Writing about food.

I Wrote this over on my other blog, which I'm not keeping up with, so I decided to re post this over here. This was a mother's day post, but it's totally food related

Q : What is one thing that you think your mother did exceptionally well as a parent?

 

My relationship with my mom has not been without stress, strain, and turmoil. I think, to some extent, that is how mother/daughter relationships all over the world are destined to go. From what I know about other people (only what they tell me) my relationship with my mom may have been a bit more rocky than most. But there are a large number of things that my mom did very well. And she deserves all the credit in the world for those. Here is just one of them.

My mom made sure that I am not a picky eater. Even as a kid, I wasn't exactly afforded the opportunity to be picky. While most kids my age were chowing down on chicken fingers, mac and cheese, and pizza, I was eating (and learning to cook) fun things like lentil soup, trout almandine, and ratatouille. Even the basics like school lunches weren't basic in our house. Most of the time, I walked the 2 blocks home from William H. Ray Elementary School and ate a hot meal with my mom and sister, since the lunches served in the Chicago Public School System. The food was pretty good. Heavy on ramen with scrambled eggs (which I still won't eat), and reheated leftovers. But when my mom wasn't going to be home to cook, or when I wanted to sit in the smelly, overcrowded lunchroom with hundreds of other kids, my mom packed my Gumby (don't mock, people.) lunchbox full of either super healthy sandwiches or thermoses full of the ubiquitous egg-y ramen soup.

And ok, now you're thinking "well that sounds totally normal. Soup and sandwiches are pretty par for the course." I hear you. And when it was ramen soup, it felt pretty normal. I didn't get made fun of. But there were a lot of tuna sandwiches packed into that lunch box, and man, did they stink by lunch time. I remember getting made fun of a lot for my stinky tuna sandwich lunches, with no extra treats packed in. Other kids ate cookies. I ate fruit. I also got made fun of a ton when my thermos (which permanently smelled of ramen) was filled with "weird" things like ratatouille or lentil soup. I remember the "eeeew, what is that?!?" coming out of classmate's mouths, and I remember being envious of the other kid's wonderbread sandwiches, oreo cookies, and apples, perfectly peeled and cut into wedges. At this point, as a (slightly more) mature adult, I really appreciate all that. All the "eeews" and the "how can you eat that?" helped make me the ballsy eater, and ballsy cook I am today. Thanks mom!

So yeah, my mom's health-nut sensibilities got me made fun of. But in the long run, they helped me develop my passion for cooking and for eating. I learned to cook so I could make myself lunches that I would like, and make dinners that the whole family would like, ensuring me leftovers that I actually wanted to eat for lunch and wasn't afraid to eat in front of my classmates. But my mom's giving me really healthy foundations to build on made it so that even now, I eat "stranger" than a lot of people my age, and probably better than a lot of my former classmates do. In that way, my mom inspired me.

Where mom made a ton of soups and stews, I make a ton of roasted lean meats and light pasta dishes. I don't necessarily use my mom's savory food recipes, though I guess I can say I've drawn inspiration from some of them. She made ratatouille-ish lentil stew, thick with eggplant. I make ratatouille the traditional French way, and make my lentil soup as a Thai style red curry, which, now that I think about it, mom would totally love. I'll have to make it for her.

Cupcakes!

Yes, friends, I know. . . I've been posting all this relatively healthy food and talking about weight loss and eating vegetables when really you all want to read about the good naughty food.  That's why the cherry pie post was so popular.  So not too long ago, someone ordered a few dozen mini cupcakes from me.  I was told that I could pick the flavors, so I made my life easy and did chocolate with 2 different kinds of frostings. Then there was a little variety, but it wasn't a pain in my ass.   Plus, I make a kick-ass chocolate cake. 

Now this chocolate cake recipe is big for a batch of cupcakes.  It is big enough to make a 10 inch layer cake for a birthday, or an epic sheet cake, or a few dozen regular sized cupcakes.  I cut it in half to do mini cupcakes, but the recipe below is the big one.  Why? So you can make birthday cake without doing math.  Now go preheat your oven to 300 (yes, we bake this recipe low and slow to keep things nice and gooey) and we'll talk cake.


Chocolate cake batter (Adapted from Gourmet)

• 4 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate. either chopped fine or use chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour NOT CAKE FLOUR
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk
• 1/2 cup full fat sour cream
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

 With all the ingredients measured out (remember, what you see above is a half recipe) it is time to get moving.  Measuring ahead of time may seem like a pain, a waste of time, or a waste of clean dishes, but having stuff all set early makes it really easy to bake without feeling frantic or overwhelmed.  Everything just comes together more easily this way.



First, we take the hot coffee (yes, it needs to be hot. I use espresso shots because I like strong coffee flavor, but you can do anything from your leftover Starbucks to instant, as long as it is hot) and pour it over the chocolate chips.  We're melting chocolate here, friends. That's why the hot is important. So pour the hot coffee over the chips, and just leave it alone.

 Next, sift the dry ingredients into a LARGE bowl. This is especially important to do with the cocoa powder, which tends to seriously clump.  I use a wire mesh strainer instead of a sifting device. It goes quicker this way, and then you don't need to buy a special thing just for sifting.  I put everything from flour to baking powder in the sifter to work out clumps but not salt. If you use fine grain table salt or sea salt, it works, but kosher salt just doesn't fit through the holes.

Once all the dry ingredients are sifted, whisk them together thoroughly.  Not only does this serve to aerate the dry ingredients, but it means you're not going to have clumps of baking soda or flour sneaking up at you in an otherwise awesome chocolatey cake.  

Next, add the eggs.  Break up the yolks right away. Then add the oil, buttermilk, sour cream, and vanilla, and whisk everything throughly to combine.  The mixture will be thick and fudgey.

 

Once all of those ingredients are combined, it is time to add the coffee and chocolate mixture. It should still be warm, but not scalding hot (or it'll start to cook the eggs).  If it got cool, warm it up in the microwave a little. No big deal.   The coffee and chocolate mixture will make the batter a lot thinner and silky smooth.  Let the batter sit for half an hour. I can't explain why I do this, but it improves the texture.  After the batter rests, It is time to dig out some papers, line your pan, and make some cupcakes!

You can definitely use plain cupcake papers.  The cake will still taste awesome.  But I have a nice selection of fun cupcake papers that I like to use. With the big cupcake craze right now, it is pretty easy to find weird or different pan liners just to make things more interesting.   This time I chose to go with the leopard print ones. I got them relatively cheaply at a local cooking supply store, and they're awesome! So I lined the pan, then sprayed it down with baking spray so the tops of the cupcakes didnt stick to the pan if they spilled over. it just makes things neater.  Once all was prepared, I filled the lines between 2/3 and 3/4 of the way full.

The mini cupcakes bake pretty quickly at 300 degrees, somewhere between 15 and 25 minutes depending on oven.  When done, they still look slightly underbaked but a toothpick or knife inserted into a cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when poked (do this gently.  hot batter burns).  Bake them too long or too hot and they get dry and moist cupcakes are awesome.  While the cupcakes are baking you have a perfect chance to start making frostings!


While I didn't take pictures of the frosting making process, I know the recipes I used.  I made a pretty basic chocolate ganache and a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting.

For the ganache, I used a pound of good chocolate and a cup of heavy cream I used bittersweet chocolate since I like the taste but you can use milk or even white chocolate depending on what you're going for.  I set the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, and put it aside.  I then brought the cup of milk up to a simmer on the stove, pulled it off the heat, and poured it over the chocolate chips.  Let it sit for 4 or 5 minutes, then whisk whisk whisk and you have a beautiful ganache.  If you let it cool to room temperature it'll be spreadable like frosting, if you let it cool then throw it in the mixer it'll whip up even lighter and fluffier.  Of course I did neither of these. I left mine liquidy and just dipped the cupcakes head first into the frosting as kind of a glaze.

I decorated the top with these delicious chocolate crunch pearls, but you don't need to.  use sprinkles or candies or sugar, or even leave them plain.  I just like the texture the crunchy pearls provide. Yum!


The other frosting I made may have been a little more complicated, but not much.  I threw 2 parts room temperature cream cheese and 1 part soften but not melted butter into a mixer and whisked it till light and fluffy.  Then I scraped a vanilla bean and added that to the mix.  When the vanilla bean was well incorporated, I added sifted powdered sugar.  I didn't measure the powdered sugar (bad blogger, I know) but I pretty much add it to taste, and I like a tangy frosting so I didn't add that much. When the frosting was whipped and sweetened to the texture and flavor I like, I scooped it into a piping bag and piped pretty swirls of frosting onto the cakes.

All the cupcakes were frosted and I figured I was done. But then I realized I wanted to add something a little more decorative to the cupcakes since they were a special order for someone I liked and all.  So I added some pretty gold chocolate candies I got in Paris (like the best m&m's in the world) to the top, and viola! even prettier cupcakes!.  

Coming up, some healthier stuff. And some naughty baking stuff as well!

Fajitas!

So the other day, I decided that it was fajita time.  Why? They're heavy on the veggies and low on the cost.  Skirt steak is cheap, veggies are relatively cheap so it works. I also keep it healthy while avoiding the cheese, sour cream, and guacamole (yes, yes, I'm a heathen) and using just a little bit of rice instead of a big ass flour tortilla.  So yeah. the point of this rambling is that I made fajitas, and they were gooooood.

To start with I made a marinade, one that I borrowed from Alton Brown and twisted around to suit my needs.  I made the marinade in the morning before one of my classes and left the meat in the refrigerator till it was time to cook dinner. . . So anyway, marinade time. As Alton Brown (my husband in a next life) suggests, I did the marinade in a blender all quick and easy style. 

So yeah, as you can see, the marinade is pretty basic.  Take everything and throw it in a blender, zip it, pour it into a ziploc bag, squeeze all the air out, and let the meat chill until you're ready to cook, somewhere between an hour and a day. It doesn't matter really.

Ingredients

1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
big dash of Worcestershire sauce
4 scallions, washed and cut in half
1/4 red onion
2 large cloves garlic
1/4 cup lime or lemon juice (I mix both)
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons dark-brown sugar or Mexican brown sugar

The meat in the marinade isn't the prettiest, but fuck, it tastes good, and really, that's whats important.   When I got home from class, I threw some rice in the rice cooker--I love rice under my fajitas, and prepped up some veggies.

For veggies, I used some stuff I had in the refrigerator--peppers and onions, as is traditional, and mushrooms, since I like them and they're so good with beef.  I used quite a few veggies and not as much meat as you see at a Mexican joint to keep things healthy, and I cooked a ton. Why? reheated fajitas are good for lunch and dinners, cold fajita fixings over salad are really good.  So I cut a ton of veggies into nice little pieces (strips for the peppers and onions as is traditional, and slices for the mushrooms. just cuz.Oh, I also pulled the meat out of the refrigerator at that point and let it come back to room temperature before cooking.

Traditionally, fajita meat is grilled, but I chose to stay inside and use a cast iron skillet. I added just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan, and let it come up till it was screaming hot, the oil was kinda shimmering on the bottom, but not quite letting the oil smoke. Because that makes things taste funky.

Once the pan was searingly hot I pulled the meat out of the marinade, dried it a little, and threw it in the pan to let it sear. You want the pan super hot to get a good sear on the meat.  Once both sides are seared, take the meat out and set it aside. You're gonna cook all the veggies right in that good meaty marinade-y pan so they pick up all kinds of nice flavors.  I did the veggies half at a time.  By not crowding the pan, all the veggies get a nice brown on them without really steaming too much.  First, I threw the onions in the pan, let them cook till soft, then added the mushrooms, let them brown a little, then added the peppers. they cook the quickest.

Once the veggies were cooked, I sliced the skirt steak, which had been resting all quietly on my butcher block, and added it back into the pan. Why? the meat was totally rare  inside. Now I love my good rare meat, but skirt steak does better a little more cooked.  I kept it pretty much medium rare though.   Also cooking them again put a lot more of a crusty edge on the meat, and I love the crunchy bits.

And with that, my fajitas were done. These are pretty good on a tortilla with sour cream and guacamole, but I like them over rice, so I did that. and they were gooooood.

These were the best post-finals comfort meal I had last week, in the midst of finals hell. But yeah, they're pretty good the rest of the time too. I just happened to make them during finals time and they rocked me a little then.

ok, quickie fajita post done. . . coming up this week we've got mini posts on chicken salad and fruit salad and some baking goodness. yummm.

When life gives you cherries. . . .

It's time for cherry pie! Cherry pie and I have a hardcore love/hate relationship. A really good, flavorful, juicy cherry pie (preferably served warm with ice cream)  is heaven.  But so many cherry pies have neon-colored gummy over-processed fillings and those really don't rock me at all.  I can make good cherry pie. Here's how I do it. 

First, buy cherries. If you can find fresh or frozen sour cherries, that's awesome. My mom made cherry pie with good Michigan sour cherries and it was heaven.  But here on the west coast, sour cherries are hard to find, so I went with good dark Bing cherries. I got them home and tied on an apron. Pie time! (sorry, mom. not the politest of aprons)

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  First, I made the crust, because my crusts like to sit in the refrigerator for a while, both before and after rolling them out.  Here's my recipe--Sort of. I base mine on a ratio instead of actual measurements---2 parts flour, 1 part good, high butterfat butter, some salt, some sugar, and enough water to bring the mixture together.   This varies by day, depending on humidity as much as anything else.


I was making enough crust for three pies, so I used 2 pounds of flour, 1 pound of COLD cubed butter, a large handful of sugar, and a palmful of salt.  I know the last two aren't so specific, but they work for me. When making crust I almost always make a lot. It freezes forever, and it's nice to have crust  on hand for a last minute dessert, quiche, or tart.

So, I combined the dry ingredients, then put the pieces of butter into the bowl.  I cut the butter into the dry mixture with a bench scraper at first, then use my hands (the best tool on earth) to finish combining them.  I start with the bench scraper (you can also use forks, knives, or a pastry cutter) to keep the butter cool for as long as possible.   I worked the butter into the flour until the pieces of butter ranged between pea and walnut sized.  It won't be evenly mixed at all but those chunks of butter are important to achieve a  flaky crust. 

Once the pastry is combined that much (see the picture above right), it is time to add icy cold water to the mixture. I never actually add ice, as the ice chips melt in the baking process and sometimes leave bald spots in the crust where they were, but i use very cold water. It helps to keep the butter from melting, which, once again, makes for that flaky crust.   Once the crust has come together in a sort of shaggy lump (you want it to feel a little dry)  divide it up and chill it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

While the dough is refrigerating, you have the perfect time to start the filling.  In the filling, I use:

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 cups whole pitted sour cherries or dark sweet cherries (about 2 pounds whole unpitted cherries)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if using sour cherries) or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (if using dark sweet cherries)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Sour-Cherry-Pie-with-Lattice-Crust-242514#ixzz0pkhdsiRt

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 cups whole pitted sour cherries or dark sweet cherries (about 2 pounds whole unpitted cherries)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if using sour cherries) or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (if using dark sweet cherries)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Sour-Cherry-Pie-with-Lattice-Crust-242514#ixzz0pkhdsiRt

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 cups whole pitted sour cherries or dark sweet cherries (about 2 pounds whole unpitted cherries)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if using sour cherries) or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (if using dark sweet cherries)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Sour-Cherry-Pie-with-Lattice-Crust-242514#ixzz0pkhdsiRt

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 cups whole pitted sour cherries or dark sweet cherries (about 2 pounds whole unpitted cherries)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if using sour cherries) or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (if using dark sweet cherries)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Sour-Cherry-Pie-with-Lattice-Crust-242514#ixzz0pkhdsiRt

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 cups whole pitted sour cherries or dark sweet cherries (about 2 pounds whole unpitted cherries)

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (if using sour cherries) or 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (if using dark sweet cherries)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Sour-Cherry-Pie-with-Lattice-Crust-242514#ixzz0pkhdsiRt

5 cups pitted cherries (about 2 pounds of whole, unpitted cherries)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons lemon juice (for Bing cherries) or 1 teaspoon lemon juice (for sour cherries)
1 teaspoon almond extract
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon

With fresh cherries, the bulk of the work on the filling is pitting the cherries. there are a few different kinds of cherry pitters on the market.  I use a pretty basic one. I was making 2 pies, and it took about 30 minutes to pit the cherries, 1 at a time.  I'm pretty sure I put something trashy on tv while doing the pitting. For me, bad tv makes tasks like pitting cherries and folding laundry (the bane of my existence) go a little faster.

With the cherries all pitted, i threw all the other ingredients for the filling into the bowl with the cherries. Sometimes I use some nutmeg or cinnamon in the pie but the cherries were so good and fresh this time around that i decided not to. Spices can be overpowering. 

With everything in the bowl, all I had to do to finish the filling was toss everything together. Uncooked, it looks a little milky because of the cornstarch, but even raw it tastes SO good.

With the filling all done, I pulled the crusts out of the refrigerator and rolled them out.  I flour my butcher block and roll straight on that, but some would say that rolling between sheets of parchment paper, wax paper, or even plastic wrap is easier.  Whatever. They all work. Just use enough flour that the crust doesn't stick to whatever you're rolling it on and you're good.  Look how flaky the crust is around the edges!

Once the pans were filled, I stashed them in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then added the filling and went to work on the lattice top.  I'm a big fan of lattice topped pies. I think they're pretty, especially when the filling bubbles over the lattice, and have a nice, homey look.  But like with any pie, a regular closed top works too.

My mom taught me how to weave a lattice top really young, and the way she taught me has stuck with me. I learned different techniques to make a lattice in different places but I'm pretty sure this is the easiest, prettiest way. To make it look more intricate, use thinner strips. to make it easy on yourself, use big thick ones.

Step one-  Cut the strips.  Now obviously, they weren't perfectly straight. You can cut along a ruler to get perfectly straight strips, but I love the homey look of slightly uneven strips.  I try to make sure that the strips are all long enough to go across the pie.

Step 2- lay the two longest strips across the pie, one on top of another. You can do this perfectly perpendicular or on any kind of angle, depending on what shape you want the openings to be.  Doing it on a slight diagonal is super pretty.

Step 3 through however many strips you have.  Weave. I think just about everyone I know had to do some sort of weaving project in elementary school.  You know, you alternate strips going over and under. The trick with the pie crust is handling it gently, folding back the strips that are going over instead of trying to tuck the strips under. it just works better.

Once you have all the weaving done, you trim the edges.  I leave about  3/4 of an inch of overhang on the bottom crust, less on the top, and fold the bottom layer over the messier lattice edges to make a neat crust. In this case I did a traditional epi edge (French for wheat stalk).  It isn't something you see a whole ton in this country, but I think it's pretty so I went there. Plus, It gives  me little burnt end bits which I love.

Once my pies were all assembled, I refrigerated them for about an hour. Ok, lets be real. I stuck them in the freezer for about an hour. I am not a patient person.   I baked the pie at 425 for about 15 minutes, then lowered the oven temperature to 350 and baked for about an hour.

For me the pie is done when the filling that bubbles up through the holes is gelling and not watery anymore. 

Perfect--Hot pie with vanilla Ice cream.