Cooking Books

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Soup

2009-11-21T17:47:00.004-05:00

Hey there! Have you missed me? Have you even noticed I've been gone? I have two and a half weeks left until my oral exam, and am in full freak-out mode. It's not a pretty sight. I don't think you need the details.

So if you think you haven't heard from me lately, you might be hearing from me even less from now until December 10th. But, you know, there are always the archives. Oh, and I have this super easy Pumpkin Soup to help tide you over. Want some?

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Soup

From The Vegan Table

3 tablespoons water, or more as needed

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

2 cups vegetable stock

1, 15 oz. can pumpkin purée

2 tablespoons real maple syrup

Juice of 1/2 lemon

2 cups milk (non-dairy if you want to keep it Vegan)

Salt, to taste

Parsley, for garnish if you want

Preheat the water in a soup pot and add the onion and garlic. Cook over medium for about 5 minutes, until the onion is soft. Add more water if the pot gets dry.

Add the turmeric, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, and cayenne. Stir to coat the onions and garlic, then add the stock, the pumpkin, the maple syrup and the lemon juice. Simmer on low heat for 15 minutes.

Stir in the milk, remove from the heat and purée according to your preferred method (mine is with an immersion blender, but you can also purée with a normal blender in batches). Return the soup to the heat, and heat over medium until hot, but don't boil (milk doesn't like boiling). You only need about 5 minutes. Taste, add salt, garnish with parsley and serve.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-11-04T23:08:00.005-05:00

Oh little blog, how I've been neglecting you. My dog can relate. So can all of my friends, my family, my plants if I had any. Good thing I don't own fish. My books, on the other hand, not very ignored. Stupid books. But there's just a little over one month left to go, which is both too much and too little, until my Oral Exams (seems like that should be capitalized). And then I'll really be back, and probably with a vengeance since I've had it to here with frozen dinners and cereal. In fact, I've had it past here.

So tonight, I'd like to imagine I'm back in the forth grade again. Incredibly awkward, not very good at making friends, too shy, too quiet. Those cute fourth grade boys never talk to me. Except one time, which I remember distinctly, when the second coolest boy in school told me he loved my mother's oatmeal cookies. Oh heck yea.

My mom recently made a batch and sent them to me, along with the recipe to share with all of you. So if you have your eye on the second coolest boy, these will do the trick. Promise.

Too Cool for School Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon molasses

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups quick cooking oats

2/3 cup raisins (don't be that person who skips the raisons)

1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, you know what to do)

1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 F and set out an ungreased cookie sheet

Cream together the butter and sugar by beating until pale and fluffy with an electric beater.

Add the eggs, the molasses and the vanilla to the butter and stir in.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt, and gradually add this mixture to the butter mixture.

Stir in the oats, raisins, nuts and chocolate and drop by teaspoonful onto the cookie sheet. These guys like to spread, so leave plenty of room.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned and delicious.

Saffron-Spiked Moroccan Stew

2009-10-20T08:00:00.001-04:00

I don't need to tell you what season it is. Starting off with something like "It's Autumn!" is a little insultingly obvious. But, see, the thing is, it is autumn. We're eating totally different things than we were this time, even last month (when I'm not just feeding myself yogurt and cereal. It happens.). My diet at least is overwhelmingly orange. Persimmons, squash, sweet potatoes, all orange. It's like consuming a little of that near-electric autumn light. You know, the kind that nearly shimmers.

But anyway. My mission right now is to cook, when I cook, in large enough batches to sustain myself over several lunches brought to school, and even a few dinners. This recipe not only fit that qualification, but made several fellow orals-studiers a little jealous (I could just tell, okay?). And the best part about this, is that it gets better over the course of a few days. Served with a big helping of quinoa (or couscous if you prefer) it will keep you going for hours. Also, and you would never believe it if I told you after you'd had a bit, this recipe is made with zero oil. Zero butter. Zero, zero, zero. The veggies are sweated in vegetable broth, then flavor is built in layers around eastern spices and the character of the vegetables themselves.

Did I mention that it's utterly delicious? It is. Promise.

UPDATE: I just wanted to reiterate that this is best served over some kind of grain like quinoa or over couscous. Not only will that stretch the amount of food you get, but this isn't particularly soupy, with just enough broth to give your grain base some flavor.

Saffron-Spiked Moroccan Stew

From Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's The Vegan Table

1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoon vegetable stock, divided (you can use water, and more stock if you want a soupier stew)

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 large red bell peppers, seeded and chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne

1 teaspoon grated or minded fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads

2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 1/2" cubes

1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes (don't drain them)

1 15 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat 3 tablespoons of the stock in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, peppers and garlic and sweat the vegetables until the onions are translucent. This should take between 5-7 minutes. You can add more liquid if it starts to evaporate too much.

Add the brown sugar, coriander, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne, ginger and saffron, and stir to coat well. Cook for 1 minute, then add the sweet potatoes and continue stirring. Stir in the tomatoes with their juices, the remaining stock and the chickpeas. Make sure the potatoes are submerged in the liquid so they'll cook. I found that this amount of liquid didn't quite cover everything, but I also didn't want my stew to be overly runny so it would be more transportable.

Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the sweet potatoes are cooked, but not overly. This will take about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to your taste, and serve over quinoa or couscous.

Favorite Banana Bread

2009-10-17T22:41:00.006-04:00

I know we've been through banana bread before on this blog. With one, I begged you to let your bananas really ripen, to turn black and gooey and I stand by that still. The other was a lower-fat version. The kind you perhaps make for yourself when you think you might not have the will power to resist eating the entire loaf. But this banana bread, this is for company.

Mark Bittman calls it the ultimate. And after thirty years of making banana breads (his estimation, not mine), it would be hard to challenge him. Now, if you're not a coconut lover, I want to tell you that the coconut in this adds a certain something, but it's not an overpowering coconut flavor. Don't leave it out, but don't expect a tropical tasting bread, either.

That's all to say that this bread is my new favorite, and I'm not just saying that because R made it tonight while I read, then let me photograph and share it. This banana bread really is the best.

Mark Bittman's Banana Bread

From Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything

1 stick butter

1 1/2 cups ap flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I think nuts are always optional)

1/2 cup grated dried unsweetened coconut

Oven preheated to 350 F, grease a 9x5" loaf pan.

Mix together the dry ingredients and cream the butter. Beat the eggs and bananas into the butter, then stir this mixture into the dry ingredients. Finally, stir in the vanilla, the nuts if you're using them, and the coconut.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for around 1 hour, but start checking earlier at about 45 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test.

Butter 'em Up Brownies

2009-10-11T23:20:00.003-04:00

There are a few people I want to butter up with these brownies. You, first of all, if you're still bothering with this little blog. In my defense, I did warn you that I'd be studying for orals until December (until December 10th at 10:00 am to be precise). I don't think I excepted things to slow down quite this much, but I didn't expect twelve hour study days, either. So there's that.

The other person these brownies were meant to butter up is our new super. At the last apartment, our horrible landlord decided to stop paying the super, which meant nothing ever got fixed or maintained. But I'm smart enough to know that when you have access to someone who actually fixes things, you should be very nice to him. You should give him brownies.

Here's a recipe you can use.

Dark Victory Brownies

From Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie

3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons

1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1/3 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup ap flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped (if you want)

Oven preheated to 325. Line a 9" pan with aluminum foil with 2" of overhang around two opposite edges. Grease the foil.

In a double boiler, over lightly simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together stirring until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

With a wooden spoon, beat the cocoa powder and sugar together until well mixed, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla, then add the flour and salt. Mix until just blended and stir in the pecans.

Pour the batter in the pan and bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove the pan to a wire rack and cool completely before lifting the brownies out by the foil. Cut into 16 square.

Coriander-Roasted Salmon with Cilantro-Dill Yogurt Sauce

2009-10-06T20:27:00.003-04:00

Since I'm still busy studying my little life away, and since I've noticed the life being drained out of my blog lately, I've enlisted Merith, a dear friend, to help keep Cooking Books afloat. A consummate bibliophile like myself, she has some great things to share.

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In my latest effort to avoid writing my thesis, I’ve taken it upon myself to entirely reorganize my mom’s house. Ironically, she is a librarian, yet is the most disorganized person I know. My first task was to attack the library – and attack I did. Around 200 books (and counting) will hopefully go to happy homes, as they were rather neglected on the bookshelves of my mom’s library. Regardless, many more remain. Of the books, my mom’s cookbook collection is rather impressive and sizeable, and up until now, unused.

I now will follow in Andrea’s footsteps by attempting to use at least one recipe from each book, occasionally recording the process and outcome. After tonight, I hold even higher esteem for Andrea’s efforts – photographing food is often harder than cooking it. Even when you are a photographer (plug: A Portrait of a Woman). Natural lighting is a MUST with food photography, and tonight I failed to beat the sunset by minutes. Can’t win ‘em all. And it will get even more difficult as fall moves into winter (especially when you live in the Pacific Northwest).

But, for now, here is a delicious salmon recipe from a beautiful cookbook called Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes, a book I’ve long desired to cook from. Because I was only cooking for two, I halved the recipe and the only modification I made was that I used peanut butter instead of tahini – thanks to an unusable can of the stuff. The sauce still turned out, in fact it tasted great. I served it with couscous and a salad with strawberries and balsamic vinaigrette. Enjoy!

Coriander-Roasted Salmon with Cilantro-Dill Yogurt Sauce from Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes

Yield: 6 servings

1 ½ tablespoons coriander seeds

Sauce

1 cup plain yogurt

2 tablespoons tahini

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove, pressed

½ teaspoon grated lemon zest

¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Salt and pepper

Salmon

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon paprika

6 (5- to 6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets (about 1 ¾ inches thick)

2 large yellow bell peppers, cut into ½-inch strips

Salt and pepper

Cilantro

Dill sprigs

Toast the coriander seeds in a small skillet over medium heat until aromatic, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the seeds cool slightly. Crush the coriander in a mortar with a pestle or coarsely grind in a spice grinder. Set aside.

To make the sauce: Stir the yogurt, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and lemon zest together in a small bowl. Mix in 1 teaspoon of the crushed coriander, the cilantro, and dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Can be prepared to this point up to 1 day ahead.)

To prepare the salmon: Whisk the honey, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, paprika, and remaining crushed coriander together in a shallow baking dish. Add the salmon and turn to coat it. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush two large baking sheets with olive oil.

Transfer the salmon to one of the prepared baking sheets and the bell peppers to the other; season both with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until the salmon is opaque in the center and the bell peppers are tender, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the peppers to a platter; top with the salmon. Garnish with cilantro and dill sprigs and serve with the yogurt sauce.

Another wedding cake

2009-10-05T22:30:00.007-04:00

Photo Credits: Kate Haus Photography

So this last weekend I had the pleasure of making a wedding cake for one of my very dearest friends. Since it was an October wedding, she wanted autumnal colors. I tried to deliver with a pumpkin orange, a kind of burnt reddish/purple and some of the green that I used on my own wedding cake. The cake itself was a lemon poppy seed with lemon buttercream, and a raspberry curd between the layers.

It was a beautiful ceremony, outside, and performed by a mutual friend of the couple's. I hope my cake made a nice addition.

I've already written a post about laying fondant on a cake, and you can find it here. For this version, I used a stencil (which I got here) for the basic design and then painted in additional details freehand. The stencil was easy to use, I secured it to the cake by wetting the fondant and by using medical tape. One thing I would say, if you plan to use a stencil, is that powder coloring is easy to use, moistened with a bit of lemon extract (or Everclear, as the woman at the cake shop told me!). You don't want to get the paint too wet, or it will tend to seep under the stencil. Barely moist bordering on dry is best. You want to dab the pain on with the end of a flat brush, rather than making broad strokes. But otherwise, it's easy as, well, cake!

Okra Curry

2009-09-26T12:31:00.007-04:00

Okay, first off, if you don't like okra, we might not be able to be friends. Or rather, we might not be able to be dinner companions, because if there is one vegetable I cannot resist, those little green fingers are it. And if you refuse to like okra, that would cause me to question your taste more generally, and then perhaps your value as a person. Which in turn will make me feel judgmental. So lets skip all of that nonsense and just agree that okra is where it's at.

The other night, R brought a 2 pound bag of okra home, because he knows I can't resist the stuff, then asked that I make an Indian recipe with it. This okra curry is what I made. It comes from a no-nonsense book, The Classic 1000 Indian Recipes, absent commentary, absent pictures, absent description, this book really is just a collection of 1000 Indian recipes. But this curry was delicious. The sauce is essentially a paste of onions, garlic, seasonings and yoghurt, all enveloping the okra. While the traditional way might be to grind the onions and garlic to a paste by hand, a food processor is a good, updated choice.

Okra Curry

Slightly adopted from Wendy Hobson's The Classic 1000 Indian Recipes

1 pound okra

1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter)

4 onions, cut into large chuncks

6 cloves garlic

salt, to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon chili powder

2/3 cup plain yoghurt

3 3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro

Trim the okra of the skinny end, but you can leave the fat end intact. Heat about half of the butter in a large saucepan and sauté the okra until golden. Remove from the pan and let drain on paper towels. Grind the onions and garlic to a paste in a food processor. Add the rest of the butter to the pan and then add the onion paste. Cook for about one minute, then add the salt, turmeric, garam masala and chili powder. You may need to add a little of the water from time to time to keep it from drying out.

Stir in the yogurt, then add the water and simmer for 30 minutes, uncovered. Stir occasionally. Add the okra and simmer for an additional 15 minutes. If you pan isn't large enough, you can add the water in batches, taking care to keep the mixture wet enough so that it won't burn.

Serve over rice and with a sprinkling of cilantro on top.

Pflaumekuchen, My Family's German Plum Cake

2009-09-21T18:06:00.006-04:00

Finally, finally, finally we're back on-line. We also have furniture (finally) and we're unpacked (finally!). I've been saving up a few recipes for this very day, but there's one I want to get out there right away: my family's pflaumekuchen, or German plum cake recipe. Now's the time for a couple of reasons. It's plum season, and September is the best time to find the Italian prune plums so wonderful in baking. (Look for those long, oblong-shaped plums, not the round ones you're probably used to eating out of hand.) Also, it's an old family recipe that I promised to you around this time last year, when I made a different pflaumekuchen. Although good, I vowed to return to my family's recipe this year.

Like the other recipe, this one has just enough crumb to hold the plums in, but in our version, there's no yeasted tart dough. Actually, it's mostly butter. And it has the structural integrity of, well, butter. In other words, not very much. So you can't expect pretty slices here, that buttery cake is in no way strong enough to support the weight of the plums, but it does do a wonderful job of soaking up the purple plum juice as it bakes. Actually, it reminds me a bit of the Nantucket Cranberry Pie I made a while back, and which, by at least one account, might be the easiest cake out there. This one is pretty darn easy as well.

The recipe comes from my paternal great grandmother, and originally she called for a mixture of butter and shortening. I almost never bake with shortening, so the little can I buy for this occasion goes unused the rest of the year. As an experiment this time around, I decided to try it will all butter, and really see no reason to go back. But I'll give you the choice in case you have some shortening to be used up.

Erna Welp's Pflaumekuchen, or German Plum Cake

15 Italian Prune Plums, halved and stone removed, but not peeled

1 stick butter, plus either 1/4 cup shortening or another 1/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

pinch salt

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 325F and grease a 9x13" baking pan and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream together the sugar and butter/shortening until well combined. Add in the rest of the ingredients except the plums and mix until combined. Spread the batter out on the bottom of the baking pan (it will be a relatively thin layer, so use your spatula to spread it around and cover the entire bottom).

Place the plum halves skin side up in rows on top of the batter. Bake for 1 hour, until it passes the toothpick test. Cool before serving and enjoy!

Why Moving Isn't Fun

2009-09-14T13:46:00.002-04:00

Moving isn't fun for so many reasons. But our particular internet service provider makes it even less fun. Did you know it can take over three weeks to get internet set up in a new apartment? Because it can. I hope to be back on-line soon, but not if our great internet company has anything to say about it, it seems. Don't worry, I send them mental daggers every night before bed.

Guest Post: Plum Cupcakes with Lemon Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

2009-09-06T09:04:00.014-04:00

You may have noticed that things have really slowed down over here. Well, I have a good reason, and a fabulous post to offer you as an apology. You may recall my past rants about the evilness of my landlord. Well no more, R and I finally packed up and moved. We're just down the street from where we were before, but now we're renting from someone not quite so associated with the devil. We're in the middle of unpacking the apartment, so one of my good friends was kind enough to help keep this place going. Take it away Todd!!

Plum Cupcakes with Lemon Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

I met Andrea during freshman year of college, but it wasn’t until we became roommates in New York City, 6 years later, that I caught wind of Andrea’s foodie brilliance. When we first met she was eating tuna from a can. Ok, fine, college students can’t exactly seer up tuna steaks in the dorm, but still I get fuzzy tingles of pride seeing her culinary passions take life in the form of the fabulous Cooking Books! In fact, it’s had a VIP parking spot in my browser’s toolbar since 2008

As a child, I lived for cookies and cupcakes. I may as well be honest here: I only really learned to bake for my own piggish gourmandizing. Yup! And I baked often. Perhaps I needn’t mention my mother eventually had to shop for my outfits in the “husky” section at JC Penny. We can’t all love cooking AND Triathlons! Ahem, Andrea, cough, grumble, grumble.

Fortuitously, I have found something called a gym, where I can conveniently peddle and step while watching Ina Garten. I travel right to the Land of Yum and handily forget that I am whittling my waist. What this really means is that I can bake cupcakes once more! If these weren’t so amazingly delicious then I’d have used this opportunity to actually share my creations. Maybe next time…

I came up with the idea for plum cupcakes while browsing this site. I decided to try plums instead of peaches, but I didn’t want to use just any plums. I wanted stunning plums. I visited the Harvard Square Farmer’s Market and found the dearest wee plums I’ve ever laid eyes on. They actually had two varieties: a European Green Gage (very sweet and moist), and classic Blue (more firm and tart). I bought them and mixed both kinds into the recipe. For the frosting, I decided to get sassy and match the sweet plum with a fresh lemon and ginger cream cheese frosting.

“Fruit in a cupcake??” you might be fretting. Rest assured that it’s nothing less than wonderful. And these aren’t at all like a muffin, like I had feared. They actually have the fluffy constitution of a cupcake, and the plum pieces add a refreshing, summery hint of the orchard.

Plum Cupcakes:

Makes 24 cupcakes

3 cups cake flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Pinch of nutmeg

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) whole milk yogurt

5 or 6 plums, cored and chopped to small cubes (may leave on skins)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line muffin tins with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the beaten eggs in two turns, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition, and then the vanilla and almond extracts. Gently mix in the yogurt. Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the cubed plums.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. Fill to just below the paper’s rim, as they rise slightly but not overwhelmingly. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for a couple minutes in the tin, then turn them place them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 bars (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature

2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 pinch of salt

Place butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese and beat until well-combined and fluffy, about 2 additional minutes. Add sugar, lemon zest, ginger, lemon juice and salt, then beat for 3 or 4 minutes. If you’d like it to thicken some, you can place the frosting in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes before spreading it onto the cupcakes.

Mixed Tomato Salad

2009-08-27T10:17:00.007-04:00

This month, I've asked Esi from one of my very favorite blogs, Dishing up Delights, to guest post. Of the many blogs I read, I think Esi's cooking style is probably the closest to my own, so if you like this blog, you'll love hers. I highly recommend you go check it out as soon as you finish with her guest post. I know you'll enjoy her as much as I do.

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Imagine my surprise and delight when Andrea asked me to do an Off the Shelf guest post on her lovely site...Then the summer got away from me. For some reason I haven't been cooking much lately, but I have been visiting the farmers market every week and tomato salads have been a meal for me at least once a week. Unlike those on the east coast, tomatoes in California are out in full force with the only question being, which color to choose? That is what I love about this salad. It's using one of the best summer ingredients and letting their natural flavor be the star.

I found this recipe in one of my favorite books for any time of year, Everyday Food. I love that the book is divided by season. Everything is quick and all of the recipes I have tried have been delicious. There are also plenty of tips and basic recipes on everything from burgers to soup. It has quickly become my go to book for quick recipes. For this particular salad I used a mix of cherry tomatoes and a yellow beefsteak tomato. One of the baskets of cherry tomatoes was almost purple in color and I loved the contrast between the dark red, lighter red, and yellow. The way mixed tomatoes paired with the vibrant arugula made a dish pleasing to the eye as well as to the mouth. I only made one change to the recipe which was to use balsamic vinegar instead of red wine. The sweet balsamic went perfectly well with the sweet tomatoes and the spicy bite of the arugula. This is a simple, unassuming salad for a simple summer afternoon.

Mixed Tomato Salad
(Slightly Adapted from Everyday Food)

Makes 4 servings

2 pounds mixed tomatoes, such as red or yellow beefsteak, cherry, grape, and pear
3 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 bunch arugula (6 to 8 ounces), washed well and dried

Core beefsteak tomatoes; cut each into 8 wedges. Halve grape and cherry tomatoes; leave pear tomatoes whole.

Make dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar and oil; season with salt and pepper. In a large bowl, toss arugula with half the dressing. Divide arugula and tomatoes evenly among four serving plates; drizzle tomatoes with remaining dressing. Serve immediately.

Printable Recipe

Panzanella or Bread Salad

2009-08-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

For some reason, and I'm really not sure why, I didn't have very high hopes for this panzanella. I don't know what it is, but the ingredients (although pretty standard for the dish) seemed so, well, ordinary. But come to find out, that's precisely its charm. It doesn't get more rustic than a panzanella, an ingenious use for leftover bread, traditional throughout Tuscany. I even warned R when dishing it out that I thought it would be boring. Wrong, wrong and more wrong. It was delicious. So delicious, in fact, that the entire thing was gone in one day because it's all we ate for lunch, and again for dinner. Not many salads do that, I have to say.

The only thing is that the recipe asks you to take the crusts off the bread, but in hindsight I wish I hadn't. It also suggests that you peel your tomatoes, something I have never brought myself to do. Are tomato peels really so offensive? I mean, that is just not going to happen in this lifetime. But the recipe is so good, I'd buy bread and leave it out just for the occasion. Don't let its humble looks fool you. Don't make that mistake. You don't even have to peel the tomatoes.

Panzanella Bread Salad

From Viana La Place & Evan Kleiman's Cucina Fresca

1/2 loaf day-old peasant bread, crusts removed, cut into cubes

2 tomatoes

1-2 tablespoons capers

1/2 cup good olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

3 cucumbers, peeled and diced

1/2 small red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

1 bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips

Combine the tomatoes, capers, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl. Place the bread cubes on a shallow platter or dish, then pour the tomato mixture over the top and throw the cucumbers, red onion and bell pepper on top of that.

Allow the salad to sit at room temperature (or in the fridge, but room temperature is always better) for at least 1 hour to allow the bread to soak everything up. You can add more oil and vinegar if it seems too dry. Can be made a day ahead.

Dutch Honey Cake

2009-08-23T10:26:00.000-04:00

I don't think I've mentioned this here before, but if there's one thing that makes me completely crazy, it's people who refuse to share recipes. First of all, you did not make up cooking out of the blue. Everyone learns from somewhere, whether that's through experience or from a book. Half the time, those "secret" family recipes were clipped from a newspaper or magazine years ago anyway. I also just can't understand why, if, say, my family loves a particular recipe, I should withhold it from you just because I can. Does it make me enjoy the food any more knowing that I've denied it to someone else? Well, if it did, I'd have larger problems than just this particular annoyance. Look, I'm a judgmental person. And if you tell me that a recipe is a guarded family secret, I'm judging you. Sorry.

But it's not like all, or even most people are like this. Lots of us love sharing recipes, obviously. But today, when I was searching for a recipe for a Dutch Honey Cake like the one I'd had in France, I found a blog in which its owner has made a project of honoring his grandmother's memory by transcribing all of the recipes from her massive collection. It looks like he got through them all, because the blog hasn't been updated in quite a while. Rather than jealously guard his family's recipes, he has posted them for everyone to use and enjoy. How about that? So for all of you recipe sharers out there, here's a Dutch Honey Cake meant to be circulated.

Dutch Honey Cake

Only slightly adopted from Grandma Gerte's Recipes

3 cups flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 cup brown sugar (the recipe didn't say to pack it, but this is assumed I think)

3/4 cups honey (I had to use mostly honey but a little agave nectar because we're moving and I'm trying to use things up)

3/4 cup undiluted evaporated milk

3/4 cups milk (the recipe said 1/2 cup, but I had to add a little more for all of the dry ingredients to get mixed in)

Sift the first five ingredients together (yes, I sifted the flour twice, once to measure and one to combine with the spices). Stir in the brown sugar and set aside. Stir the honey together with the two milks, then add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Pour into a greased loaf pan, and bake at 300 F for about 1:15 hours. I had to tent the bread with foil for the last 10 minutes or so in order to keep the crust from getting too brown. It should pass the toothpick test and the sides should pull away from the pan. Cool before serving (yea right).

Note:

You can see that my loaf deflated a little in the middle. This was a result of my taking it completely out of the oven to prod it with toothpicks before it was done. This is how lack of patience is rewarded.

Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

2009-08-21T22:08:00.000-04:00

I have hardly anything to write about anymore. My life consisting as it does, of 9 hours in a library every single day. I made these brownies for a friend's party. A party I didn't even have the energy to go to! But it's not all bad, and I'm making it seem worse than it is. In all honesty I kind of enjoy all of this studying. (Right, I say that now!) But I just don't have all that much leftover. So maybe today we'll forgo the write up, and I'll just tell you that these were good. That R liked them, that the girls I study with at school liked them, and that they were gone in 2 days. You can't freeze them, as was my first inclination, because of the sour cream topping. So if you make them, your only option really is to eat them. A pretty simple decision.

Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

From Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours

For the brownies:

1/2 cup ap flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F, with a rack in the center. Butter a 9" square baking pan placed on a baking sheet and set aside.

To make the brownies:

Whisk together the first three ingredients. Put the butter and chocolate over a double boiler with water simmering. Stir until the ingredients melt, but don't overheat so that the butter separates. Remove the top of the double boiler and set aside.

Stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture with a whisk, then add the eggs one at a time. Beat well after each egg, then beat in the vanilla. Next, gently stir in the dry ingredients until they disappear. Set aside.

For the cheesecake:

1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon ap flour

Allow the espresso to cool to tepid. With a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the cream cheese on medium until it's completely smooth. Add the sugar and continue to beat for 3 minutes more. Beat in the vanilla and espresso before adding the eggs one at a time. Beat for 1 minute after each egg, then reduce the speed to low and add the sour cream, then the flour. The batter should be smooth.

Pour about 3/4 of the brownie mixture into the prepared pan. Smooth it out, then pour the cheesecake layer over the top, taking care to make it even. Place spoonfuls of the rest of the brownie batter on top, and use a knife to swirl the dark and light batters together. Be careful, however, not to plunge the knife into the base brownie layer. Swirl only as much as necessary.

Bake for around 30 minutes. The brownies should come away from the sides of the pan. The cheesecake will puff and turn lightly browned around the edges. Transfer the pan to a wrack to cool. Once it reaches room temperature, refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until well chilled.

For the topping:

1 1/4 cups sour cream

1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Warm the sour cream and sugar in a small saucepan over very low heat. You need to stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Pour over the chilled brownies, then return them to the refrigerator and chill for at least another hour. Cut the brownies into squares and serve.

The Winners and a Pasta Salad

2009-08-17T22:26:00.002-04:00

Okay, first things first. Using Random.org I've drawn two names from those who left comments to win Spice Up Your Life. And the winners are...Nina Timm and Katie! Congratulations, ladies. I'll e-mail you right away to get your mailing addresses.

And if you're like me and almost never win anything, I have a consolation prize in the form of a great cold pasta salad which I've been taking with me to school for the past few days. It's vegetable rich, with broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes, and pesto.

But the really wonderful technique I learned from this recipe is using two long strips of lemon peel in the boiling water while cooking both the broccoli and the pasta. It adds a wonderful aroma of lemon that permeates the salad, especially when fresh. This isn't my normal pesto, and I think I prefer my usual recipe. Also, next time, I might substantially increase the amount of pesto I use.

Country-Style Rigatoni Salad

From Viana la Place & Evan Kleiman's Cucina Fresca

For the Pesto

Into a food processor toss:

1 cup fresh basil leaves

3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

4 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons pine nuts

1/2 cup olive oil

And process until the mixture is a coarse texture. Add a pinch of salt to taste.

Pasta Salad

2 pounds broccoli (about 1 head)

2 long strips lemon peel

Coarse salt to taste

1 pound rigatoni

1 pound mushrooms, wiped clean, stems removed and quartered

Olive oil for the pan

Pepper and salt to taste

6 mediumm tomatoes, cored and cut into bite-sized pieces

2 bunches green onions, trimmed and cut into thin rounds

Remove the broccoli flowerets from the stalks and break the flowerets into bite-sized pieces. Peel the stalks with a vegetable peeler, and cut those into bite-sized pieces as well.

Place the lemon peel in a large pot with plenty of boiling water. Add salt and the broccoli pieces and cook until the broccoli is tender-crisp. This will take about 5 minutes. Remove the broccoli with a slotted spoon, but keep the water boiling. Transfer the broccoli to a colander and run under cold water to stop the cooking.

Add the rigatoni to the boiling water and cook according to package directions. Drain in a colander when done and run under cold water to stop the cooking. In the meantime, sauté the mushrooms over high heat in the oil for around 5 minutes, or until your desired doneness. Season with salt and pepper.

Gently toss the rigatoni with the pesto, broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes and green onions in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Lady Friends

2009-08-15T13:18:00.002-04:00

Well, I don't have anything for you today, in the way of a recipe. Hopefully that won't be the situation tomorrow. But while you're waiting, I thought I'd share my most favorite female comic ever, ever, ever: Sarah Haskins. If you've never seen her before, head directly over to YouTube and treat yourself to a few episodes of "Target Women." I especially like when she laughs inappropriately loud for an inappropriate amount of time at Swonson Broth. Intrigued? Here you go:

Shrimp in Butter, Lime an Cilantro Sauce and a Giveaway!

2009-08-12T22:19:00.001-04:00

Well at least you can't say I didn't warn you. I said things might slow down around here for a bit, and they really have, haven't they? But to make it up to you, and partially in celebration of my approximate one year blog-o-versary, I have something special for you. If you've been reading with any regularity, you've probably noticed that while I'm not a vegetarian, I lean that way. There's a catch phrase for my kind of eating floating around. Mark Bittman has used it. So has Peter Berley. Now you can add Bindu Grandhi to the list of proponents of the Flexitarian lifestyle. So when Ms. Grandhi offered to send me an advance copy of her brand new cookbook Spice Up Your Life The Flexitarian Way, of course I said yes!

And here's the thing. Even my picky husband can be convinced to go light on the meat if he's presented with Indian food. It makes sense, of course, since Indian cuisines in all of their variety are so vegetarian friendly in the first place. But Grandhi does not present you with lists of 20 spices, each requiring a specialty store. You'll be able to find most of what you need easily, and each of the recipes I tried came together very quickly, which is a huge plus for me right now. I really want to stress that this is not complicated, time consuming cooking. She uses simple, fresh ingredients in inventive ways for dishes with truly wonderful flavor. Serious.

Okay, so how were the recipes? I've made three things from the book so far and every one of them has been amazing. Pictured at top is her Shrimp in Butter, Lime and Cilantro Sauce and it was excellent. Served over her favorite Vegetable Couscous, it made for a healthy, and incredibly flavorful meal. Not to mention rather pretty, if I have to admit it. I would make both again in a second.

I also made her Chickpeas and Spinach, in which wilted spinach is combined with onions, ginger, garlic and a melange of spices, then puréed into a silky gravy before being poured over the chickpeas and tomatoes. I'm going to give you the recipe for the shrimp, bellow. And now for the real treat.

Ms. Grandhi was kind enough to offer two Cooking Books readers the chance to win a copy of the book! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post by Monday, August 17th and I'll draw two names. I'm only allowed to accept entries from those in the US for this one. But if you'd like to pick up a copy of the book yourself, it will be in select Barnes and Noble and Borders stores soon. It's available on-line right now, on her website and from Amazon (see the link at the end of the post). If you get the book, really do try the chickpeas!

Shrimp in Butter, Lime and Cilantro Sauce

With permission from Bindu Grandhi's Spice Up Your Life the Flexitarian Way

2 tablespoons extra light olive oil

1 onion, peeled and diced

2 green chilies, stemmed and split in half lengthwise

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

6 macadamia nuts, chopped

1 pound raw large shrimp, peeled, cleaned, deveined, and butterflied (I forgot to butterfly mine!)

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, washing and chopped

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon butter

3/4 teaspoon salt.

Heal the oil in a medium nonstick skillet. Add onions, chilies, turmeric and macadamia nuts.

When onions are done (about 5-7 minutes), add shrimp, cilantro, lime juice and butter. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the shrimp is cooked through.

Add salt. Serve on a bed of plain pasta, basmati rice, or vegetable couscous.

Homemade KitKat Bars

2009-08-07T14:31:00.010-04:00

Of all the classic candy bars, I have the most nostalgic relationship with the KitKat. Well, the KitKat and the Life Savor, because those are the two treats my grandmother would always bring to my sister and me when she watched us as children, before settling into an evening with the Golden Girls (remember them?).

I have to admit that I haven't had a KitKat in years. It's not a treat I normally buy for myself, it's so much better when it comes as a gift. I'm not going to tell you that these little treats would ever pass for the real thing. If you wanted something that tasted just like the Hersey's original, I'm sure there's a convenience store within easy access where you can just buy one. This is a slightly more inspired version, with a few more layers of flavor: peanut butter, butterscotch, chocolate, and the slight salt of the club crackers. Intrigued? Here's the recipe, right after a quick note.

As you may know if you've been reading along, I'm working on a PhD in art history. This week, I began studying for my oral exams, and will be on kind of a brutal schedule until December, when I sit for them. So things might slow down a little around here. And the focus will probably shift toward things that are quick to prepare and make for good leftovers. But to make it up to you, I've got a little something special coming up in the form of my first giveaway! So check back in a couple of days. Okay, onto the recipe.

Homemade KitKat Bars

From Paula Dean's Best Desserts

75 club crackers (I didn't actually count, just buy a box of crackers)

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

2 cups gram cracker crumbs (from about 14 graham cracker sheets)

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup whole milk (I used 1/2 and 1/2)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup cream peanut butter

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1/2 cup butterscotch-flavored morsels

In an ungreased 13x9" baking sheet, put a layer of club crackers. You may need to cut a few in order to cover the entire base. I cut 2 crackers in half to lay them on the side.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then add the graham cracker crumbs, the brown sugar, the milk and the white sugar. I made the graham cracker crumbs simply by putting around 14 sheets of crackers in my mini food processor (in batches) and processing until they reached the consistency of fine crumbs.

Boil the mixture for 5 minutes (starting the timer the moment you start to see bubbles) and stir the entire time. Remove from the heat, and spread half of the mixture over the crackers already in the baking pan. I used an off-set spatula for this, but that's not necessary. Lay another layer of club crackers over the butter mixture. At this point, I returned the remaining half of the butter mixture to the heat for under one minute to get it flowing again. Spread the remainder of the butter mixture over the second layer of crackers. Add a final layer of crackers over the top.

In a small saucepan, melt the last three ingredients together, then spread this mixture over the third layer of crackers. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Cut into bars and store in the refrigerator.

Paris Toast

2009-08-05T23:12:00.002-04:00

So in my last post about Paris, I said that I hadn't done as many foodie things as I may have wanted. But I did have the single most amazing experience with French Toast I have ever had. I can't take much of the credit, however. When you're working with a loaf of brioche from the famed Eric Kayser boulangerie (which just happened to be right on my way home from the Louvre), along with fresh strawberries and basil from marché Rue Monge, it's hard to mess it up. This is a little different than my usual french bread, because I wanted to buy as few ingredients as possible. That means no cinnamon, no vanilla, and no corn starch to help thicken the sauce. But trust me, you won't miss any of those things.

So even if I didn't make the time to go into all of the amazing food shops I saw, I did take some pictures. At one point, I treated myself to a big hunk of nougat, like you see in the picture below. I tried to space it out over a couple of days, but willpower has never been one of my strengths.

Can you see our reflections in the window? More importantly, notice those bite-sized canelé at the bottom? I have a feeling a crust like doesn't just happen. Wish I had the extra money for a couple of those famed copper molds.

These next two are from this crazy flower shop that I walked by every day. Outside, there were always perched a handful of elderly, usually kind of drunk Parisians, sipping wine, or something harder. If you slowed your gait enough to get a look inside the flower shop, you'd see that the entire room was piled to the ceiling with flowers, stuffed animals, pots, feathers and other sundry. It looked as though a narrow path had been precariously carved into the drifts of stuff.

And finally, one shot of the Petit Palais from the inner garden. Most of the museum was closed for a re-hang, but there were plenty of Courbets still on view.

Okay, you've suffered enough through other people's vacation photos. Here's the recipe for Paris Toast:

Paris Toast

1 loaf day-old brioche

Juice of 1 orange

2 eggs

1 cup milk

Oil for frying

Whisk together the orange juice, the eggs and the milk. Slice the bread into however many slices of toast you'd like to eat. Dip each slice into the milk mixture and let it sit to absorb the milk for about 5 minutes. Turn once to get both sides wet. Heat oil in a pan, and fry each slice of toast for a couple of minutes on each side. Serve with Fresh Strawberry Basil Sauce (follows)

For the strawberry basil sauce

2 pints fresh strawberries

8 leaves fresh basil, chopped

1/2 cup sugar

Put all of the ingredients into a pot and boil until it reaches your desired consistency. Serve over toast.

Back from Paris

2009-08-03T22:12:00.001-04:00

What do you say about Paris? I was lucky enough to receive funding for a research trip to Paris this summer, in preparation for my dissertation. Although I arrived in Paris with grand foodie plans, Clotilde's Edible Adventures in hand, food was much less a focus than I thought it would be. I ended up eating in Paris much the same way I eat in New York. Only better, of course.

A classmate of mine, also in Paris for research, and I rented an apartment on Rue Monge for just over two weeks, and wouldn't you know it, but that street's famous marché was just outside our doorstep. Above, is a picture of our first meal in Paris. A baguette from the neighboring boulangerie, a hunk of market foie gras and a plateful of huge, fresh figs. That was eating in Paris. We rarely went out to dinner, assembling most things in our little apartment kitchen, or taking picnics to various parks and bridges in the city.

Instead of rifling through gourmet food shops, I spent most of my time rifling through the archives at the Louvre. And the Louvre archives are spectacular. They're located through the Porte de Lions, one of the side entrances to the museum. That particular wing of the building is pictured above. I would have been sitting on the first floor according to the French, but the second floor according to the Americans. Here's a picture of the study room:

I spent 5 days in the archives, having boxes and boxes of 18th century drawings delivered to my side. The drawings were mounted, and I propped each up on a little stand as I took notes. Most days, I was alone in that huge marbled, muraled and gold-gilded room.

I also spent some time in the archives at the Musée Beaux Arts in Rennes, doing pretty much the same thing, only in a bit less impressive of a space. Otherwise, here's a list of the things I actually saw in Paris. And when I say I spent the day at a museum, that usually means between 4 - 5 hours, although not all museums require that much time. I'm hardcore like that.

Louvre and the Louvre archives (6 times)

Musée Beaux Arts, Rennes and archives (2 times)

Musée d'Orsay

Centre Georges Pompidou (2 times)

Panthéon (for the Puvis murals)

Villa Savoye

Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève

There are many things to love about all of these places. But one of the things I liked best about the Pompidou was the building itself, and the way it frames views of the city. These are two of my favorites.

Fresh Basil Pesto

2009-08-01T21:29:00.000-04:00

Before I left, R and I were in Connecticut visiting my grandmother. We do this as often as we can, since she's always a great time to hang out with, she feeds us really well, and the quiet of Connecticut can be such a welcome respite from the damn sirens those police men and firefighters who work around the block from us in NYC insist on using all the time. And if there's one dish that always reminds me of Nana, it's pesto and tomatoes.

We were out there a little early for tomatoes, I'll admit. Usually they're the vine ripened kind actually ripened on a vine. In her garden. Heavy with juice and deeply red. The basil was always garden-fresh as well, and together they're irresistible. Last time, however, we had to make due with hothouse tomatoes (she was complaining, not me, just for the record). But really, Nana's pesto would be amazing smeared on cardboard. One of the things that makes this pesto better than any other pesto is the inclusion of parsley. Parsley and basil get along very well together. I may have let my inner glutton out a bit too easily at Nana's house, because I'm not sure anyone else really got any. Wish I could say I felt guilty.

The picture above is of the batch she sent home with me. She added less oil to that one than to the one I demolished at her house, so that I could control the level myself. The recipe below calls for the correct amount of oil.

Nana's Fresh Basil Pesto

1 cup packed, snipped basil

1/2 cup snipped parsley

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts (optional) - we didn't bother with these this time

2 cloves garlic, quartered

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup olive oil

Blend the first 6 ingredients in a food processor until they form a thick paste. Slowly add the oil, with the machine still on, until it becomes the consistency of butter. The pesto can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for longer.

Chocolate Strawberry Pavlova

2009-07-31T15:26:00.007-04:00

Why hello there! It's been a couple of weeks. I have a few Paris posts for you, but I have to get some pictures together, some thoughts, and all the rest. I have a few posts to share before that anyway, though. Things I ran out of time for before I left.

Such as this Chocolate Strawberry Pavlova from Nigella. R used to live in New Zealand, and since then has been pretty anti-pavlova for reasons I don't quite understand (something about them being too sweet, waa waa waa). Good thing I make a point of never listening to him when it comes to food. We both loved this, as did our friends who were over for dinner (at least, they said they did, and they'll stick with that if they want a repeat invitation!).

This is not hard. There are things you have to do to make sure your egg whites beat up, but it's really not rocket science. You do have to do it in steps, though, because the meringue base must cool in a cracked oven, so factor in some time for that. Here are a few tips:

* Bring your eggs to room temperature first. Either take them out of the fridge the day before, or set them in warm water for a few moments before you're ready to use them.

* Make sure all of your equipment is clean and totally free of any grease that could stand in the way of fluffy egg whites.

* This is easy, so don't worry about it. Egg whites smell fear.

Since I'm still a little jet lagged, we're going to call this introduction good and get on with it.

Chocolate Strawberry Pavlova

Very slightly adapted from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer

For the meringue:

6 egg whites (see notes above)

1 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

1 teaspoon balsamic or red wine vinegar

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Preheate the oven to 350 F. Using a 9" cake pan, trace a 9" circle onto a sheet of parchment paper, to use as a guide when you pile up your meringue for baking. Place the parchment paper, pencil side down (you should be able to see through it) on a baking sheet and set aside.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then beat in the sugar spoonful by spoonful. The meringue should become stiff and shimmery. Sprinkle the cocoa powder, vinegar and chopped chocolate over the top, then fold into the egg whites. Mound the meringue on your baking sheet, using your traced circle as a guide.

Place in the oven, and immediately turn the heat down to 300 F. Bake for 1 to 1:15 hours. The meringue should look crisp around the edges, but remain a little squishy in the center. Turn the oven off, and leave the door slightly ajar until the meringue has cooled completely.

For the topping

2 1/4 cups heavy cream

1 pint strawberries (or raspberries or any berries!), sliced and hulled

2-3 tablespoons grated (with a vegetable peeler) bittersweet chocolate

Just before serving, beat the cream until it becomes whipped cream. Transfer the meringue disk onto a serving dish, mound the whipped cream on top and arrange the berries on top of that. Sprinkle with the chocolate shavings and serve.

Postcards from Paris

2009-07-30T07:02:00.004-04:00

Away

2009-07-13T09:17:00.002-04:00

I'm going to be in Paris for the next two weeks, digging through the archives at the Louvre and at the Musée des Beaux-arts de Rennes. I'll try to take pictures and think food while I'm there. See ya in two weeks!