don't overwhip (easy to do on a KA).

Fold in about 1/3 of the cream into smooth marscarpone mixture to lighten it. Then fold the rest of the whipped cream into mascarpone. Chill the mixture until the brownies have cooled to room temp.

To serve:
It's easiest to make each serving individually since the filling will ooze out if you cut the brownie (not as soft as ladyfingers). This recipe will make 8 2in x 4in servings.

Cut the brownies into 2 x 4 rectangles. Then cut each rectangle in half horizontally so you get two layers of the brownie (top and bottom).

Add a dollop of the filling to the bottom layer, add the top layer, then add more filling on top. Smooth off the top and sides then grate some chocolate shavings on top.

Strawberry Mirror Cake: Daring Bakers July

This month Peabody of Culinary Concoctions chose a beautiful Strawberry Mirror Cake for the July Daring Baker Challenge. The cake consists of 3 parts: sponge cake, strawberry Bavarian cream, and a strawberry gelatin (none of which I have made before). The whole process took Bettina and I about 2 days to complete. Out of all the days in this month, we just happened to pick the hottest day of this year (remember me complaining about that heat wave?) to do the challenge, which was not a good idea.

The Cake:
I was a little worried the cake would taste too eggy since the recipe called for 6 eggs. Three of the eggs were separated and the whites were beaten to stiff peaks and the 3 yolks were combined with the 3 remaining eggs and beaten "until thick and light." I've never made a sponge cake before so I thought I could beat the eggs by hand, while I leave my KitchenAid to beat the whites. I was feeling particularly lethargic in the heat that day so I didn't want to wash out my mixing bowl after beating the eggs to beat the whites. This is rather ironic because washing the bowl would have taken one minute whereas we spent 10 times longer beating them by hand. I had no trouble beating the whites but beating the eggs by hand was not a good idea when it was 90 degrees indoors. Bettina and I had to take turns beating the eggs. After 10 seconds of beating we would break into a sweat and have to go sit in front of the fan to cool off while the other person took over the beating. They looked a tad thicker but little did I know, they were suppose to double, triple, even quadruple their original volume! The color was supposed to be very pale yellow but mine were still very yellow. Some DBs beat the eggs for 20 minutes in a KA, imagine how long I would have had to beat by hand to achieve the same result! Eek! In the end we were fed up with the eggs and proceeded to the next step. The eggs were still very liquidy rather than light and voluminous, so folding in the cake flour and the whites was very troublesome.

When the cakes emerged from the oven (450 degree oven on a hot summer day, not fun), the tops were an even golden brown and looked very nice. They were springy to the touch. However, they had shrunk to about 7 1/2 inches in diameter, when I baked them in an 8in cake pan. When I flipped the cake out to cool, I noticed the bottom felt tough and rubbery. I crossed my fingers and hoped it was just a thin layer on the bottom of the cake that would be remedied by pouring the cream on top.

The Cream and Mirror:
No major problems with the Bavarian cream or mirror. There was a little foam and bubbles on top of the mirror that I neglected to skim off so the mirror wasn't as shiny or smooth as it could have been. (I was getting a little lazy towards the end.)

The Assembly:
Now here is where it got tricky. In the original recipe, the cake is baked in a 11 by 17 jelly roll pan and then 8 1/4 in diameter cake rounds are cut out of the rectangular sheet cake. A round is placed in a 10 in springform then the Bavarian cream is poured over it when it is thick but still somewhat liquidy. I had a 10 in springform pan however, since my cake layers had shrunk to 7 1/2 inches, that would mean the outer layer of frosting would be over an inch thick, way too thick. I didn't have a 9 in springform but using my Daring Baker ingenuity (dun da da dun!), I fashioned a foil collar that I set around the cake so I could pour in the Bavarian without the outer layer being overly thick of cream. I had to tuck the bottom of the foil under the cake so the cream wouldn't leak. I really wish I had remembered to take a picture of this setup because it was quite a hilarious and ridiculous sight. Bettina and I cracked up every time we looked this "disposable springform".

The Final Verdict:
The Bavarian was fluffy and airy when I made it but setting overnight in the fridge it ended up being a little too rubbery for my tastes. I've never made or had Bavarian cream before so I wasn't sure if Bavarian cream was supposed to have that texture. However, I really loved the flavor of the cream. It was light, full of the lovely flavor and fragrance of fresh strawberries. The strawberries impart a beautiful and delicate pink hue to the cream. When I sliced into the cake, I saw that the bottom 1/3 of the cake was a rubbery inedible mess (due to not beating the eggs enough). The top 2/3 of the cake was spongy and delicious, not too eggy at all. My favorite part aside from the top part of the cake that was actually edible was the mirror. The mirror was the best strawberry gelatin I've ever had. Overall the cake tasted alright but I think I could have done a better job.

I was dissatisfied with the end result of this cake, not because of the recipe, but because of my mistakes and inexperience. I will definitely try my hand at the cake again. I'll remake the sponge cake for a Boston Cream Pie. Next time I remake the Bavarian cream I'll use a little less gelatin.

The Recipe:
Visit Peabody's blog for the complete recipe, courtesy of "Cakes and Pastries At The Academy by the California Culinary Academy". Be sure to check out all the beautiful mirror cakes by visiting the Daring Bakers Blog Roll.

Farfalle with Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, and Artichoke Hearts

Smoked salmon and cream cheese is always a delicious combination. I knew it would be great on pasta but Steven needed a little convincing. He was a bit skeptical about putting cream cheese with pasta. Turns out, smoked salmon and cream cheese isn't just for bagels, it's great on farfalle too!

Farfalle with Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, and Artichoke Hearts
Inspiration from Everyday Food

8 oz. farfalle
3 oz. smoked salmon, roughly chopped
About 2 oz. cream cheese (3 - 4 Tbsp) cream cheese, roughly cubed
4 artichoke hearts, chopped into bite size pieces
Handful of bite size broccoli pieces (optional)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp fresh dill (optional - I didn't use this today)
Salt and pepper

Cook your pasta in some boiling salted water until it is al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, cook your broccoli, steam, microwave, or sauteed.

After the pasta is finish cooking, add the cream cheese to the hot pasta. Toss a bit to melt the cream cheese a bit. Then add the smoked salmon, artichoke hearts, broccoli if using, and lemon juice and toss to incorporate all the ingredients. Gently break up any large pieces of salmon.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serves 2 - 3



This will be my entry for Ruth's Presto Pasta Night. Never such a thing as too much pasta!

Short post today, but stay tuned for a longer post tomorrow of a "Daring" nature.

A Tart for Julia - Mango Lime Curd Tart

My friend Julia came over for dinner Friday night because she is leaving for the University of California, Irvine where she will be a slave to science a part of the M.D./Ph.D. program. Here's to you Julia! Good luck down in Cali and keep an eye out for the bunnies that roam campus. :)

Mango Lime Curd Tart

Lime Curd
1/3 C lime juice, roughly juice from 2 small limes
1 to 2 tsp lime zest, zest from 1 - 2 limes
Save some zest on the limes to garnish the tart
1/2 C sugar
3 eggs
3 Tbsp butter

*Half a mango cut into 1/8 in crescent slices
1 prebaked tart shell
Additional lime zest for garnish

Start preparing the tart crust first (click here for tart crust recipe. The dough will need to chill for at least an hour, then rolled out, chilled again for at least 30 minutes, baked for at least 35 minutes, and then cooled to room temp.

Whisk the eggs, sugar, and zest together. Whisk in the lime juice and butter and cook the mixture of medium heat. Continue whisking until the butter is completely melted then use a spatula and stir the curd constantly. Cook the curd until the mixture has thickened. The spatula should leave a clear trail that slowly disappears. Do not overcook the curd otherwise it will curdle.

Immediately pour the curd through a sieve into a bowl. Use the spatula to push all the curd through. The zest will most likely remain in the sieve and you can discard that since it will no longer be a vibrant green. Press a sheet of plastic wrap against the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming on top. Chill in the fridge for a few hours to thicken slightly. The curd can be made a day in advance.

To make the tart, spoon the curd into the prebaked tart shell that has been cooled to room temp. You may not use all of the curd, I used about half (the rest you can spread on toast, yum yum). Arrange the mango slices on top of the curd and garnish with some additional lemon zest.



*In retrospect: For even more mango in the tart (using a whole mango rather than half), arrange mango slices from half the mango in the tart shell before adding the curd. Then fill the tart with the curd and arrange the remaining half of the mango on top.

Mangoes are one of my favorite tropical fruits so this will be my entry for the 33rd edition of Sugar High Friday: Tropical Paradise hosted by Mary of Alpineberry.

Flaky Pate Sucree

Pate sucree is one of the three basic French pastry crusts (pate brisee - the all purpose crust used for pies, savory and sweet tarts, pate sucree - a sweet crust used for tarts, and pate sablee - the sandy crumbly crust). It is sweeter than the all purpose pie crust, the pate brisee, however the texture can vary. Some recipes call for creaming the butter and sugar then adding the flour, resulting in a crumbly, shortbread cookie-like crust. Whereas other recipes diverge and call for processing or cutting the butter into the flour sugar mixture, which is the same method used to create a pate brisee. This recipe uses the latter technique and yields a sweet, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth crust that is unbelievably good. I'll try the creaming the butter and flour for the next tart but I have a feeling I will be coming back to this recipe again and again.

Prebaked Flaky Pate Sucree
for an 8 or 9 inch pan

1 C flour
1/3 C confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into 6 pieces
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp cold milk or ice water
1/2 tsp of vanilla

Add the flour, confectioner's sugar, and salt together in a food processor and pulse once or twice to combined. Add the pieces of butter and pulse until the butter pieces are no bigger than a pea. Alternatively use a fork or pastry cutter to cut in the butter, or freeze the butter and coarsely grate it then use your fingers and rub the pieces into the flour. It is very important to keep the butter cold otherwise it will melt and make the crust greasy and you'll lose all the flaky layers.

Mix the egg yolk, milk, and vanilla together. Drizzle the mixture over the butter and flour mix in the food processor. Pulse again until the dough start to form large clumps. If it looks too dry add a little more milk.

Scrape the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and press the clumps together to form a disc. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and chill at least an hour up to overnight. Or store it in the freezer for as long as you want.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin and roll out the dough to into a large circle. Move the crust around often to make sure it doesn't stick to your work surface.

Transfer the dough to an 8 or 9 inch tart pan. To make this easier, drape the dough over the rolling pin and lay it over the pan. Lift the edges of the crust and gently press the dough down into the pan. Roll over the top of the pan with a rolling pin to trim any overhanging dough.

Prick the surface of the dough with a fork. Press a sheet of aluminum foil onto a crust and add pie weights, beans, or clean pennies on top. I like using pennies because they are the best heat conductor. Bake on the middle rack for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and baking weights (be careful the weights will be very hot!) and return the crust to the oven to bake for another 10 or so minutes until it is golden. Cool to room temperature before filling.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara with Basil and Mushrooms

The once tiny basil plant on the back porch is now very large and bushy so I'm always looking for ways to incorporate basil into recipes so I can keep up with the plant. This variation of Spaghetti alla Carbonara incorporates basil and sauteed mushrooms with the classic recipe. Carbonara is Steven's favorite meal and in the end he preferred the original version of just bacon, eggs, and cheese instead of this one. However, I found the flavors very enjoyable and a little change is nice sometimes.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara with Basil and Mushrooms

4 oz thick sliced bacon, chopped
4 oz. crimini mushrooms, sliced
2 eggs
1/2 C grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper, generous amount but to taste
8 oz spaghetti
A handful of basil leaves, torn into small pieces or chiffonade

Heat a skillet over medium heat to render the bacon. Once the bacon is crisp, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl. Bring a pot of water to a boil.

Pour out all of the rendered fat of the skillet reserving about 1 - 2 tsp of sauteing the mushrooms. Saute the mushrooms until they are brown and all the liquid has evaporated. Add the mushrooms to the bacon and set aside. As the mushrooms are cooking, start boiling your pasta.

As the spaghetti cooks, beat the eggs, parmesan, and pepper together in a bowl. The sauce must be prepared before the pasta is done cooking.

When the pasta is al dente, quickly drain but reserve some of the pasta water to loosen the sauce if needed. Immediately return the pasta to the pot (off heat) and pour the egg mixture over the pasta, add the bacon and mushrooms, and quickly stir into the pasta. The residual heat from the pasta and pot will cook the eggs and thicken it into a sauce. Keep stirring until the sauce has thickened and evenly coats the pasta. Work quickly otherwise the eggs will scramble rather than temper into a smooth and creamy sauce. If the sauce is too thick add a bit of the pasta water to loosen it. Serve immediately and add more freshly ground pepper if you'd like. I like mine really peppery.

Serves 2.

I'm going to submit this recipe for Ruth's Presto Pasta Night.

Two Birthdays, A Whole Lot of Food, Roses, and Animals

This year for Steven's and my birthdays, we played hooky took some time off work to have a picnic and go to the zoo. Temperatures the day before ranged from 95 to 100, which were 20 to 25 degrees above normal! I know I already complained, but I have to complain some more since it was just too hot for Seattleites. Luckily the temperatures cooled significantly overnight so the weather was perfectly mild and pleasant for our picnic. We set up our picnic in Woodland Park Rose Garden, which is conveniently located right next to the zoo. We dined while surrounded by the wonderful fragrance and sight of roses in full bloom as far as the eye can see.


I packed:
Ham and Butter Sandwich
Salami, Pastrami, Spinach and Cream Cheese Sandwich
Bread and butter
Seattle rolls: smoked salmon and cream cheese sushi rolls
Cold noodles: a must since noodles are a Chinese birthday tradition! long noodles = longevity
Cheese and meat platter: white Stilton, danish blue, cheddar, Parmesan, salami, prosciutto, pastrami, ham
Crackers, grapes, and raspberries
White wine and mango lemonade



I first tasted a ham and butter sandwich at Le Fournil, a wonderful French bakery in the Seattle area. It was so simple and delicious. It's really important to use good butter, bread, and ham since the flavors of the sandwich are really subtle and clean, the ingredients will really shine. I used some Kerrygold Irish butter; this is the butter I couldn't get enough of at the cheese festival. After reading comments on Jaden's post about bread and butter, some other recommended brands are Lurpak, a Danish butter, and Presidente, a French butter. Just don't use any old regular brand, splurge for the expensive stuff! It's sooo worth it to indulge! And don't you dare use "I can't believe it's not butter" because I can believe it, and it's not butter. ;) After some Googling, ham and butter doesn't seem like a popular combination but it always struck me as a classic French sandwich. Maybe fellow French food bloggers/readers can offer some more info?

Ham and Butter Sandwich*
A section of crusty baguette cut in half
2 - 3 oz. of ham, about 3 - 4 slices
1 Tbsp high quality butter
1 - 2 tsp Dijon mustard

Spread a thin layer of Dijon on one slice of bread, and spread butter on the other slice. Layer with ham and close the sandwich. Cut in half and serve somewhat chilled.

The butter will be hard to spread if it is chilled so wait for it to warm up a little to soften so it's easier to spread. Then chill the sandwich to chill the butter.




The idea of salami and cream cheese in a sandwich came from Everyday Food. I had never thought of pairing cream cheese with anything other than preserves or smoked salmon, but this sandwich was truly delicious. The salami and pastrami are very flavorful meats, the cream cheese added a luscious, creamy smoothness, and the spinach is a rich green that holds its own in this robust sandwich. Don't skimp on the cream cheese and no buying reduced fat! You can't go wrong with Philadelphia, my favorite brand.

This sandwich, featuring the very healthy spinach, will be my entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, a fantastic event created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, and hosted this week by Susan of Food Blogga. Food fact: After cooking the volume of spinach will decrease by 3/4. Spinach is loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, bone building nutrients, and other healthy compounds. Eating your spinach will help prevent cancers, osteoporosis, heart disease, arthritis, delay loss of mental function, prevents and even reverse macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the elderly.

Salami, Pastrami, and Spinach Cream Cheese Sandwich*
2 slices of bread or a section of crusty baguette cut in half
3 - 4 slices of salami
2 - 3 slices of pastrami
A handful of baby spinach leaves
2 Tbsp softened cream cheese
Optional: 1 - 2 tsp Dijon mustard

Spread a thin layer of dijon on one slice of bread (optional). Top first slice of bread with a layer of salami, followed by pastrami, and then a thick layer of baby spinach leaves.

Spread the cream cheese on the second slice of bread and close the sandwich. Cut in half and enjoy!

*The quantities are really estimations, since I made the sandwiches without measuring the ingredients exactly. If you like more meat feel free to pile it on or if you really like cream cheese or butter, like me go, ahead and add more! :)


For more pictures:
Rose Garden
Zoo

Regrettably many of the zoo pictures turned out too blurry and I'm not a big picture taker at the zoo to begin with. The red panda was awfully cute though! The butterfly house was very nice also.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla

The last few days have been unbearably hot, with yesterday being one of the top 10 hottest days ever recorded here in Seattle. I was too lethargic to do get up and do anything other than lay on the couch and complain about the heat. Pardon the silence on this blog, as I haven't been cooking much or blogging. But like Jaden, there are so many old recipes I still haven't gotten around to posting, so now is a good time to do so.

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla was a very popular menu item at my favorite lunch spot near the UW, Honeybee's Cafe (which sadly closed two years ago). It's been a long time since I've had a Honeybee's quesadilla, but from what I can remember, the original quesadilla had grilled chicken, tomatoes, Monterey Jack cheese, tomatoes, green onions, and BBQ sauce in a tomato flour tortilla. This quesadilla is very flexible the only constants are: tortilla, chicken, your favorite BBQ sauce (Cook's Illustrated likes Bull's Eye Original), and cheese. The rest of the ingredients depend on what you have on hand. So here rather than offering an exact recipe, it's just a few tips on making a yummy quesadilla, which I learned from watching America's Test Kitchen.

Barbeque Chicken Quesadilla

Flour Tortillas
Chicken, cut up into large chunks (You can use grilled chicken, leftover roast chicken or bbq chicken, doesn't really matter)
Coarsley grated cheese (Cheddar, Monterey, Pepper Jack, or a combo)
Thinly sliced green onions or red onions
Fresh tomatoes or fresh tomato salsa, drained (if using this then omit the onions)
Corn (frozen is almost as good as fresh)
BBQ Sauce
Freshly ground black pepper
Few dashes of Tabasco if you like it hot
Lime juice, just a little bit (omit if using fresh tomato salsa)

- Toast your corn
Toasting the corn brings out a nice roasted, toasty flavor and evaporates the moisture so it doesn't leak into the quesadilla. This is an essential ingredient in all of my quesadilas now. (Frozen corn also doubles as a handy ice pack if you ever jam your finger in a door like Steven. :( Ouch!)

Heat a small nonstick skillet pan over high or medium high heat (no oil!) and add your corn. Shake the pan occasionally until you see the corn turn a dark brown in spots and pop out of your pan. Yes it will literally jump out of the skillet. Set aside for the filling.

- Make your quesadillas
There's a lot of flexibility here with what goes in so you can be the judge of that. Just don't make them too stuffed otherwise it'll be too hard to flip.

Also, rather than making the quesadilla with one tortilla on the bottom and one on the top and forming a sandwich (this is too hard to flip, stuff will fall out). Add your filling to only half the tortilla (leave a 1/2 in border around the edge) then you flip the other half over and make a half moon shape. This way, less yummy filling falls out. You can also cook two of these in a pan.

- Cooking the quesadilla
If you add the oil directly to the pan it won't evenly distribute to cover the entire quesadilla and sometimes you end up using too much oil leading to overly greasy quesadillas and oily fingers.

So instead, use a pastry brush and brush the tortilla a thin layer of vegetable oil. This ensures that the quesadilla will be evenly covered using the least amount of oil as possible. Optional step: sprinkle a little bit of salt over the oil so it will be even more crisp (I always forget to do this).

Cook the quesadilla over medium heat, oil side down, until the bottoms are crisp and golden brown, it'll will take a few minutes. Then brush the top of the quesadilla with some more oil and carefully flip them over. The second side will take less time because the pan will be hotter.

Slide them out and let it sit for 2 - 3 minutes for the cheese to set. Then cut into wedges and serve.

Links:
I'm not the only Seattleite who can't stand the heat, Pea made an absolutely drool-worthy ice cream.

Cherry Clafouti

Remember when I said the best thing about living in the Pacific Northwest was the salmon? Well it's a tie between the salmon and the cherries. Washington state is the top cherry grower, producing about 50% of the nation's supply. Oh how I love the cherries; I look forward to them every summer. A few years ago my dad and I bought a bag of the biggest Bing cherries I'd ever seen, they were the size of ping pong balls I want to say (okay maybe a tiny bit smaller than ping pong balls but they were big!), and were soooo sweet. Every summer since then we would talk about those cherries and how we regret only buying one bag. "Hey remember those cherries we got a few years ago?" "Yeah... *wistful sigh*" I have yet to find cherries that big again. Anyways, now that we're in the middle of cherry season, which thankfully is very long (from early June to mid August), Bettina and I pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe cherries. Seriously we sometimes go through about a pound a day, each! The ones that escaped our cherry pillage ended up in clafoutis. Though in the end, I prefer my cherries uncooked but this was a classic French dessert that I wanted to try.

The clafouti is a custard-like dessert that originated in the province of Limousin in central France. Traditionally it's baked with whole, unpitted cherries because the heat releases more complex fruity and almondy notes from the pit. This is Julia Child's recipe (I mean how can you go wrong with a recipe from Julia Child?) with some minor changes. I added some almond extract to enhance the natural almondiness. The main flavor component of cherries comes from benzaldehyde, which is the same chemical as imitation almond extract (okay no more chemistry I promise). The cherries were also very sweet so I cut the sugar amount in half. You can serve clafoutis as dessert or eat them the next morning as breakfast, like Helen's grandfather.



Cherry Clafouti
Adapted from Julia Child
serves 6-8

1 1/4 cups milk, whole milk preferably
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour
2 - 3 C cherries (unpitted)
Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Beat the eggs, sugar, salt, and extracts, then add the milk, and finally whisk in the flour. Add some cherries to individual ramekins*, don't crowd them too much, leave a little room for the batter. Depending on the size and height of your ramekins it can make about 5 - 8 servings.

Pour the batter over the cherries, bake the clafoutis until it looks golden brown, somewhat puffy, and the center is set, about 20 - 30 minutes.

Serve warm with powdered sugar dusted on top.

*The ramekins I used ended up being a bit too small, I baked 2 in these oval fluted creme brulee ramekins and 4 in round ramekins with taller sides.

Links:
Helen's Mirabelle Clafoutis
Bea's Chocolate and Cherry Clafoutis (a twist on the Black Forest cake)
Dorie Greenspan's Cherry Clafoutis adapted by Anita

Sun-dried Tomato and Olive Pesto Pasta Salad

(10pm)
"Oh, can you make me something to bring to a potluck?"
"Sure! When is it?"
"Tomorrow"
"..."

Luckily pasta salad is one of my go-to dishes in these situations (ahem Steven, give me a little more warning next time mmkay?). It's quick to make and I can toss in whatever I have in my fridge and pantry. Bettina, Steven's sister, loves pasta salad and was my official guinea pig taste tester for this one and she said it was very good (whew!). I made this a few weeks ago and I swore I wrote down the recipe. A lot of times I just guesstimate quantities but I even made sure I measured everything this time and whatdoya know now I can't find it. So here are the quantities off the top of my head but if anything looks out of the ordinary go ahead and adjust it.

Sun-dried Tomato and Olive Pesto Pasta Salad

1 lb of pasta like farfalle or rotini
1/4 C lightly packed sundried tomatoes, rinsed of excess oil
1/2 C kalamata olives
1/2 C coarsely grated parmesan
1/4 C slivered almonds, toasted
a few sprigs of parsley
1/4 C olive oil
2 - 3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 - 2 tsp lemon zest, from half or whole lemon
additional lemon juice to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Boil the pasta in salted water until al dente. Set aside to cool.

Toast the almond slivers in a skillet over medium to medium high heat. Shake the pan frequently until the nuts are golden brown and set aside to cool.

In a food processor, pulse everything except for the lemon juice until it is a fine to coarse chop. When the pasta has cooled a bit, mix in the pesto. Add salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste.

Serve cold or at room temp.

Kung Pao Shrimp

Kung pao chicken, gong bao ji ding is virtually on every Sichuan Chinese restaurant's menu. The difference between the classic Sichuan version and the Americanized version is in the use of Sichuan peppercorns. The Sichuan peppercorn imparts an unusual numbing and spicy sensation on the tongue, known as ma la, and is used extensively in many of the region's dishes; but these peppercorns are not used in the Americanized dish. One theory is that since the peppercorns were banned from the US from 1968 up until 2005, cooks had to create this dish without the peppercorns. However, the ban was only loosely enforced until 2002 (when they really started to crack down); before then, you could find the peppercorns if you knew where to look. So perhaps another reason is that the ma la sensation was excluded so the dish could cater more to Western tastes. Now thanks to new heat treatments to kill the citrus canker, the peppercorns can now be legally purchased. So no more smuggling them from Canada or under-the-table dealings with your local Chinese restaurant. ;)

Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe was really excellent. It was so refreshing to see that the food wasn't swimming in a pool of cloyingly sweet and goopy sauce. The flavor was great and there was just enough sauce to cling to the food. I used shrimp rather than the chicken used in the traditional dish. The only problem I encountered was with the peppercorns. I wasn't sure if I should remove the peppercorns after frying them in the hot oil. Chomping down on a peppercorn while eating the dish was very unpleasant. I would suggest either use 1 tsp and fry them in hot oil to first perfume the oil, them remove them before cooking the rest of your dish or if you'd rather not deal with the hassle of removing them from the hot oil, use 1/2 tsp and crush them up into smaller more manageable size pieces. this way it doesn't completely overwhelm your palate when you bite down on a piece.

Notes:
- The recipe can also be made with cubes of chicken or pork
- The original recipe does not call for any vegetables but I figured it couldn't hurt since veggies are good for you! If you are adding a significant amount of vegetables you may need to double the sauce.

Kung Pao Shrimp
Adapted from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty

1 lb of large shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 garlic cloves and equivalent amount of ginger
5 scallions, white part only
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
About 10 dried red chilies
1 tsp or 1/2 tsp whole Sichuan peppercorns (see note)
2/3 C roasted peanuts or cashews

Optional:
A few ribs of celery, chopped
Half a red bell pepper, chopped
Broccoli stems, chopped or slivered

Marinade
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp Shao Xing rice wine
1 tsp corn starch

Sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
3 tsp Chinese black vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp chicken stock or water

1. Mix the ingredients for the marinade together, toss with shrimp, and let sit in the fridge while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

2. Peel and thinly slice or mince the garlic, mince the ginger, and chop the scallions. Cut the chilies in half and discard as many seeds as possible.

3. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a wok or skillet. When the oil is hot add the chilies and peppercorns and fry for a few seconds until they are fragrant (take care not to burn the peppercorns, lower the heat if you need to, shorten the frying time if you're using crushed peppercorns). Add the shrimp (and any vegetable if using) and fry for about 30 seconds then add the green onions, garlic, and ginger. When the shrimp is almost fully cooked, add the sauce (stir it a little to recombine) and cook until the sauce is thick and shiny and the shrimp is cooked through.

5. You can mix the peanuts/cashews in or scatter them on top.

Links:
Another great idea from Jaden: make your own Sichuan peppercorn salt. You can probably use this and sprinkle it on the dish.

Green Tea Ice Cream

Ever since I bought my ice cream maker back in February, I have a mile long list of ice cream flavors I want to make this summer. Now that I finally got a copy of "The Perfect Scoop" that list has tripled, maybe quadrupled. I'm jumping on the bandwagon a little late here but man that book is a-ma-zing! When Meeta announced the theme for this months Monthly Mingle, I had a hard time deciding which ice cream flavor to make. I finally settled on green tea ice cream (and whatdoya know David has a recipe for it!) with the intention of wrapping them in mochi, ala Mikawaya. Unfortunately, the mochi making turned out to be a disaster. It stuck everywhere and to everything. I could not get it off my hands let alone wrap it around ice cream. They weren't kidding when they said that stuff is sticky. (I read that not even the Heimlich can dislodge it!) Thankfully the ice cream was delicious so I didn't dwell long on the failed mochi.




Notes:
- I changed the milk/cream ratio because I didn't have enough cream and I felt almost guilty using as much as the recipe suggested, though I'm sure it would have made the ice cream even more delicious! I stuck with the recommended number of egg yolks, though I only had extra large eggs so the end result was a tad eggy, but again it was really delicious so no complaints.
- I also divided the recipe in half
- And since my matcha was ancient, I had to increase the amount from the recipe's 2 tsp and regrettably I didn't achieve the brilliant green of the photographed ice cream in the book.

Green Tea Ice Cream
Adapted from David Lebovitz "The Perfect Scoop"

3/4 C milk
3/4 C heavy cream
3 egg yolks
6 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp matcha powder
1/8 tsp salt

Heat the milk and salt in a saucepan over medium heat until it is hot but not boiling. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until it's pale yellow and ribbony.

Anchor your mixing bowl by placing a damp kitchen towel around the base of the bowl. Slowly drizzle in the hot milk into the egg yolks while whisking continuously.

Return the custard mixture into the saucepan and heat over medium heat. Stir continuously with a heatproof spatula while making sure to scrape the bottom. Cook until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spatula and a line drawn across the back of the mixture on the spatula stays clear. If the line blurs then continue to cook it a little longer. Don't boil the custard.

Add the matcha powder to the heavy cream then slowly whisk into the custard. Whisk the mixture until all the matcha powder has dissolved.

Chill in the fridge for a few hours. Then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the instructions.

Mile High Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

I first made these biscuits for Thanksgiving last year and hands down they are the best biscuits ever. Gone are the days of buying tubes of preservative-laden, artificially flavored biscuit dough, though I must say I miss the entertaining “pop” of opening those cylinders. These crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside biscuits are absolutely delicious on their own or smothered in sausage gravy.

Mile High Buttermilk Biscuits
From Cook’s Illustrated

2 C flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 C buttermilk
Additional flour
2 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 500ºF. Spray a 9 in springform or cake pan with some nonstick spray.

Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt to a bowl and mix the ingredients together evenly. Using a fork or pastry blender, cut in the butter until the pieces are no bigger than a small pea. Fold in the buttermilk until everything is just blended, and there are no streaks of flour remain. Do not overmix, the mixture should still be lumpy.

Line a plate or tray with some flour and using a 1/4 C measuring cup or 1/4 C ice cream/cookie scoop, scoop out balls of the dough onto the tray of flour. Flour your hands and roll each ball around in the flour to evenly coat them in a layer of flour. The dough is very wet and very sticky. Place the dough balls into the prepared pan. Place 9 balls around in a ring and 3 balls in the center of the pan. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter.

Bake for 5 minutes at 500ºF (middle rack) and then lower the temperature to 450ºF and bake for another 15 minutes.

In the past I've always baked these in a cake pan or springform. Alternatively you can also bake them individually in a muffin pan which is what I did this time because I’m waiting for my newly ordered cake pans and springform to arrive. I baked these on the upper middle shelf and at 450ºF for the entire time of about 17 minutes.

Egg Dumplings and Stuffed Cakes

Back in Shanghai, my relatives would make these egg dumplings for a special occasion or big family get together. A thin layer of beaten egg rather than a flour dough is used as a wrapper; think of it like a mini omelet. Traditionally, a wok or a ladle is used to make the egg wrapper and it's a very delicate and time consuming process.

I used way too much egg for the first wrapper and ended up with a thick egg taco. The next few wrappers spread into blobs that resembled various landmasses rather than circles. Many wrappers tore when I tried to close the dumpling, some exploded with filling. After botching almost a dozen dumplings, I finally got the hang of it. A few hours later, I made a little over two dozen dumplings. They were delicious but I would not recommend making them; they just aren't worth the time and effort.

Notes:
- The recipe makes a lot of filling, enough for a full dumpling dough recipe: (3 C flour, 1 C water, 1 tsp salt). Any leftover filling can be stir fried and eaten with rice.
- The mushrooms are cooked first to bring out their flavor and the chives are cooked a bit to wilt them down.

Pork, Chive, and Mushroom Filling

3/4 lb ground pork
3 C packed chopped Chinese chives/leek
1/2 C chopped rehydrated dried shiitake mushrooms
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Shao hsing rice wine
1 egg
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp grated ginger
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp sugar

Heat 1 tsp of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add the shiitake mushrooms and stir fry for a minute, then add the chives and cook just until the chives start to wilt (do not cook them fully). Set aside to cool.

Mix everything together to make the filling.

Egg Dumplings
1/2 of the pork and chive recipe
4 eggs beaten with some salt and 4 Tbsp of water/milk
Vegetable oil

Heat 1/2 tsp of vegetable oil in a small nonstick skillet or wok over medium or medium low heat. Add only a tablespoon (resist the temptation to add more) of the beaten egg mixture to the skillet and tilt the egg mixture around to form a very thin circular wrapper about 3 to 3 1/2 inches in diameter. The skillet should be hot enough so that the egg slightly sizzles when it hits the pan. The pan is too hot if the egg sizzles loudly and sets immediately as it hits the pan before you can finish swirl the wrapper. I found that the best technique is a combination of tilting the pan and using the back of the tablespoon to push the egg out to make a circle.

Add a mounded teaspoon of filling to the center of the egg wrapper and use a spatula to flip half of the wrapper over the filling. Press around the crescent edges to seal the filling in as the egg fully cooks. Allow the dumpling to cook for a few more seconds in the pan then set aside. At this point the filling is not cooked. Repeat with making the rest of the dumplings. 4 beaten eggs will make around 26 dumplings.

Traditionally, the dumplings are fully cooked in hot pot or soup but I'm sure you can also steam them to fully cook the filling. I gently boiled them in some chicken stock for about 10 minutes to cook them through.




I ended up making way too much filling because I drew the line at 4 eggs, so I made a flour dough to make stuffed cakes. The dough is a basic dumpling/potsticker wrapper dough. The stuffed cakes are very similar to a potsticker but are circular and bigger.



Pork, Chive, and Mushroom Stuffed Cakes
Dough (halved basic potsticker wrapper
1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C cold water
1/2 tsp salt


Mix the flour, salt, and water together and form a uniform smooth dough.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough in half and then each half into 4 - 5 pieces. I got about 10 stuffed cakes from this recipe.

Roll a piece of dough into a circle that's about 4 - 5 inches in diameter. Keep the wrapper thicker in the middle and thinner towards the edges.

Add a mounded tablespoon of filling to the center of the wrapper. I wanted to stuff these cakes as full as possible.

Gather up all the edges and pinch close. Then flatten the cake gently into a patty. Set aside on a flour lined sheet and continue to make the rest. Dust off excess flour before cooking. You can also freeze these cakes; first freeze them on a tray then transfer them to a zipper lock bag.

Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pan fry the cakes until both sides are golden brown. Then add 1/4 C of water to the skillet, cover, turn the heat down to low, and steam for 10 minutes. If the pan gets too dry, add another tablespoon of water.

After 10 minutes remove the cover and turn the heat up to medium high. Boil off any remaining water and recrisp both sides.


More dumpling recipes:
Pork and Cabbage Potstickers
Shrimp and Edamame Dumplings (Har Gau)
Sticky Rice Siu Mai

This month's WTSIM is hosted by Johanna of The Passionate Cook. Be sure to check the roundup for more great dumpling recipes.

Bagels: Daring Bakers June

June marks my first Daring Baker's Challenge and this month, Jenny of All Things Edible and Freya of Writing at the Kitchen Table chose Real Honest Jewish Purist's Bagels. I've made a few yeasted baked goods before so I was fairly comfortable with the idea of making bagels. I was ready to break out the KitchenAid for another bout of effortless kneading. That is until I found out we had to knead by hand. To be honest I don't really know how to properly knead by hand so it was definitely a little intimidating. I'm extremely reliant on my KitchenAid, perhaps too reliant. It was something I saved up for and bought many years ago as a teenager and is my most prized kitchen possession. But knowing how to knead by hand is definitely a good skill to know for a baker so I left the beloved mixer alone in the corner and rolled up my sleeves to attack the dough. I made half the recipe because I was afraid of having too many bagels. I'm a little glad I only made half the recipe because the dough was quite stiff and definitely gave me an upper body workout with all the kneading. In fact my right side was even sore the next day! The downside of only making half the recipe is that the bagels were oh soooo delicious and unfortunately making half the recipe meant only 8 bagels, which were quickly devoured in 1.5 days.

The recipe can be found here.

The rules this month:
- Toppings should be savory and nothing should be added to the bagel dough itself.
- Bagels can be filled with anything your heart desires. They tasted delicious plain so I didn't add anything.

Some recipe notes:
Ingredients
I used King Arthur's bread flour, instant yeast, clover honey in the dough, and sugar in the water. Next time, I will only use 1 packet of yeast (2 1/4 tsp) for 4 C of bread flour rather than the 2 Tbsp stated in the recipe.

Kneading
I kneaded for about 15 minutes and left it alone to rise. Then I reread the recipe and it said the dough should be smooth and elastic. My dough wasn't smooth or elastic so I was worried I underkneaded. But I forged ahead with the rest of the recipe and luckily they turned out okay.

Rising
The dough rose extremely quickly. In order to avoid bready bagels, you want to really punch down the dough. I mean REALLY punch it down.

Making the bagels
I used the hole method to make the bagels (making a disc then poking a hole in the middle then stretching it out a little for an even bagel). I was afraid the "snake" method would uncoil in the water. Don't worry if the bagels aren't very pretty, mine were all uneven and lumpy.

Floaters or sinkers?
Although the recipe stated that the bagels should at first sink in the simmering water then float, like many other Daring Bakers, all of my bagels floated immediately as they hit the water.

Toppings
In the end I made five different bagels: plain, sesame seed, poppy seed, Parmesan, and pizza (leftover tomato sauce and some mozzarella). After the initial 25 minutes in the oven, I noticed the pizza ones were getting a little dark so I move the sheet from the middle rack to the lower middle rack (I didn't flip the bagels over). I used pretoasted sesame seeds on the bagels and I was afraid they would burn in the oven but they turned out fine.



You can visit all my fellow Daring Bakers (links on the righthand sidebar) and see what toppings they put on their bagels.

Daikon Cakes

Daikon is a large white radish that's very popular in East Asian cuisine. It can be simmered, dried, pickled, or eaten raw. I love the taste and crispness of raw daikon so I wanted to preserve that crunch and raw bite in these cakes. In making this recipe, I borrowed elements from latkes and crabcakes. The first time I experimented with this idea, I made the cakes thin like pancakes and by the time the outside finished frying, the insides were too cooked and had lost that raw crunch. This time I made the cakes thicker, more like crabcakes, and dredged the outside in some panko for an extra crispy exterior.

Notes:
- Although this dish has the same name as the other daikon cake (luo buo gao), the two cakes are very different.
- The egg and flour serve as binders to hold the daikon together. The first time I made this I used a tiny bit of batter made from flour and water.
- The daikon is first salted to dry out excess moisture.
- You can probably substitute jicama for daikon in this recipe but I haven't tried this.

Crispy and Crunchy Daikon Cakes
3 C packed coarsely grated daikon radish
3/4 tsp salt
2 green onions, minced
1 egg beaten
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp white pepper
About 1/2 C panko bread crumbs
Vegetable oil for frying

Coarsely grate the daikon radish and mix with 3/4 tsp of salt. Let this sit in a bowl or colander for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, squeeze the water out of the daikon with your hands. You'll want the daikon really dry.

Mix the daikon with minced green onion, beaten egg, flour, sesame oil, and white pepper. Take 1/3 C of the mixture and form cakes that are about 1/2 in thick. You should get 5 or 6 cakes.

Scatter some panko on a plate and bread the top and bottom of each cake with a layer of panko.

Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Panfry the cakes until the bottoms are golden brown. Flip the cakes over, add another 2 tsp of oil, and continue to panfry until the second side is golden brown. Serve with soy sauce if desired.


Links:
My other daikon cake recipe - these are often served at dimsum.

This will be my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging. This week's WHB is hosted by creator, Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. Be sure to check out the roundup on Sunday/Monday.

Carbonnade

June isn't exactly the typical season for stews but a week ago the weather was a bit chilly, chilly for June that is, (like my graduation) and I had been eyeing this carbonnade recipe for quite some time. Carbonnade is a hearty Belgian stew that centers around three main ingredients: beef, beer, and onions. The original Cook's Illustrated recipe recommends using a traditional Belgian ale or another dark ale or beer like Chimay, Newcastle Brown Ale, Anchor Steam, and Samuel Smith Taddy Porter. I only had Guiness at home, which the folks at CI said could make for a slightly bitter stew. So to balance this bitterness, I opted to use some sweet Vidalia onions rather than yellow onions. The stew was simple to make but really delicious and rich. We ate it over rice but you can also serve it over egg noodles or potatoes. Mmm... meat and rice, my type of meal.

Notes:
- If you can't get top blade steaks you can substitute a chuck roast.
- Recommended ales: Chimay, Newcastle Brown Ale, Anchor Steam, and Samuel Smith Taddy Porter
- If you are using one of the four recommended beers, use yellow onions, using red or white onions with those beers can make the stew a bit too sweet.
- If you only have Guiness Stout like me, use sweeter red or white onions to balance the bitterness.
- Slice half the onions into 1/4 in slices and the other half into 1/8 in slices. The thinner slices will melt into the stew but the thicker slices will stick around and melt in your mouth.

Carbonnade a la Flamande
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

3 - 3 1/2 lb blade steak, trimmed of gristle and fat then cut into 1 inch pieces
2 lbs yellow onions, 3 medium or 2 large onions (see note about slicing)
2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
3 Tbsp of AP flour
1 C chicken broth
1 12 oz. bottle of one of the recommended Belgian ales
Bouquet Garni: 4 - 6 sprigs of parsley, 3 - 4 sprigs of thyme, 2 bay leaves tied together with twine
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbsp vegetable oil

Dry beef with some paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tsp of oil over medium high heat in a Dutch oven. When the oil is barely beginning to smoke add 1/3 of the beef. Cook the beef on the first side, without moving until browned, about 2 - 3 minutes. Then use tongs and flip the beef pieces over and brown on the second side. Transfer to a bowl, add more oil and repeat with half of the remaining beef. If the browned bits on the bottom of the pan are getting too dark, add some chicken broth, scrape up the brown bits, then pour this liquid into the bowl with the beef. Add more oil, and brown the remaining beef.

Reduce the heat to medium and add another tbsp of oil into the Dutch oven. Add the onions and cook until they are lightly browned. Add the flour and garlic. Cook until the flour is lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth, beer, and vinegar. Scrape up any additional browned bits, then add the beef and bouquet. I usually add salt and pepper now so the beef will pick up flavor as it cooks but I don't add too much salt since the stew will reduce a little and the flavors will concentrate. Salt to taste after cooking.

Increase the heat and bring the contents of the pot back up to a boil then lower the heat to a bare simmer. Simmer over really low heat for about 2 - 3 hours, or until the beef is tender. Discard the bouquet and salt to taste. Sprinkle with a bit of fresh parlsey and serve over rice or egg noodles or alongside potatoes.

Green Tea Truffles

In my previous green tea confection post, Wandering Chopsticks suggested I make green tea truffles as a way to use up my aging matcha. It was a brilliant idea and what better time to make them since June is National Candy Month. The truffle center is a white chocolate ganache flavored with green tea. White chocolate is a powerful flavor so it is the first thing that you taste but as the truffle melts in your mouth the floral flavors of the green tea slowly emerges. The truffle is then coated with a shell of white, dark, or green chocolate (white chocolate with more matcha mixed in). Finally it can be rolled in some matcha powder or cocoa powder, or drizzled with a different colored chocolate. The truffles covered in dark chocolate are especially fun because people will be surprised to see a green center when they bite into the chocolate and find out it is green tea and not mint.

This was my first time making truffles and tempering chocolate seemed very daunting. I was going about it blindly since I didn’t have a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the chocolate so it didn’t work. Properly tempered chocolate has a shiny appearance, a crisp bite, and snaps when you break it. If chocolate is not tempered, it is soft, crumbly, dull, and melts too easily. The truffle coated with dark chocolate looks a bit dull. Since I was working with only 1 ounce of chocolate it wasn’t a big deal that my chocolate wasn’t tempered. Plus if you coat them in powder, no one will know. :)



Notes:
- This was an experiment so the quantities are quite small but it can be doubled. The original recipe makes a dozen truffles.
- In the recipe I specified to use 1 teaspoon of matcha but taste the mixture before chilling it to see if you wish to add more.
- If you choose to coat the center in green chocolate and roll it in matcha you might want to use a little less matcha in the filling.
- The truffles are best served a little chilled, at room temp the centers are a bit too soft.

Green Tea Truffles
Ganache Filling
4 oz. white chocolate, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
1 tsp matcha or more (to taste)

Outer Shell
1 oz. white chocolate, roughly chopped (covers 6 truffles)
1 oz. dark chocolate, roughly chopped (covers 6 truffles)
Matcha and or cocoa powder for rolling


For the filling, add the roughly chopped chocolate, whipping cream, and matcha in a heat proof bowl and melt over a double boiler or in the microwave heating in short bursts.

Taste the filling first to see if it needs more matcha, then chill it for a few hours in the fridge before using.

Using a melon baller or teaspoon, scoop mounded spoonfuls of the ganache mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet. You can also wear some gloves and use your hands to roll the drops into uniform balls. You should end up with around 11 – 12.

Chill the ganache balls again for a few hours in the fridge or 30 minutes in the freezer.

Melt the chocolate for the outer shell. There are two ways to coat the truffles, you can either use a toothpick and dip each ball into the melted chocolate, or you can wear a pair of gloves, add some melted chocolate to the palm of a gloved hand, and roll each ball in your palm. Set each coated truffle onto the same parchment lined baking sheet. Let the chocolate harden a little then you can roll it in cocoa powder or matcha powder (and dust off the excess).


Here are some combinations you can do:
White chocolate shell + matcha powder
Green chocolate shell + matcha powder
Dark chocolate shell + cocoa powder
Dark chocolate shell + white or green drizzles
White or green chocolate shell + dark chocolate drizzles


Links:
This will be my entry for I Heart Candy hosted by YumSugar

Interested in more in-depth truffle making guides?
Cooking engineer has a great guide for chocolate truffles and tempering chocolate
I wish I found this sooner! Helen makes gorgeous truffles!

Baked Salmon ala Mayonnaise

Steven first introduced me to this salmon dish many years ago during the teenage period when I hated mayo. I definitely raised my eyebrow when I heard mayo and salmon in the same sentence. In my mind, why ruin a perfectly good piece of fish by slathering it with something like mayonnaise? Well after I reluctantly tried a bite of the salmon, it wasn’t bad. When I recently bought some Copper River salmon, this was the first dish Steven asked me to make. Go figure. I'm not sure how common this particular salmon preparation is but I'm guessing this recipe probably isn’t everyone’s cup of tea since lots of people dislike mayonnaise. The main purpose of the mayo is to keep the salmon moist so I don’t use too much. After baking, the mayo is no longer goopy and mayo-like, instead it forms a light and tasty crust on top of the salmon. The original recipe used only salt, pepper, and mayo to top the salmon. I had to make it more interesting so I added some sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest, and Dijon mustard.

Baked Salmon ala Sun-dried Tomato and Lemon Mayonnaise

1 lb salmon fillet
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed of oil and minced
Zest from half a lemon, about 1 tsp
1 tsp of Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Take the salmon out of the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before cooking to let it warm up a bit.

Adjust an oven rack to the upper middle position. Line a baking pan with a sheet of foil, coat the foil with some olive oil, and lay the fillet on the pan skin side down. Salt and pepper the top of the salmon.

In a small bowl, mix together the mayo, mustard, sun-dried tomatoes, and lemon zest. Using the back of a spoon or a spatula, coat the top and sides of the fillet with an even layer of the mayo mixture.

Broil on the upper middle rack until the top is golden brown, a few minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees halfway through so the crust browns evenly. After broiling, if a paring knife cannot be inserted cleanly into the fish, or if it does not flake, then turn off the broiler, and return the fish to a 400ºF oven and finish baking the salmon for a few more minutes.