A few days ago there were piles of lovely looking blackberries at the 99. Since I had to do snack for my daughter's hula class, I thought I could use them for something. Doing snack for hula is usually pretty fun -- the snacks parents bring range from a full on dinner with birthday cake and pasta salad to a simple offering of caffeinated Coke and Cheetos. I do try to bring snack that adds up to something relatively healthful, or if not that, at least home made.
The little cakes I made are based on a great cake recipe found by an old family friend in the New York Times, a traditional Italian Plum Cake. Apparently, so the story goes, for years people would write in asking for this recipe (which is insanely easy and delicious) and the NYT would spit and moan and say, 'hey everybody this is the last time we are printing this recipe!" I can say quite literally that every single time I have made this cake and fed it to people, I get lots of compliments. And there's never any left over.
Normally it's made in a 8" springform pan, but this time I made it in cupcake tins because I thought that would be a bit neater for the kids. It worked out well because I'm a person who likes the crusty bits of any baked thing.
This cake, or these cakelets, are good with just about any kind of fresh fruit and many kinds of frozen or canned fruit. I've done it with fresh apples, canned cherries, fresh pears, frozen bags of mixed berries. All of them good.
The recipe.
Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour your pan very very very generously. (You might even want to line the bottom with waxed paper or parchment if you're feeling fancy. Put the pan on top of the paper, trace around the pan's bottom, cut out the circle, stick it in the bottom of the pan. Good activity for a child who wants to be helpful and who you don't want to get messy.)
Ingredients
1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1teaspoon baking powder
1 dash cinnamon (optional)
fruit -- enough to cover the top of the cake generously (1 can of cherry pie filling; two ripe pears or apples; 1 pint fresh raspberries or blackberries, you get the idea)
Cream the butter with the sugar, add the vanilla and beat in the eggs. Get the mixture all nice and light and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. The dough is wonderfully sticky and thick which means there's plenty to lick off the beaters unless you are OCD about cleaning the beaters off with a spatula. (But why would you clean the beaters with a spatula when you, your kid or your dog can lick them clean perfectly well? After that, of course, I do suggest a wash in hot soapy water.)
Plop the batter into the pan, spread it pretty much to the sides, toss or lay the fruit on top depending on your mood and/or schedule. Sprinkle a little more sugar on the top and a squeeze of lemon if you've got it.
For the cupcakes, it makes exactly a dozen. Don't fill the cups up too high!
Bake about 1 hour. Sides should be nice and brown and slightly pulling away from the pan. It is nearly impossible to overcook this cake but do try to avoid it. Let cool before trying to remove from baking container. If you cannot wait or won't wait, be prepared for a falling apart cake that still tastes awfully good.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Doctor Ramen
Knowing how to doctor your ramen is a great skill to have under your belt. At the 99, ramen is six for 99 which isn't the cheapest you can get it, but it's convenient and I've utterly given up scouring the sale flyers in the Sunday paper because inevitably I end up wanting to buy all this crap I really don't want to buy, so I end up spending more than if I'd just go to the 99 and get the ramen for 16 cents apiece rather than 10 cents apiece somewhere else on a good day. I'd say I have a big bowl of ramen for lunch about three times a week, and with all the variations, I can get it to taste and look different enough every time that I'm not bored.
First bit of advice: either don't use the flavor packet at all or only use half of it, mostly because the flavor packet is so full of msg and other gunk that it's not that good for you.
I always add:
about a tablespoon of soy
teaspoon of cider vinegar
teaspoon of sesame oil
hot sauce
You could also try:
fish sauce
mustard
miso paste
These items perk up the soupy part and starts the project of making the ramen taste fresh rather than off the shelf. Adding other fresh (or frozen) stuff, so that the ramen begins to resemble, say, a big bowl of ramen you might order at the noodle shop, is also key. Adding vegetables, eggs, tofu or whatever also makes it a really much healthier meal. Plain ramen out of the package is sortof filling but doesn't have much nutritional value.
A big handful of frozen mixed vegetables alone will bring a bowl of ramen to life.
The 99 also has these great jars of pickled vegetables: asparagus, carrots, hot peppers, green beans -- chop these up and throw them on top of the noodles. Some blanched broccoli is always good, but don't try to cook it right in the soup because it's impossible to get the noodles and the broccoli to both come out well. If I'm feeling really environmentally responsible what I do is heat up the ramen water, blanch the broccoli in it, then remove the broccoli and put the ramen noodles in there. It's also better for you since there's a lot of vitamins in the broccoli water (aka 'pot liquor'). This would work for any fresh vegetable like a carrot, that needs some cooking before going into the ramen bowl.
Egg is another thing that's really good to add, and it's pretty nutritious to boot. You can hard boil and slice it on the top, slip it raw into the hot soup on the stove and poach it in there, or break it into the soup and stir it around so the broth goes all foggy.
Sprinkle freshly chopped scallions on the top.
I have friends who swear uncooked ramen makes a great crunchy snack. Sounds awful to me, but then again, I haven't tried it.
First bit of advice: either don't use the flavor packet at all or only use half of it, mostly because the flavor packet is so full of msg and other gunk that it's not that good for you.
I always add:
about a tablespoon of soy
teaspoon of cider vinegar
teaspoon of sesame oil
hot sauce
You could also try:
fish sauce
mustard
miso paste
These items perk up the soupy part and starts the project of making the ramen taste fresh rather than off the shelf. Adding other fresh (or frozen) stuff, so that the ramen begins to resemble, say, a big bowl of ramen you might order at the noodle shop, is also key. Adding vegetables, eggs, tofu or whatever also makes it a really much healthier meal. Plain ramen out of the package is sortof filling but doesn't have much nutritional value.
A big handful of frozen mixed vegetables alone will bring a bowl of ramen to life.
The 99 also has these great jars of pickled vegetables: asparagus, carrots, hot peppers, green beans -- chop these up and throw them on top of the noodles. Some blanched broccoli is always good, but don't try to cook it right in the soup because it's impossible to get the noodles and the broccoli to both come out well. If I'm feeling really environmentally responsible what I do is heat up the ramen water, blanch the broccoli in it, then remove the broccoli and put the ramen noodles in there. It's also better for you since there's a lot of vitamins in the broccoli water (aka 'pot liquor'). This would work for any fresh vegetable like a carrot, that needs some cooking before going into the ramen bowl.
Egg is another thing that's really good to add, and it's pretty nutritious to boot. You can hard boil and slice it on the top, slip it raw into the hot soup on the stove and poach it in there, or break it into the soup and stir it around so the broth goes all foggy.
Sprinkle freshly chopped scallions on the top.
I have friends who swear uncooked ramen makes a great crunchy snack. Sounds awful to me, but then again, I haven't tried it.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Getting started
Yesterday I took a good look at my finances and faced the fact that I'm spending a little more than I make. It's not so much gas prices and the rising price of wheat and rice, I'd say the problem is that my daughter has decided she wants to be a figure skater. Why couldn't she have taken up a less expensive sport, something like running, which doesn't require competition dresses covered in Swarovski crystals? The bottom line is, I can't pay for everything I'm buying. So, I got off Ebay first of all. Then I went shopping at the 99 cent store. I didn't go there with the intention of coming out with the makings of a great dinner, but when I realized that -- well -- I had the makings of a great dinner in my basket, I thought, "here's a great project"!
We could call it the 'let's make penury fun' project, or maybe the 'creativity with fiscal responsibility' project. It boils down to this -- it gives me some structure and something to fool around with while I try to whittle down those credit card bills.
A project like this needs a few rules and guidelines, I'm guessing. One rule is that everything has to be available at the 99 cent store, except for a basic list of pantry items. Lots of the basics are available at the 99 cent store, actually: milk, butter, eggs, olive oil, soy sauce, various hot sauces, all of them on the shelves. I'll allow fresh cuts of meat, too, since that can't be had at the 99 cent store, but since I'm leaning back toward a vegetarian diet, I'm thinking I won't be cooking much meat in any case. Since I do a lot of Chinese cooking, or at least Chinese-inspired cooking I'm putting on my pantry list at least the following:
sesame oil
tabasco
garlic
fresh cilantro
fresh ginger
cider vinegar
tofu
Also some of the very basics:
flour
rice
baking powder
And because I'm not a professional cook and because I'm doing this on the fly, I am giving myself permission to add ingredients to the pantry later. The other principle I'm working with is that the food should be easy to make, not fussy, and very good to eat.
There was a lot of fresh produce at the 99 cent store today and I picked up the following fresh goodies: pasilla chiles, baby yellow squash, big crisp green scallions, artichokes, broccoli, several plantains and a bag of limes. The total I spent was $23, but I'd also gotten a bunch portable flashlights and other random items -- I think in terms of dinner ingredients, I spent $7. I'll feed my boyfriend and myself tonight, and there will be plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. We're not big sweet eaters, so there's no dessert planned.
Basically, I might characterize the theme of the meal as a cross between Mediterranean and Caribbean. If I wrote it out menu-wise I guess it would look like this:
Steamed artichokes with lime mayonnaise (or lime butter)
Grilled vegetables with black bean dip
Pita bread
Fried Plantains
I'm steaming the artichokes which will be sort of appetizer-y, to eat with mayonnaise with lime juice mixed in. Or butter with lime juice mixed in. I say "sort of appetizer-y" because my plan is really just to put all of the food out on the table and we'll eat our way through it in whatever order we feel like. The main course is bunch of grilled vegetables to eat at room temperature, and along with that a black bean dip. We'll scoop up dip with triangles of pita bread, also from the 99 cent store, and also eat some fried plantains, a food that I can never get enough of. I would eat a dinner of fried plantains alone, if left to my own devices.
Grilled Vegetables
These are indoor grilled vegetables, which I do by putting a cast iron skillet on high heat, adding a tad of olive oil, and then throwing stuff into the pan. Turning on the exhaust fan is really important here. I grilled the squash and the scallions. Slice whatever it is if it needs slicing -- in this case the squash -- and then just put it in the pan and leave it there basically waaaaaay longer than you think you really should. I'm the sort of person who likes food kindof burnt black, so I often leave the room for relatively long periods of time while grilling vegetables, do some work, read some newspaper, water the back yard. The scallions just get so good when you really let them get all crinkled up, they start smelling jammy and less oniony.
The pasilla chiles need to be singed right over the flame -- I like to put an oven rack I saved from an old toaster oven on top of the grate on the stove so the chiles aren't always falling into the flames. Nothing could be much easier -- the chiles just need to be on the flame until the skin is black and blistery all over (turning them using chopsticks is a good idea) and then thrown into a paper bag for a while, with the top smooshed down so they'll steam just a little. Then pull the chiles out, rub the skin off, and slice the flesh of the chile into strips. Onto the plate with the squash and the scallions.
For the black bean dip:
A 29 oz can black beans
garlic
olive oil
lime juice
salt
pepper
Drain the liquid off the beans. I chopped up three fat cloves of garlic and threw them in the food processor, added the beans, put in about two tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of three limes, and some salt and pepper. Whooosh around until smooth ish, and done. I probably would have added a bunch of Tabasco but I didn't have any in the house. I made this on the early side, thinking that it will taste best when it's had a little time to 'get to know itself' as a friend of mine says.
Fried plantains are easy -- as much as a person might not want to, the key is to fry them twice. Sometimes you have to cut the peel off a plantain, especially when they are green which is how I like them. It's good to slice them into pieces that are not too thick, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch -- diagonal slices work well. Vegetable oil heated in a skillet, not too deep on the oil, fry the pieces a few minutes on each side till they seem cooked through, then take 'em out and put them on a paper bag or paper towel or something else that will soak up grease. Do little batches till they're finished. Next, you squash the fried pieces -- there actually are special instruments for this but I use the bottom of a glass. You're not trying to squash them flat, just put the bottom of the glass on top of the plantain pieces and sort of mash them down till they're flatter than they were before, then put them back in the oil, frying until crispy and brownish. For the two of us, I'll make two plantains. I have another saved for tomorrow.
It's nearly six, the vegetables are all finished, and the bean dip is getting to know itself. I haven't started the plantains yet since those just have to be eaten hot. Adrian and I are supposed to go do a dog walk up in the park and down to the arroyo -- only there's a strange storm that's coming through complete with a thunder and a tornado and a flash flood warning, so I'm wondering what our walk might look like. No arroyo for us today.
We could call it the 'let's make penury fun' project, or maybe the 'creativity with fiscal responsibility' project. It boils down to this -- it gives me some structure and something to fool around with while I try to whittle down those credit card bills.
A project like this needs a few rules and guidelines, I'm guessing. One rule is that everything has to be available at the 99 cent store, except for a basic list of pantry items. Lots of the basics are available at the 99 cent store, actually: milk, butter, eggs, olive oil, soy sauce, various hot sauces, all of them on the shelves. I'll allow fresh cuts of meat, too, since that can't be had at the 99 cent store, but since I'm leaning back toward a vegetarian diet, I'm thinking I won't be cooking much meat in any case. Since I do a lot of Chinese cooking, or at least Chinese-inspired cooking I'm putting on my pantry list at least the following:
sesame oil
tabasco
garlic
fresh cilantro
fresh ginger
cider vinegar
tofu
Also some of the very basics:
flour
rice
baking powder
And because I'm not a professional cook and because I'm doing this on the fly, I am giving myself permission to add ingredients to the pantry later. The other principle I'm working with is that the food should be easy to make, not fussy, and very good to eat.
There was a lot of fresh produce at the 99 cent store today and I picked up the following fresh goodies: pasilla chiles, baby yellow squash, big crisp green scallions, artichokes, broccoli, several plantains and a bag of limes. The total I spent was $23, but I'd also gotten a bunch portable flashlights and other random items -- I think in terms of dinner ingredients, I spent $7. I'll feed my boyfriend and myself tonight, and there will be plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. We're not big sweet eaters, so there's no dessert planned.
Basically, I might characterize the theme of the meal as a cross between Mediterranean and Caribbean. If I wrote it out menu-wise I guess it would look like this:
Steamed artichokes with lime mayonnaise (or lime butter)
Grilled vegetables with black bean dip
Pita bread
Fried Plantains
I'm steaming the artichokes which will be sort of appetizer-y, to eat with mayonnaise with lime juice mixed in. Or butter with lime juice mixed in. I say "sort of appetizer-y" because my plan is really just to put all of the food out on the table and we'll eat our way through it in whatever order we feel like. The main course is bunch of grilled vegetables to eat at room temperature, and along with that a black bean dip. We'll scoop up dip with triangles of pita bread, also from the 99 cent store, and also eat some fried plantains, a food that I can never get enough of. I would eat a dinner of fried plantains alone, if left to my own devices.
Grilled Vegetables
These are indoor grilled vegetables, which I do by putting a cast iron skillet on high heat, adding a tad of olive oil, and then throwing stuff into the pan. Turning on the exhaust fan is really important here. I grilled the squash and the scallions. Slice whatever it is if it needs slicing -- in this case the squash -- and then just put it in the pan and leave it there basically waaaaaay longer than you think you really should. I'm the sort of person who likes food kindof burnt black, so I often leave the room for relatively long periods of time while grilling vegetables, do some work, read some newspaper, water the back yard. The scallions just get so good when you really let them get all crinkled up, they start smelling jammy and less oniony.
The pasilla chiles need to be singed right over the flame -- I like to put an oven rack I saved from an old toaster oven on top of the grate on the stove so the chiles aren't always falling into the flames. Nothing could be much easier -- the chiles just need to be on the flame until the skin is black and blistery all over (turning them using chopsticks is a good idea) and then thrown into a paper bag for a while, with the top smooshed down so they'll steam just a little. Then pull the chiles out, rub the skin off, and slice the flesh of the chile into strips. Onto the plate with the squash and the scallions.
For the black bean dip:
A 29 oz can black beans
garlic
olive oil
lime juice
salt
pepper
Drain the liquid off the beans. I chopped up three fat cloves of garlic and threw them in the food processor, added the beans, put in about two tablespoons of olive oil, the juice of three limes, and some salt and pepper. Whooosh around until smooth ish, and done. I probably would have added a bunch of Tabasco but I didn't have any in the house. I made this on the early side, thinking that it will taste best when it's had a little time to 'get to know itself' as a friend of mine says.
Fried plantains are easy -- as much as a person might not want to, the key is to fry them twice. Sometimes you have to cut the peel off a plantain, especially when they are green which is how I like them. It's good to slice them into pieces that are not too thick, maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch -- diagonal slices work well. Vegetable oil heated in a skillet, not too deep on the oil, fry the pieces a few minutes on each side till they seem cooked through, then take 'em out and put them on a paper bag or paper towel or something else that will soak up grease. Do little batches till they're finished. Next, you squash the fried pieces -- there actually are special instruments for this but I use the bottom of a glass. You're not trying to squash them flat, just put the bottom of the glass on top of the plantain pieces and sort of mash them down till they're flatter than they were before, then put them back in the oil, frying until crispy and brownish. For the two of us, I'll make two plantains. I have another saved for tomorrow.
It's nearly six, the vegetables are all finished, and the bean dip is getting to know itself. I haven't started the plantains yet since those just have to be eaten hot. Adrian and I are supposed to go do a dog walk up in the park and down to the arroyo -- only there's a strange storm that's coming through complete with a thunder and a tornado and a flash flood warning, so I'm wondering what our walk might look like. No arroyo for us today.
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