Shake and Bake…

- Elspeth 1 Comment

..some cake! I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with baked goods lately. We (Lo-lo and I) had a delightful yellow cake from Alice Waters (1234 cake) that had a layer of snickerdoodles baked into the center.


That was topped with a cinnamon swiss meringue buttercream and a whole lot of love for the birthday girl and boy: Shannon and Alex!

The cookie-inside-cake theme was one we used to do at the greatest place on earth: The ASUCD Coffeehouse.

Any time you have student labor, you will inevitably have mistakes (especially when dealing with hot ovens and hungover employees). So, the brilliant idea was to turn those mistakes into magically delicious pieces of craftsmanship. If a tray of cookies was over/under done but still salvageable, we would crumble the pieces and layer them into cake batter. My favorite was always the snickerdoodle cake; it was the kind of cake you’d write home about.

My version:
Cake: Alice Water’s 1234 cake (absolutely amazing cake, you MUST try it!)
Snickerdoodles: courtesy of Ms. Lauren Woods
Frosting: Martha Stewart’s Swiss Meringue Buttercream, add 2 t cinnamon (I love the texture of this frosting; it’s very light and fluffy, but beware: it has ONE POUND OF BUTTER in it. 4 sticks. 2 cups. However you want to cut it, that’s a LOT of fatty goodness. We used to make it at the CoHo with American Buttercream, which is mostly powdered sugar with enough butter and milk to moisten it. Very delicious)

For the next birthday I decided to go further with this theme, but to mix it up a little. And along came…

No, not a VW Bug. A chocolate cake with a layer of molasses cookies, topped with cream-cheese ginger frosting. It tasted like gingerbread cake and was pretty deeeelicious. Dear Leslie piped the car onto the top for her Dad, who is a major car fanatic. Those little “tires” are actually candied ginger pieces– major noms!
Cake recipe: Cook’s illustrated, Devil’s Food cake
Molasses cookies: courtesy of Bakesale Betty’s
Frosting: Cook’s Illustrated, added 1 t crushed ginger and 1 t powdered ginger

The coup de grace was my most recent endeavor:

A Turtle Cake.

This cake was very fun to craft. I had heard of Turtle Cake before, but decided to go with my own interpretation of one of my Mom’s favorite treats:

chocolate turtles. After some cogitation, I decided on caramel cake and caramel buttercream with a layer of pecans in the middle. The top was then drizzled with chocolate ganache and the leftover caramel sauce I made for the frosting.

Cake recipe: Betty Crocker’s Caramel Cake
Frosting: Martha Stewart’s Caramel buttercream (a bit tricky to make the caramel sauce for this one; might be best to buy some at the store. The sauce must be thick but very pliable and “flowy” at room temperature, or else your buttercream will cause it to harden into a mass of sugary uselessness. Smucker’s brand is a good choice).
Chocolate ganache: The best cupcake blogI’ve ever seen, by Chockylit.

Diabetic noms!

Pork Shoulder Ragu

- Elspeth 3 Comments

I am fairly intimidated by sauces of almost any variety. So when my friend David made a delicious pork shoulder sauce with what seemed to be minimal trouble and intelligence (just kidding, David. You can untwist your panties now), I got inspired. I got excited. I got…

…Slabs of meat! These piglets became a hearty Pork and wine sauce, stew, type thing. This has to simmer for several hours, so make sure you allot an appropriate amount of time for it or else it won’t meld properly.

You will need:

1 medium onion
Olive oil
1 large leek
2+ lbs pork shoulder
3/4 c flour
S+P
1+cup red table wine (and yes, that is the cheapest Italian table wine I could possibly find. Thank you for asking)
3 T tomato paste
1/3 c tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes
1 c chx stock
chili flakes
1 Bay leaf
3 fresh basil leaves
Polenta or pasta, for serving
Parmigiano cheese, for serving

Finely chop your onion and add to a hot (medium heat) dutch oven or cast-iron pan with enough oil to thoroughly coat the bottom.

I must say I did a smashing job chopping this onion. Usually I’m a total spaz when I have to chop things into small, uniform shapes. I must have been channeling someone on Adderall.

Cut the green parts of the leek off and discard:

Finely chop and rinse very, very thoroughly. Leeks are pretty filthy when you shed the layers, so make sure you’re not too focused on the Tyra Show whilst performing this chore.

Stir up the onions, and when they look like this:

ie, soft and translucent, add the leeks.

Turn the heat to medium low, but stir frequently while you’re preparing the pork.

Oink!

Prepare these puppies by trimming the fat and cubing them into whatever “bite-size” is to you.

This takes awhile, since fat is a real SOB to get off the meat. I found that I fared better sometimes when I scraped with my knife instead of cut. When you’ve got a nice pile of porky goodness, prepare a separate pan with some oil and place over medium high heat.

Place flour in a wide, shallow bowl with a bunch of salt and pepper (approx 1 t each). Coat your meat chunks thoroughly and shake any excess flour off before adding it in batches to the hot pan.

Brown it on both sides, then add to the onion/leek mixture (which you should be stirring periodically and keeping over low heat!).

I had to do three batches to get all of the pork browned and added to the pot. When it was done, the leek/onion mixture was very soft and fragrant, but not brown. It’s very important to stir this periodically and to add enough oil initially, or else it will burn.

Push everything to the side and slowly add the wine, scraping any brown bits from the bottom of the pan as it deglazes.

Add the tomato paste

And give it a good stir:

It’s going to be very thick because of the paste and flour, so add the chicken stock and tomato sauce to ensure it doesn’t burn:

I had some stock frozen, which is why it is in a solid state….

You should also throw in some extra salt, pepper, the chili flakes, and bay leaf.

Now comes the magical part. Turn this down to low and cover, letting it simmer for a few hours. You will need to stir it frequently, or else it will stick and burn on the bottom. It will start to smell absolutely fantastic and look better and better.

Feel free to add more wine, tomato sauce, stock, whatever suites your fancy. I found myself adding dashes of things here and there, depending on how the flavor was moving along. And let me tell you….it turned out simply magical!

I cooked up some polenta to go with this pile o’pork.

I love this stuff and feel that it was a creamy, more comforting alternative than pasta. Polenta is also a great way to “hide” healthy bits of nom without your guests being any the wiser. Pureed spinach, some flax meal, or fresh arugula stirred in would be magnificent additions.

We enjoyed this with a nice salad and a fabulous carrot cake, baked up by my friend Adriana (she’s the real deal, peeps. Culinary school grad, woot woot!). It was all amazing, so dive in!

NOM…..nom….

Creamy Pea Pasta

- Elspeth Leave a comment

It may sound stupid, but it is so good. Giada gave it some other name, but let’s face it: mine is better.

Italian Sausage, sweet peas, and mascarpone pasta. Boom goes the dynamite.

Normally, I give Giada a wide berth because, to be honest, she’s kind of special (as in special needs). And I don’t mean that she’s stupid, she just sounds really, really dumb walking around in her American clothing spouting off about Italian food. Perhaps I subconsciously dislike her because of her giant head, which sits atop a dainty little figure like some sort of unrealistic Barbie doll (the guidette version).

But really I think it’s because of the way she pronounces every. single. syllable. in any Italian word that comes up during her shows. I’m sorry, but I can’t take you seriously when you’re describing the fantastic way that paaaaRRRRmmehhGIannno crumbles and are yelling it condescendingly in my direction.

Not to continue on too much in this negative direction, but it also gets my goat that her cake recipes often go like this:
1 stick butter
1 cup sugar
1 box cake mix….

…what? You’re an acclaimed chef and you’re telling me to make a cake from a box? Shut the front door.

Enough of that bad-mouthing; she does have some great recipes, the following included. Hers comes with ricotta instead of mascarpone and calls for spicy sausage, but I just wanted to be different and went with the following:

You will need:
1 bunch basil
1 pound pasta
8 oz mascarpone cheese (sub ricotta or cream cheese)
1 lb sweet or mild italian sausage
1 lb frozen peas, rinsed and mostly thawed
3-4 cloves garlic
1 t olive oil
1/4 c half-n-half
1/2 c parmigiano cheese (pronounce however you gosh darn please)
1 bunch asparagus, rinsed and woody part trimmed off
S+P

Put a pot of water on to boil, heavily salted.
Chop up your garlic

And get it going in a pan over medium heat with the oil. Once fragrant, add the sausage and brown,

breaking it up into small pieces with a wooden spoon. While that browns, shred your cheese

and finely chop the basil into shreds:

Basil is a very sensitive herb and can bruise very easily, so don’t abuse it too much or else everyone at the table will know what you’ve done. Once the water boils, toss the asparagus in for about 4-5 minutes, or until desired doneness. Remove it with tongs, then add the pasta with some more salt.

Your sausage should be almost done at this point, so you’re ready to add the peas. Scoot the sausage over in the pan and throw in the green pods. Now mash them all up with the back of the spoon or a potato masher.

Turn the heat off and add the mascarpone and half-n-half.

Stir it all together until the cheese has melted into a saucy deliciousness. Drain the pasta (if done, silly!) and place back in the pot. Add your sauce, shredded cheese, basil, and S+P to the pot and stir gently.

Daintily prepare your serving bowl with a heaping portion of yum and a side of asparagus.

And you’ve got yourself a tasty meal! I finished this off with some Lemon Lavender bars with Macadamia nut crust, which are my Lemon Bars with the addition of 1 T Lavender in the crust and a handful of pureed nuts. Very tasty, if I do say so myself!

The dish was very creamy and delightful. Feel free to reserve some of the pasta water to add to the sauce, or just throw in some extra 1/2 and 1/2. If you want extra smooth, puree the peas with the half n half before adding it to the pot!

nommynomnoms