Blueberry Soured Cream Cake

Blueberries bake very well into cakes, as their purple skins keep in their juicy centres!

175g butter, softened
175g sugar
3 large eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. vanilla essence, 1 t. almond essence
4 T. soured cream (preferably 14% m.f.)
1 c. blueberries, fresh or frozen.

preheat the oven to 300F. Butter the base of, depending on what you would like, two standard cake tins for a 2 layer with shallower cakes, or 1 standard cake tin for a full, one layer cake.

Put the butter, sugar, ggs, flour, baking powder and essences in a bowl. Beat for a few minutes untill pale and well mixed. Beat in the soured cream and blueberries.
Tip the mixture into tin(s) and level. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes until firm to the touch and a fork inserted in the centre comes out clean.

For the frosting
1 packet of cream cheese
1 lemon, zested and juiced
icing sugar, to taste.

soften the packet of cream cheese and place in bowl. Beat with lemon zest and juice until smooth and add icing sugar to taste until desired sweetness is reached. Frost.

Citrus Macaroons

The extra-egg whites problem has been around for a long time, and its not surprise that macaroons have a long history. The Penguin Companion to Food tells us that they're found in cookbooks from the late 1600's! Incidentally, the word "Macaroon" is also the name of teh finest grade of grated coconut.
For those who enjoy lime or lemon and coconut, these pretty cookies are as good as it gets. Fresh with a hint of citrus, sweet but not cloyingly so.

2 egg whites
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/4 dessicated coconut, unsweetened.
2 T. pastry or cake flour
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. vanilla essence
1/4 t. lemon essence, 1/4 t. almond essence
grated zest of 1 or 2 lemons, or limes.

Preheat the oven to 300F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium saucepan, combine the egg whites, sugar, coconut and flour. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture balls up and pulls away from the sides of the pot while mixing. (about 6 - 10 minutes).
Remove from heat and stir in the salt, essences and zest.
Immediately begin shaping the cookies. Using two teaspoons, scoop up a spoonful and drop onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until the coconut shreds have turned opaque and the cookies are very lightly browned on the bottom.
Lift the cookies, still on the parchment, onto a rack to let cool and firm. Peel them off the paper when they are cool. Store, once cooled, in an airtight container.
These cookies keep beautifully!



(as you can see, I let them cook for a wee bit too long...but I like them to have a little more crunch.)
(I used lemon.)

Ginger Salmon

I've had a couple of false starts with this recipe. I started to make it the first time and realized that I had thrown out my marmalade (I had vague memories of it crystalizing). The next time that I purchased salmon, I put the Tyee Fish Rub on it and then found the marmalade. This time I managed to get everything in alignment and I went ahead. I'll put the original recipe down and then tell you what Epicure-y substitutions that I made.

2 lb salmon fillet, skin removed
3/4 c orange marmalade
1/4 c sliced green onion (I substituted a few T of 3 Onion)
2 t dry white wine
1 t grated fresh ginger
1 t dijon mustard
1/2 t minced garlic (I substituted 1 t of Malay Seasoning for the garlic & cayenne)
1/4 t cayenne
1/8 t Epicure 5 Spice
3 T sliced, toasted almonds

Thaw the fish if frozen and rinse. Pat dry with paper towel and measure the thickest part. Sprinkle it with salt and pepper and place in a shallow pan. Mix all of the other ingredients (except for the almonds) and spoon it over the fish. Bake at 450F for 4-6 minutes per 1/2" thickness or till it flakes easily with a fork. Transfer the fish and sauce to a serving dish with a rim. Sprinkle the fish with the almonds.

It was really tasty and the marmalade softened out with a little bit of heat from the spices. I will definitely make this again but I think I'll spoon a little less sauce on each piece, I only had about a pound of fish this time around and I used the full recipe's worth of sauce. Still pretty good with rice and steamed veg.

Iced Moka

Okay, Meag asked for this for her birthday breakfast and it required a couple of days preparation. Her birthday was on Thursday so on Tuesday I started with phase 1: Chocolate sauce.

1 1/4 c water
1 1/4 c sugar
3/4 c VE cocoa
Mix it all together in a saucepan and bring to a boil for 3 minutes. Let it cool and keep it in the refrigerator until you want to use it. It's a little on the bittersweet side as the VE cocoa is pulling pretty strong in that direction.

Phase 2 went quickly on Wednesday night when I made some espresso and filled my ice cube tray. Coffee ice cubes were recommended and, when you think about it, it makes sense for a chilled coffee drink because meltwater makes iced coffee taste like suck. Coffee ice cubes help to maintain the flavour for the remainder of the drink. Having said that, coffee ice cubes are a complete pain in the butt. I also brewed another batch of coffee and put it the fridge overnight to chill.

The final phase had to wait until Meag woke up on Thursday.

2 c chilled coffee (I used espresso)
2 c milk
6 T chocolate sauce
12 coffee ice cubes
2 T sugar (this was my addition)
Throw it all in a blender and let'er rip.

Problem #1 (I am all about the numbered lists here): 12 ice cubes do not make nearly enough chopped ice for 4 cups of liquid so I ended up having to add a bunch of plain ice cubes to get the texture that I was looking for anyway (think Ice Capp)

Problem #2: My volume estimation abilities continue to falter when I learned that 4 cups of liquid and (even) 12 ice cubes will test the capacity of my food processor (my blender having bravely given its life during the Smoothie Frenzy of '07). It took about 10 seconds to start having major leakage issues all over the tops of my slippers.

Really tasty though and there's no reason that I couldn't cut the recipe in half and knock it out in the morning. I've still got a lot of that chocolate sauce left over too, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Who Knew That Cute Animals Were So Tasty?

It just sounds so rustic (and I sound so snotty when I say it that way). I mean it in the best possible sense though.

I've had lamb chops and lamb sausage and ground lamb but I've never actually eaten a shank. It looks exactly like it sounds, like the wee leg of an animal and that was a little weird. I'm not normally squeamish about this sort of thing, I know where my food comes from and this wouldn't be the first time that I've eaten something vaguely recognizable (wouldn't be the first time this week for that matter. Ribs, anyone?) but this was almost too much.

I bought two packages of three spring lamb shanks and decided to just divide the recipe since I'd never tried it before. I was a little spoiled for choice for recipes but I decided to start at the source and I went to the New Zealand Lamb website as they're the ones that packaged it up in the first place. These are the changes that I made though (unless otherwise noted, the amounts were just halved from the original recipe).

BRAISED LAMB SHANKS

3 New Zealand Spring Lamb shanks
1/3 c cooking oil (that was the original amount)
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 c chopped celery
1 carrot, sliced
1 T VE Focaccia Seasoning (this was originally 1/4 t garlic powder and 1/2 t rosemary)
1 t rosemary (okay, this wasn't in the original at all)
1 bay leaf (that was the original amount, I picked a small one this time)
1 beef bouillon cube (that was the original amount because what fool is going to split a bouillon cube)
1/2 c boiling water
100 ml tomato sauce
2 T flour
2 T flour (originally 1/3 c)

I kept the oil the same because lamb shanks are incredibly lean on most of their surface and they stuck to the pan like nothing. Saute the shanks in oil till browned. Set aside. Saute vegetables in the oil in the pan for about 5 minutes or until they get all aromatic and lovely. Add the seasoning. (The original recipe called for dissolving the bouillon cube in the boiling water but mine were still fairly fresh and crumbly so I just crumbled it straight into the pot and added the water with the tomato sauce.) I deglazed with about a quarter cup of red wine and that wasn't called for but I like the flavor that wine adds to a slow cook like this. Stir in the tomato sauce and nestle the shanks into the boiling mixture. Cover tightly and simmer for 2 hours or until tender - stir occasionally (I went and turned the shanks over at about the halfway point). Stir together the flour and water until smooth. Remove the bay leaf and add the flour to the sauce. Cook until thickened.

I served it over couscous because it was the fastest thing to make. It was gobsmackingly delicious. Meag ate an entire bowlful of couscous to catch all of the amazing sauce. If lambs are this tasty, next I'm hunting wabbits.

Luscious Lemon Loaf

Joe noted last night that I was waxing rhapsodic about summer foods (I think it was the wish for a big bowl of potato salad that clinched the deal).

Lemon sort of goes hand in hand with summer for me and I was wanting to give this a try so...

1/2 c softened butter
3/4 c white sugar
2 T VE Lemon Chiffon Fruit Dip Mix
2 eggs
1 1/2 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 c milk

Preheat to 349F (or round up if you insist). Prepare your loaf pan with your removal facilitator of choice and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy and then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and then spoon into the pan and bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden. Cool before icing with Lemon Chiffon Icing (1/2 c of "spreadable light cream cheese" with 1 T of VE Lemon Chiffon).

Okay, warning: this is not a recipe for a wee loaf pan, this is a big loaf. The yield said 5 oz which sounds positively scant (oh, barely over a half cup!) but when it's given in metric, the truth is revealed... 1.5 L. Think about that for a second, think about how big a 2L milk carton is! If I seem especially fervent about it this time, it's because I'm cleaning burnt cake batter off of the bottom of my oven this afternoon. In my defense, this gets a lot of loft for something that, in batter form, closely resembles a pound cake. It made for the edges of the pan like a champ and was spilling over in no time.

The other thing to note is that the icing is probably only meant to cover the top of the loaf. I really like the looks of loaves that have been turned over on the plate though, I think they look like big chocolates so I tried. One half cup is a ridiculous amount of icing to try to spread over a cake and I really shouldn't have tried (I'm a professional, I should know better) but... anyway. The icing is scary it's so good (especially after I whipped it) and you really wouldn't want much more than that on the cake.

I left the Lemon Chiffon Blueberry Squares recipe for Erin to try. Over to you!

Spaghetti with Mushrooms and Onion

This is another one of my simple meals. I had never tried this before, but it came out really tasty. Just cook 4-6 ounces of mushrooms (I had 4 ounces leftover from the other day, but I would probably go with more than that next time) and a small chopped onion in olive oil over low heat until caramelized.

Meanwhile, cook one serving of spaghetti. When done, drain the pasta and pour it into the pan with the mushrooms and onion. Cook all together for another minute, and you're done. Serve with Italian bread, and all is well in the world.

The meal ended up costing me just 22 cents (for the onion) since I already had all the other items, so that's good too.

And for dessert, try some oatmeal!

If at first you don't succeed...

..make the Herb & Garlic Cheddar Biscuits again. I set the timer for 20 minutes because 30 minutes at 450F seemed like a hellaciously long time. Well, 20 minutes was still too long but they were definitely edible this time. Next time I'll check at 15 minutes and go from there.

Anyway, to go along side with that I cooked up some packaged gnocchi that I had in the fridge (did I ever mention that making gnocchi from scratch is on my 100 list?). I also melted 2 T butter into a little saucepan and then whisked in about a T of flour, maybe a little more. After it cooked a little bit I added about 3/4 c of milk and 2 T (thereabouts) of Epicure Caesar Dressing Mix and simmered it for a couple of minutes until it started to thicken.

I piled the gnocchi into a couple of whiteware baking dishes, truth be told, it would have worked better to make three of them. The sauce had thickened a little too much so I whisked in about another half cup of milk and then about 1/4 c of parmesan cheese and poured it over the gnocchi. I sprinkled it with bacon bits because I didn't have any real live bacon (that would have completely rocked it) and then threw it into the oven that was still hot from the biscuits for a couple of minutes.

After I pulled the pasta out, I grated a little bit of pecorino cheese over the top of it and served it with buttered biscuits. A little salad with vinaigrette would have finished it off perfectly but it wasn't to be tonight.

Herb & Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

I tried this one for lunch today and I had to post it immediately because if you haven't made your dinner plans yet and you have the Herb & Garlic Dip Mix (and if you don't, you really should talk to us about getting it), you should start your plans around these biscuits.

2 c flour
4 t baking powder
2 T VE Herb & Garlic Dip Mix
1/2 t salt
1/4 c cold butter
1 c grated cheddar
2/3 c milk

Preheat to 450F. Mix all of the dry and then cut in the butter until pea sized crumbs. Stir in the cheese. Stir in the milk, the dough will be fairly wet until you turn it out onto a floured board (hey, when did Donald Sutherland start doing voiceovers for orange juice commercials? Is he paying off a mortgage or something?) and knead it 6-8 times. Pat it out to about 1 cm thick and then cut it into your shapes and put them onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

The book said 30 minutes but I was on the phone with Joe when I put them in the oven and didn't look at the time. I took them out when I could smell them but didn't take into account that I was in my bedroom at the other end of the house. To make a long story short (Too late!), I burned mine and I don't know how long they were in the oven.

So the tasting part is based completely on the top half of the biscuit but even that was substantial, they had a lot of loft to them.

**Editor's Note: I tried them again for 18 minutes on a parchment lined cookie sheet and they were still much browner than they should have been. The next time that I try them, I'm going to drop the temperature because the insides are cooked almost perfectly so the time is good. I will keep you posted, natch.**

Chicken Fajitas

I don't have a picture of these but I wish that I had taken one because they looked so good and they tasted really good (even though we forgot to bring the peppers and onions, Nancy had a handful of yellow onions in the fridge and we made that work). Simple, simple.

Generous amount of vegetable oil in a bowl or baggie.
T or so of Epicure Fajita Seasoning
5 ginormous chicken breasts

Mix the oil and seasoning. Cut the chicken into strips and dump it into the marinade as you cut it. We only let it sit and marinate for about 10 minutes or so (long enough to cut the onions) but it would be really good if you let it sit longer. Chicken breast doesn't need all that much marination but I would imagine that a cut of beef would. Erin tried and I'm hoping that she gets to post it once she gets her computer back from the Best Buy Geek-Bastard Squad.

After the chicken is cooked, set it aside and fry up the onions and peppers (if you remember to pack them) in the seasoned oil that's left in the pan until they're tender.

Wrap it all in a tortilla and you're good to go.

Spaghetti with Anchovies, Garlic, and Chili

I got this recipe from the student cookbook Jody gave me, and it was so good that it was almost as if someone came into my apartment and cooked me a meal. It was also the hottest thing I have ever cooked for myself.

4 T olive oil
4 garlic cloves, halved
1 red chili, quartered (Next time, a half a chili will be quite enough.)
Spaghetti
Small can of anchovies
freshly ground black pepper (Actually, I forgot to add this.)

Cook one serving of spaghetti. In a small saucepan, heat oil and gently cook garlic and chili until golden brown. Remove chili and garlic. Add anchovies to oil and cook for about two minutes. Add 1/4 pint of water (or half cup -- thanks, Internet) and boil until pasta is ready. Whisk with fork to break up anchovies, if needed.

Drain pasta and pour over sauce. Toss well and sprinkle with black pepper (or not as the case may be). This is meant to be two servings, but I didn't think anchovies would last all that long, so I used all the sauce over one serving of pasta. Jody did tell me the oil would be flavored with the garlic and chili, but I was shocked at how much flavor there was.

I'm definitely trying this again, though next time with only half the chili.