The Ginger Cook

Guest Post: Kalamazoo Sourdough

2012-01-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

As you may know, I occasionally host a guest blogger or two on The Ginger Cook. Usually this just happens to be a member of my family, but I'm opening to having anyone! Friends? Want to post? As long as I deem your picture as worthy, you may have a shot.

A little bit of background information before I leave this post in the hands of my Dad. A few months ago my dad bought my Mom a standmixer for "her birthday." I say this is quotations because she neither waited to get it on her birthday nor is she the one who primarily uses it. In tandem with the mixer, I bought her a 1973 vintage copy of one of my favorite bread books, The Tassajara Bread Book.

As you may have guessed, someone else started using it much more than she did. That's right, my Dad stole it from her! How dare he! You really shouldn't stay mad at him for long thought because he has been killing it on the bread baking. When I was home for Christmas, he was whipping out some truly extraordinary loaves. Without further ado, here is his new prized loaf of bread: Kalamazoo Sourdough

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Kalamazoo Sourdough

Why should the City by the Bay get all the glory when it comes to sourdough? I’m here to claim some of the glory for the chilly state of Michigan. In this guest Ginger Cook post, “I” am Katherine’s dad, Ed. Lest you fear that I’m diluting the ginger-ness of this blog, rest assured that I’m a redhead as well.

Regular readers may wonder why I’m calling this bread recipe Kalamazoo Sourdough, since Katherine is from Brighton, about 2 hours from K-town. There are three reasons for this. First, “Kalamazoo” just has a ring to it, much more so than “Brighton”. Second, our other daughter Caroline is attending college in Kalamazoo at Western Michigan University. Finally, Kalamazoo is home to Bell’s Brewery, one of the best craft brewers in the country and the source of a vital ingredient for this recipe.

This recipe was written assuming that you are using a baking stone or pizza stone. A Dutch oven will also work very well, however it is harder to get the loaves into a hot Dutch oven, so I prefer the pizza stone. If you use a Dutch oven, you don’t need the Pyrex baking dish, since the moisture from the dough will create steam in the Dutch oven. The steam is the secret to a perfect crust.

Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour (all-purpose flour is fine also)
1½ teaspoons salt
1 cup sourdough starter *
¾ cup water at room temperature
8 tablespoons Bell’s ale (anything ale that isn’t strongly flavored)

*If you want a little extra rise, you can add one-eighth of a teaspoon of instant or rapid-rise yeast without affecting the sourdough taste too much

Directions:

Mix sourdough starter with water in a large bowl and whisk vigorously until thoroughly mixed. If using yeast, add it to the liquid and whisk some more. Add salt and whisk into liquid.
Add flour to water and using a rubber spatula, fold in flour until water is absorbed, then add beer and fold some more. You should have a shaggy ball of dough. If needed, add water a couple of tablespoons at a time until dough reaches the proper consistency.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 hours or more, until the ball has roughly doubled in size.
Place bowl in refrigerator and let sit for an additional 6 to 8 hours.
Cut parchment paper to fit onto a baking stone or into a Dutch oven. Remove dough from refrigerator and knead about 15 times. Shape into a large loaf, or if a smaller loaf is desired, divide and shape into two loaves.
Place the loaf or loaves onto parchment paper and spray surface of loaf with olive oil (use a mister). Cover loosely with plastic and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 2 or 3 hours.
30 minutes before baking, adjust upper oven rack to lower middle position and place baking stone on rack. Place a Pyrex baking dish half full of water on the lower rack to create steam in the oven. Set oven temperature to 425 degrees F and let temperature stabilize for 30 minutes.
Slash top of loaf with a sharp knife, remove baking stone from the oven, and place parchment paper onto baking stone. Immediately place into oven.
Bake for 45 minutes or until internal temperature of the bread reaches 205 to 210 degrees F (a digital thermometer is helpful here).
Remove bread from oven and allow to cool on a mesh rack for 10 to 15 minutes before enjoying.

Homemade Biscoff Cookies

2012-01-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

First and foremost I dedicate this blog post to my sister, Caroline. When texting with her earlier tonight I (essentially) asked "should I blog about cookies or salad?" and she (essentially) said "you loon, if you don't blog about cookies I will hunt you down until you do." That may or may not have been how it went down but go with me here. It's kinda snowy and I've come down will a spell of cabin fever.

The snow tried to trap me in another day but too bad I had already planned to do some baking. One of my favorite things in the world is Biscoff cookies, also known as Delta airplane cookies. When Trader Joes's introduced their version of the traditional European coffee dunking cookie, I bought that up with such a fervor that you'd think it was the Seattle Witch Trials. Seriously. But sadly, as it goes anything I love at Trader Joes's, it seems to have been discontinued after the holidays ended. Nothing can keep me away from Biscoff's for long though. Ask any flight attendant, I am that obnoxious flyer who asks for two, sometimes three, cookies. Luckily for the flight attendants and grocery store workers of the world, I figured out how to make them on my own.

And you know what? They tasted eerily similar. I even ran out of cinnamon, first time this has ever happened, and the taste was still on par. If it hadn't been for the "storm of the decade," I would have been more apt to run over to the stores to pick up some more cinnamon. The best part of this recipe though is the texture. It has the same crisp as the original and dips in your morning coffee just the same. Even this morning when 'A' and I were drinking coffee, I forced myself to dip a few in and I felt like I was back in Paris. Or on a redeye back to Detroit. I'm not picky.

The snow is hopefully finally melting, the ice fading away and I will slowly lose the excuse to drink hot chocolate at all points of the day. I will also maybe be able to drive my car again, a girl can dream.

Biscoff Cookies

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan from Around My French Table

Ingredients:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
7 tablespoons Earth Balance, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 (packed) cup light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature

Directions:

Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices together in a bowl.
Working in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a bowl with a hand mixer, beat the Earth Balance at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugars and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and continue to beat until it, too, is blended into the butter and sugars. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until the flour disappears into the soft dough. If there is any flour left at the bottom of them bowl, work it in with your hands or a spatula.
Divide the dough in half. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper until you have a rough rectangle that’s about ¼ inch thick. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 3 days.
When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using a sharp knife, cut into 1"x3" rectangles. Collect the scraps and set them aside to combine with the scraps from the second piece of dough.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until they are lightly golden and brown around the edges. Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Repeat with the second round of dough, making certain the baking sheet is cool before you put the cutouts on it. To use the scraps, press them together, roll them into a circle, and chill them before cutting and baking.

Maple Walnut Apple Crisp

2012-01-15T14:56:00.000-08:00

A few months back I mentioned how either my camera or computer ate the photos for a recipe. Well, a combination of a miracle and my genius (ha) computer skills brought a few of the photos back to life. Don't ask me how I found them or what skill set I used to convert them from .NEF to .JPEG files but I did it. Dear blogging gods, I thank you. I'll dedicate my next meal to you.

Sad to say, but I made this recipe for Halloween. HALLOWEEN! It was a whole 25 degrees warmer and 2011 ago. It's basically ancient in recipe land but fret you not, it is worthy of a revival from the Mac Trash Can Heaven. It's your basic apple crisp but with a little less cane sugar and a little more maple sugar. This past fall I was really on a maple kick and would throw syrup or extract into just about anything. Don't believe me? Ask my friends, they probably were sick of it after the first week. I know apple's aren't really the first thing on peoples minds right now, especially now that Seattle is coated in a blanket of snow (more on that later), but I am always up for a warm apple crisp. I have even more right to demand this dessert year round; I'm from a premier apple growing state (Michigan) and now live in the apple capitol of the world (Washington).

In reference to what I mentioned earlier, you read right, Seattle is smothered in snow. Okay, I don't know if you could call it a "smothering" but this is Seattle and anything over a dusting sends the settlers into a tizzy. Wait, even a dusting does that. I've been stranded in my apartment all day and have been watching a whole two inches accumulate outside my window. That is more than I (sadly) ever saw and stick when I was back in Michigan! People are even making the trek out to sled in it….

Maple Walnut Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

Filling:

4 Apples, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup

Topping:

1 1/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cups walnuts, chopped
~1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
~1/8 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoon cinnamon
A dash or two of nutmeg and apple pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) goat butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F.
Place the cut apples in an ungreased 8- or 9-inch square baking pan. Mix together with the white sugar and maple syrup.
Mix together the topping ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Distribute the mixture over the top of the apples, and pat it firmly in place.
Bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the top is crisp and lightly browned and the fruit/juice is bubbling around the edges. I recommend serving this hot, but it tastes just as yummy at room temperature.

Roasted Potato Stacks

2012-01-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

So those holidays, am I right? I don't know about you, but I feel a slight aversion in my stomach every time a candy cane pops into my peripheral. Don't get my started on how I feel after spying gum drop fairies flying through my thoughts. It's too much. TOO MUCH I tell you! It's not that I'm a ginger grinch and despise Christmas but I don't think my waistline can handle one bit more.

So far my fridge is full of fresh veggies from my CSA, leftover Thai/Lao food I made the night before and just, erm… a few beers I snuck back with me from Michigan. Never mind the last part though - I'm rationing those and they are sentimental, it doesn't count.

As it is the winter, my CSA has mainly consisted of root vegetables and a few fruits shipped up from California. As a girl can only have so many potatoes and carrots, I've actually suspended my CSA for the next few months. Before I suspended, I received one last CSA right after I came back from Michigan and it was full of, you guessed it, every single type of potato ever grown. Ok, that's a slight exaggeration but you know what I mean.

I was sick of your standard mashed/baked/toppings-loaded potato and decided to try out something new. I had seen these floating around the Internet and thought it was due time to try them out. Not only do they look insanely fancy as just an appetizer for one, but they were easy to put together too. I can't stress enough how much a Mandoline helps here, but regardless of your tools these will be pretty delightful as a side, appetizer or something to singularly stuff your face with.

And I don't know how fancy you plan on getting for your upcoming Super Bowl VVIIXXVW (or whatever number it is) party, but I recommending throwing in some of these. If anything, the ladies in attendance will be impressed.

Roasted Potato Stacks

Adapted from Sea Salt with Food

Ingredients:

24 Small Mixed Color Potatoes, scrubbed
¼ Cup Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Chopped Rosemary
1 ½ Tbsp Lemon Juice, or to taste
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425˚F.
Lightly oil the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan.
(Peel the purple color potatoes, if using.) Otherwise, slice all the potatoes thinly with a Mandoline or a sharp knife. Wash the potatoes, drain well and pat dry with a paper towel.
In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with olive oil, rosemary, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Stack the potatoes and lay them sideway in a muffin pan and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the potatoes turn crispy on the outside and the flesh is soft.
Transfer the muffin pan to racks to cool for 2 to 3 minutes before carefully removing the potatoes. Serve warm.

Triple Chocolate Strawberry Cake

2011-12-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

This recipe is brought to you by the friendly skies, courtesy of Delta Airlines and the generosity of my dad's frequent flyer miles. I'm totally lying about Delta Airlines, they have no idea who I am. The fact that I am currently writing this post at, oh, about 36,965 feet in the air somewhere over South Dakota (thank you in-seat monitor!) is due to my ol' pops lending me a few thousand air miles so I could make it home for Christmas. This post is not brought to you by the man across the asile watching Twilight or the overly touchy-feely couple next to me. Nope. Not at all.

I'm slowly but surely getting into the Christmas spirit. I would like to think my journey down jolly lane began somewhere in West Seattle sitting in a second-run theater watching a slightly askew showing of "A Very Muppet Christmas". Not only was I good Seattelite and donated a massive bag of dog food to the Humane Society of Seattle (there are more dogs than kids in the city, it's obvious who we love more) but I also roped two of my closest friends into going with me. We left the theater feeling spirited, mainly due to the excitement of the hundreds of children surrounding us, and my skin is losing its green tint and I think my heart has grown at least 1.25 sizes. The last part may be because of holiday food but let us pretend it's from Christmas and going back to the Midwest for the first time in a year.

While I may still be working up to celebrating Christmas, I was surely in the celebratory spirit last weekend. One of my best friends from not only high school, but also college, now lives in Seattle with her boyfriend (also an alum of BHS and Michigan) doing the whole AmeriCorps thing. I can't be the first one to say it's always nice to have a piece of your upbringing in your new home. As her birthday falls at the end of December, she rarely is able to have a birthday party, let alone in the company of twenty plus people. Her boyfriend came up with the idea to throw her an early surprise birthday party with me at the helm helping spread the word. While I guess actually having people at the party is pretty important, I personally think having the perfect cake is crucial.

Casually bringing up the topic of cake at our weekly girls Glee night earlier in the week, the birthday girl in question explained to here that there can be no such thing as too much chocolate. Ever. Triple chocolate diabetic-shock ice cream? Bring it. Girl hath no fear. So I made the most ridiculously over the top chocolate cake. Dark chocolate cake PLUS dark chocolate almond whipped ganache PLUS a dark chocolate cake collar.

OH YEAH.

Oh, and it was pretty cool that a lot of people showed up too the party too. And that 'A' turned 24. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Dark Chocolate Cake

Adapted fron Ina Garten

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup almond milk
2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
2 eggs
1 cup strong black coffee
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking power and salt. Mix together.
In a small glass, milk almond milk and vinegar together with a fork. Allow to sit for a few minutes until almond milk starts to "curdle." (Note: if this doesn't need your cake to be dairy-free, use 1 cup of buttermilk).
In a medium bowl, beat eggs until they begin to froth. Whisk in almond milk mixture, coffee, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.
With mixer running, slowly add in liquid mixture until completely incorporated, taking care not to overbeat the batter.
Divide better evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until tester is inserted into the middle of the cake and comes out clean. When done, leave in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn the cakes out onto a wire rack until completely cool. Frost as desired.

Whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache

This recipe is incredibly flexible. I always do equal parts chocolate and almond milk but you can adjust the ratio to suit your ganache consistency tastes.

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate, chopped
200g almond milk

Directions:

Chop dark chocolate and place in a medium heatproof bowl.
In a small sauce pan, heat almond milk until it starts to boil. Keep on eye on it - it tends to boil over when it's not being watched.
Pour heated almond milk over chopped chocolate and let it sit for one minute. Whisk together until uniform and smooth. Allow to cool completely (I sometimes use my fridge and freezer to speed to up).
When cooled, use a whisk or whisk attachment on a mixer and beat until light in color and the texture of mousse.
Use as desired on cake.

As this was the first time I've ever made a cake collar (I think it turned out pretty decent!), I'll direct your attention to a site that does a much better job explaining the process than I ever could. Here you go.

Tomato-Olive Stuffing

2011-12-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's hard to get into the holiday spirit and I guess this would be one of those times. As a girl from Michigan who was frequently spoiled rotten with a fresh blanket of flakes every few days in December, the adjustment to holiday weather in Seattle has been less than jolly. How am I supposed to feel Christmas in my fingers and my toes when it's a balmy 45 degrees and the ground is damp with freshly fallen rain drops? Bah! HUMBUG!

Tonight I went for a long walk by all the fancy houses in Queen Anne while listening to my favorite podcast's holiday episodes. I took pictures of silly houses and a decked out Space Needle! My cheeks got rosy! I even had to put gloves on… Eventually, I felt some of the spirit slip through me, but I don't have the same urge as in years past to listen to non-stop Christmas music from the day after Thanksgiving to the evening of the 25th. I think I might be broken.

No matter, I am preforming some self-therapy and forcing myself to listen to Sufjan Stevens Christmas album and throwing in the classic Bing Crosby for good measure too. I might even see what holiday offerings Netflix has. No matter what, when I fly into Michigan a week from now, I will be jollier than the man in red himself!

Regardless of if you're a little like me or you're pacifically one of Santa's elves, I'd like to think this stuffing is perfect for the holidays. I personally made it for Friendsgiving (which was ironically a week after real Thanksgiving), which is my mind is one of the greatest holiday's of them all! Friends, lots of wine, more food than we know what to do with and college football playoffs? HECK YES! We know how much I love Friendsgiving so we should move onto the stuffing… it's amazing. Completely out of left field and out of the ordinary amazing. After poking around the internet for a few days looking for a stuffing recipe that didn't make me think of a 1950's Christmas television special, I finally came across something that didn't just call for butter and bread. No no, this had olives, tomatoes and rosemary, oh my! Even though I'm positive tomatoes aren't the least bit in season in Seattle, I was able to find a beautiful box of cherry tomatoes ready for roasting.

While Thanksgiving has passed, Christmas is fast approaching. If you need a dish that reminds you of far-off flavors but in the comfort of your home, look no further. And hey, we can pretend it's totally healthy because it has vegetables in it and stuff.

Tomato-Olive Stuffing
Adapted from The Bitten Word

Ingredients

1 loaf crusty Italian bread, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (approx. 8 cups)
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for baking dish
1 medium yellow onion, diced medium
2 large celery stalks, diced medium
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 cup halved grape tomatoes
1 cup roughly chopped pitted Kalamata olives
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh parsley leaves
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in middle and lower thirds. On two rimmed baking sheets, arrange bread in a single layer. Toast until dry and pale golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool.
Meanwhile, lightly oil a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. In a large skillet, heat olive oil and cook, stirring frequently, until onion and celery are softened, about 7 minutes. Add tomatoes, olives, rosemary and red-pepper flakes and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Add parsley, eggs, and bread; stir to combine. Add broth in two additions, stirring until absorbed after each addition. Season generously with salt and pepper and transfer stuffing to dish. Bake on middle rack until deep golden brown on top, 25 to 30 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.
Great for leftovers, both hot or cold!

Moroccan-ish Carrot Salad

2011-12-08T13:31:00.001-08:00

For the past few ~~weeks~~ months my CSA box has been overloaded with carrots. We're not even talking your standard large orange carrots that cartoon bunnies nibble on, oh no. I have never seen, let alone cooked with, such colorful carrots in my entire life. White ones, purple speckled ones, rainbow bunches and tie-dye ones. I'm totally lying about the last one, but that would be pretty cool except I'm not so sure I'd want to know about the science that brought my hippie carrots.

I had thought I exhausted all the uses for the common carrot. Roasted? Check. Pureed into a variety of soups? Triple check. Gnawed up raw? Yep. In a carrot only salad? No… or at least not until a few weeks ago. I saw this recipe somewhere on the Internet a few weeks back and was excited to finally have a new use for my overflowing collection of carrots. Even better was I didn't have to turn on the oven and cause the heat to rise in my apartment to unbearable levels. That's the curse of having a 400 square foot studio and an incredibly powerful convection oven - the temperature of the oven is pretty representative of the temperature in my apartment. I guess worse things have happened in the world.

While I was pretty happy with this Moroccan-ish carrot salad, there are a few things I would have changed. First off, I don't know if this was my or the recipes error, but I thought the carrots were a tad too firm. The smaller cuts were perfectly tender but some of the larger ones were nearly impossible to penetrate with a fork. As you might imagine, some carrots were leaping off the plate in my attempt to trap then within my tines. Second, I thought carrots alone were a little bland and there wan an excessing of dressing. My remedy was throwing it upon a bed of lettuce and calling it dinner. All in all, good & healthy salad.

Moroccan-ish Carrot Salad

Adapted from Crumb

Ingredients:

1 lb carrots, peeled and sliced
1 tsp each cumin and caraway seeds
1 tsp spicy paprika
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
Salt and pepper
Handful mint leaves, chopped
Handful crumbled goat cheese
Romaine lettuce

Directions:

Blanch the carrots for 2 minutes (note: I would increase the blanching time) in a large pot of boiling water, then plunge into an ice-water bath to stop the cooking process. Once the carrots are completely cooled, drain and transfer to a pretty salad bowl.
Using a dry skillet, toast the cumin and caraway over high heat for about 1-2 minutes or until fragrant. Grind into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder.
Combine the cumin and caraway mixture with the paprika and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and honey. Whisk until blended, then pour over the carrots and toss to coat. Set aside to the flavors meld, about 20-30 minutes.
When ready, serve over romaine lettuce and sprinkle salad with handfuls of chopped mint and crumbled feta.

Chipotle Butternut Squash Soup

2011-12-01T12:39:00.001-08:00

The soup has some serious heat and had the same magical powers as pho. Remember how you feel the need to eat a whole bowl of pho every time you sense a sniffle or start covering coughs? I do. It's made even worse, or better(?), by the fact that there is a pho shop less than a mile away from me. And there isn't even that big of a hill to walk up on the way back. Too bad I don't think unemployment supports a pho-a-day habit so well. Good thing I know my way around a kitchen and can make things that are just as good, if not better, than what I was caving. Well, except Fro-Yo… if I knew how to make that you'd have to lift me out of my apartment window.

When the boy and I made this for dinner a few weeks ago, I can safely say it was the least sexy meal ever. We were both dealing with the consequences the sniffles a la jalapeño & chipotle. For anyone who has had pho, you know that this is the end goal. You want to be cleaned out and warmed up. These minor symptoms of hot soup shouldn't take away from the fact that this soup is delicious. Even more so, I was finally able to use up the butternut squash from my CSA's and fend off a winter cold. BONUS POINTS!

I would advise against eating this soup in the summer, that just might be considered torture.

Chipotle Butternut Squash Soup

Adapted from uTry

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small leek, use white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced and rinsed
well
2 carrots, diced
1 onion, finely diced
1 jalapeño, finely diced
1 Granny Smith (green) apple, cored, peeled, and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
2 pounds Butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut
into 1-inch cubes
1 pound red yam, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
6 cups chicken/vegetable stock
1 medium chipotle chili (canned in adobo sauce),
can substitute with 1 tablespoon of chipotle spice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup pepitas

Directions:

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute garlic, leek, carrots and onion until soft and translucent, about 4 minutes. Add apple, ginger and cook for 3 minutes.
Add butternut squash, yam and stock; simmer until squash and yam are tender, about 15 minutes. Add chipotle or chipotle spice.
Puree using an immersion blender (or a standard blender, in batches).
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Dollop teaspoon of pepitas right before serving.

Pumpkin Swedish Pancakes

2011-11-21T12:19:00.001-08:00

Sometimes, just sometimes, a recipe is so delicious that it doesn't need an expertly shot photo to prove its worth. I didn't whip out my light box, teeter on the edge of my bar stools or clear off the candles on my window ledge to bring you the perfect shot. Heck, I didn't even have my darling D7000 (seriously, I take better care of that camera than I do myself) within a 5 miles radius. Instead I was equipped only with my iPhone (and not even the new fangled 4S at that), a sunny Sunday morning and a delicious well-past-noon brunch. You know what? I'm ok with that. Sure, these pictures won't make it onto Tastespotting but you would be a fool not to make these.

While the Swedes aren't know for putting pumpkin on their plates, I say these Swedish pancakes are still authentic as they were made by a halfsies Swedish boy. I actually think that means these pancakes are a perfect, as they are half Swedish half… not. He adjusted the traditional Swedish pancake recipe by adding in one more egg, omitting the butter, adding agave, mixing up the spices and obviously adding about half a can of pumpkin. The only issue he had is that some of the pancakes teared a little too easily as the moisture content was bumped up. He theorized that throwing in some vital wheat gluten next time might help but I'm asking you, dear readers, do you have any suggestions?

I personally am excited to try these out again and maybe use different purees in place of the pumpkin. They may or may not work but to anyone who knows me, breakfast food is my favorite meal genre and I'm pretty much up to eating or trying anything that is thrown into said category.

Bonus to this post: a sneak peak into how I blog. Under the coves, the presence of pants in questionable, big cup of joe at my side, All Songs Considered podcast playing and handwritten recipe propped up. Sure, it's not fancy but as it is rainy and cloudy right now, it's pretty much the perfect place to be.

Pumpkin Swedish Pancakes

Invented by Andy

Ingredients:

~⅓-½ can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
dash of: cinnamon, all spice, ground cloves, nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup soy milk
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon agave nectar
⅓ cup whole wheat flour
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
Goat butter (to fry in)

Directions:

Whisk together all ingredients, except butter, until the batter is smooth and no lumps remain.
Heat cast iron skillet and melt butter. Add one scoop of batter and cook on one side until lightly browned. Flip and continue cooking on the other side.
Serve warm with a cup of coffee and some pure (Grade B people, please) maple syrup.

Apple Spice Blondies

2011-11-14T18:01:00.001-08:00

The reviews are in on yet another fall-themed apple dessert and there are more than a few sticky thumbs-up in the crowd. Keep in mind there might have been a slight error in tallying the votes as I'm pretty sure a lot of the ladies at girls night were licking their fingers. I know I was constantly licking spoons and stealing apples out of the batter when I was mixing up the dough. Tell me, what is better than apples coated cinnamon-y fall-flavored batter? Nothing? Nothing. That's right - you found my Achilles heel. So anyone who is trying to trick a favor or a slice of cake out of me… use this piece of information wisely.

I came across the recipe when I was trying to look for an alternative to baking a whole apple pie. Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite desserts out there and little is more rewarding than seeing a homemade pie emerge from of the oven. But you see people, it's a lot of work and waiting. The dough, the baking… the resisting of eating apples covered in spices and sugar straight out of the mixing bowl. Sometimes a girl just needs a break. Good thing these apple spice blondies are a pretty good pie substitute without sacrificing flavor.

Before I leave you to the recipe, a piece of wisdom: don't ship your sister these blondies 3,000 miles wrapped in only some tin foil and enclosed in a measly flat rate envelope. It's true, they will show up on her door room stoop flattened like a sheet of paper and virtually inedible. At least she got a sassy card with the package…

Apple Spice Blondies

Adapted from: Beantown Baker

Ingredients:

2 c. plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
small pinch ground cloves
1/2 c. butter substitute, melted
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3 small apples, cored and diced (I used a hodgepodge of apples I picked a few weeks back)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 9x13 pan with foil and baking spray (I doubled the recipe and used one 9x13 and one 8x8 pan because I wanted them to be thicker).
In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Whisk to combine well and set aside.
In bowl of stand mixer, combine sugars and butter and beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well to combine. Add vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Turn mixer on slow and fold in flour mixture a little at a time until just combined. Fold in apples.
Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan.
Place in oven and bake until cooked through, when top slightly bounces back to the touch, about 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool completely before removing from pan, cutting and serving. Bars will be very soft.

Butternut Pizza

2011-11-07T12:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Aperture photo library:

Why did you have to go up and delete a lot of my recently uploaded photos of food? I know you decided to upgrade to the 3.2 version and you probably have some new features that I will probably never use but seriously? What did I ever do to you? Because of you, I am not unable to bring the goods to my adoring (you adore me, right) fans. No maple walnut apple crisp. No rosemary pear cast iron pan cake. Basically, Aperture, right now you are the grinch of the town called The Ginger Cook-ville and I'm none too happy about it.

Lothe,

Katherine

I am completely vented and ready to move onto discussing two of my favorite thing: Glee and pizza. I've mentioned before how, every Tuesday night, my closest Seattle girlfriends and I cook dinner at Katrina's house and watch Glee. Food, show choir and 27-year olds trying to pass themselves off at high schoolers. That is a snapshot into the secret life of the 20-something female people. Do you also remember that I said I would start bringing my camera? I finally did AND I even was able to play cheesy 1970's British photographer with Julie in the backyard while taking some head shots. What I'm basically trying to say is that we're the classiest bunch of ladies you would ever hope to meet.

Julie suggested we make a vacation of her favorite pizza at Proletariat Pizza in White Center. I made my usual half whole wheat thin crust recipe earlier in the day and other ladies were in charge of different ingredients. It's your pretty basic pizza except for that it is topped with shaved butternut squash and loaded with arugula right after it is taken out of the oven. That my friends, is the key to a perfect fall pizza. I must warn you though, this recipe will also probably appear in another location hopefully very soon. We're planning to develop our weekly cooking adventures into the greatest collaborative blog that has ever existed!

Butternut Pizza

1 packet of yeast (about 1 tbsp)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Cup warm water
2 Cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
2 Tbsp Olive Oil, plus more to coat the pan and dough
1 Tsp salt
2-ish cloves of minced garlic
a few shakes of Italian seasoning, oregano, and rosemary

Directions:

Mix yeast, sugar, and warm water. Stir gently until combined and no clumps remain. Let mixture sit for about 5-10 minutes. Add flour, oil, garlic, herbs, and salt, beating in with a spoon. Using your hands, gently push the dough together until it forms into a ball. Kneed for 2-3 minutes. Brush a thin layer of olive oil over the dough and cover with Saran wrap. Let it sit and rise in an oven heated to 100 degrees for about an hour (it only took me 45 minutes), or until doubled in size.
When your dough is ready to go, you can do one big pizza or two pizzas and roll until it is thin. Transfer the rolled dough onto a cookie sheet coated generously with olive oil. Brush a generous amount of olive oil on the top of the dough. Make sure that all parts of the dough is covered in olive oil- both top and bottom. (If it's not completely coated, you won't get an even golden and crispy crust). Poke the dough a few times with a fork (this prevents the dough from bubbling up while in the oven). Bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
Top with your sauce of choice (we used Avanthi's homemade red sauce), shaved butternut squash and goat cheese.
Bake the topped pizza in the 425 degree oven for about 7-10 minutes, or until the cheese melts. Top with arugula right after removed from the oven and wait a few minutes until you cut into it.

Chocolate Pretzel Rings

2011-10-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling a bit lackluster in the kitchen area today, how about you? My CSA box is coming on Thursday and I'm surviving off some delicious, but interesting colored, soups I have been stock piling in my freezer. I did buy two cute little butternut squashes at the Capitol Hill farmers market yesterday but those already have a date planned with some green chard. Essentially, things have been grinding to a halt in my kitchen but fret not! I have a stock-pile of recipes (ok, like two or three recipes) for just this occasion.

Cue the easiest/cutest/most crave-worthy snack ever - pretzels with chocolate and M&M's. Roll your eyes if you must, but I made these for the Superbowl this past February. I already had so many recipes piled up, and this barely counts as a recipe and more of a middle-of-the-night craving, they sort of fell by the wayside and faded into foodie oblivion. However, I recently got a new MacBook Pro and in an effort to try and clear out some of the files clogging up my 'vintage' MacBook before transferring files, I happened upon this photo. Blog post worthy right? At least I'm not posting (yet) about the semi-questionable thing I whip up for lunch sometimes...

My friend's old roommate claims that these are "a total chick magnet" and he likes to casually whip some up and impress a girl with his skills (I use that word very loosely here) in the kitchen. Out of the array of snacks I set out, these were definitely one of the first to go. Even better the M&M colors can easily coordinate for an impending holiday or general season. Easy, cheap, customizable AND a chick magnet? What can go wrong?

Evidenced by the following photo, you can see that some apple treats will soon be making their way onto the blog!

Holiday/Superbowl/Everyday Chocolate Pretzel Rings

Ingredients

Round pretzels
Hershey kisses
M&M’s

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place kisses on baking sheet and drop a pretzel ring over each one.
Pop them in the oven for 2 minutes. (Just until they get soft, but not until they melt. You want them to retain their shape.) As soon as they come out of the oven, gently place an M&M on top of the kiss and push down slightly to fill the pretzel with chocolate.
Stick the baking sheet in the refrigerator until they firm up. Store in an airtight container.

Apple Spice Cake with Maple Goat Milk Buttercream

2011-10-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have those times where you think "we'll, I'm just sitting here on my couch and the Netflix instant streaming queue is a little subpar right now… I should probably write a blog post." You keep thinking this over and over but alas, no blog post. Story of my life right now. I think in the time I thought I wanted to write a blog post I: watched some movies of questionable quality, ate a bowl of popcorn, did my laundry and cooked a whole bunch of things but failed to take photographs of them. Though I have been catching up on emails and planning a camping trip like my life depends on it. I mean, it kind of does but really I'm just procrastinating.

Remember above how I mentioned I've been cooking a lot but failing to take photos? I would like to blame 4 of my best girlfriends, but in reality I continually forget to bring my camera to Tuesday night girl's dinner. That's right, every Tuesday we gather at Katrina's house to drink wine and cook an (according to all her roommates) extravagantly gourmet meal. So far we have made roasted butternut salad with fried sage/goat cheese crostini; whole wheat pizza with caramelized onions, figs & goat cheese; pumpkin cashew coconut curry and last night this delicious fall vegetable galette. I can feel the disappointment and resentment from my parents from the other side of the country; they always urge me to post more "real food."

I'll just set a goal for myself of, no matter what, no excuses, I will bring my camera to dinner next week. Until then, as an act of mid-20's rebellion, I will blog about cake. At least it's a small cake that I made for a boy on his birthday. I think you get negative good karma points if you hate on a birthday cake, especially one for a boy that you think is cute. Disregarding shame and karma points, this cake was perfect for two people and I imagine it would work even better for a small gathering. The boy and I each had a small slice and I sent him off with the rest wrapped up and ready to be frozen. From what I understand, he ate a couple slices for breakfast the next day and polished it off not much later.

While is he a guy and this doesn't mean much because it is common knowledge that all guys are human garbage disposals, this cake was pretty good. A simple spice cake with the addition of grated apples made the cake incredibly moist and light and the maple goat buttercream, as usual, provided an interesting and complex tang. While you can obviously make this cake larger or divide the batter up into cupcake tins, the recipe below works perfectly for two layers of a 5 or 6 inch cake. I used the largest ramekins I had on hand, I'm not exactly sure how large they are.

Apple Spice Cake
Adapted from Raspberri Cupcakes
Ingredients:

2-3 medium apples, peeled then coarsely grated (about 2 cups) 
3/4 cup sugar 
1/4 cup butter substitute (Earth Balance) 
1 cup all purpose flour 
1/2 tsp salt 
1 tsp baking soda soda 
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
1/8 tsp allspice 
1 tsp pure vanilla extract 
1 egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line bottom of ramekins or cake pans tin with parchment paper. Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice in a bowl and set aside.
Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat Earth Balance and sugar together until pale and fluffy in a large mixing bowl, about 5 minutes. Continue beating on high speed and add vanilla and the egg, beating until combined.
Beat in grated apple, and trust me when I say the mixture is supposed to look a little weird and curdled. It's just the addition of the extra moisture from the apples mixing with the fats.
With your mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture until just combined. Spoon mixture into ramekins, filling until they are approximately ¾ full.
Bake in the oven for 30 mins, or until cakes are cooked through (test with a skewer). Depending on your oven and if you use a cake pan or not, this may take a bit longer. Remove from the oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes and cool completely on wire rack.

Spiced Goat Buttercream
Ingredients:

½ goat milk butter
~4 cups powdered sugar
A few glugs (approx. 1/8 cup) of maple syrup
¼ tsp maple extract
¼ tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Beat goat butter until fluffy. Slowly beat in powdered sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Halfway through adding powdered sugar, beat in maple syrup and extracts.

Roasted Carrot & Sweet Pepper Soup

2011-10-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks back I had some surgery. Nothing huge (not in the slightest) but I couldn't eat anything with a consistency tougher than baby food for a week and a half. To add a whole bunch of insult to injury, I got my CSA box two days after surgery; it was full of leafy greens, end of summer vegetables and delicious, delicious peaches.

Usually this would make me skip all the way home but instead I shed a tear for the vegetables that had to fall into the hands of my friends. Giving up some baby bok choy? I've never been so heartbroken. Pattypan squash? Left me in a funk for days. However, anything that I could roast and puree up I kept. End of the day I was left with a bunch of rainbow carrots, an array of sweet peppers, some tomatillo's and a variety of foods I could bring to that Sunday's BBQ. Cue Roasted Pepper Carrot soup with tomatillo salsa.

It was easy to make, had a depth of flavor and magically lasted a few days in my fridge. Even though I made this in a moment of desperation, I'm looking forward to making it again. Actually… what did I get in my CSA box again…?

Roasted Carrot & Sweet Pepper Soup
Adapted from Citrus & Candy

Ingredients:

1 bunch of carrots
3 medium sized sweet bell peppers
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
Salt & Pepper to taste
6 cups of vegetable stock

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425°f and line a roasting tray with baking paper. Peel and chop carrots into 1 inch chunks, cut bell peppers into 1 inch squares and place them in the tray. Drizzle over about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper and toss to coat. Bake for about 45 minutes until carrots are golden and tender. Remove from oven and set aside.
In a pot over medium high, heat up another 2 tablespoons of olive oil and tip in the chopped onions and garlic. Sauté for about 5 minutes until onions are transparent and starting to brown.
Add the spices and stir through. Cook for a minute until fragrant.
Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Add the roasted vegetables and simmer for about 5-10 minutes.
Puree with am immersion blender until desired consistency is reached and continue to simmer. Check the seasoning and adjust to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve soup warm with toast tomatillo salsa.

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Ingredients:

6 tomatillos 
1/2 a white onion 
1/2 cup cilantro 
Juice of a lime 
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Remove husks from tomatillos and wash well to remove stickiness. Place them on a baking tray and roast in the oven for about 15 minutes or until soft and juices start to seep out. Let cool and slice into smaller pieces. Slice onion into smaller pieces as well. In a food processor, combine the tomatillos, white onion, cilantro, lime and salt and pepper to taste. Blend until partly smooth, partly chunky.

Peaches and Cream Cupcakes

2011-09-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of fall in Seattle (well, I guess all over the Northern Hemisphere it is too)… and it is 83 degrees outside. Have I mentioned that sometimes Seattle weather drives me nuts? We get summer weather in the fall and… rain every other time? Whatever, I still love you Seattle and no matter what you do I'm still not budging. That and I really like my apartment. I have a pretty view and a pretty rocking convection oven.

Regretfully, it'll be back to rain come Sunday. That is why I am writing this post outside and drinking a beer (shhh, don't tell anyone it's not 5 o'clock yet!)

As peach season was, and almost still is, in full swing in Washington, my CSA box was loaded with the fuzzy fruit. So much so that I really couldn't eat it all by myself. I churned it into ice cream, baked it into batter and dutifully snacked on slices throughout the day. Still, I had a few left over and and BAM, birthday cupcakes!

When my dear friend, Katrina, turned 24 a few weeks ago we went out to The Saint, a new-ish tequila bar in Capitol Hill. Now if bringing your ergonomic cupcake carrier to the bar doesn't scream "coolest person alive," I don't know what will. Per usual, I topped the cupcake off with my (now) signature goat milk buttercream but I could have never anticipated how well the flavors would mesh together. Sweet n' tangy. It's kinda my thing.

It was apparently everyone else's thing too. I'm not usually one to toot my own horn, but most, if not all, of my friends said "these [were] the best cupcakes I have ever had!" The cupcake is light like a muffin but slightly denser like cake. Of course, having pockets of peaches scattered throughout the batter doesn't hurt either.

Peach Cupcakes with Goat Buttercream
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

3 cups AP flour 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
 1 teaspoon salt
 Pinch of nutmeg
 6 ounces vegan butter substitute (I used Earth Balance), at room temperature
 3/4 cup granulated sugar 
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed 
2 large eggs, lightly beaten 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 1/2 cups almond milk mixed with 1 TBSP of vinegar 
3 large peaches, peeled, cored, and chopped smallish

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 28 muffin cups with paper liners.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and set aside. Cream the vegan butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition, and then the vanilla. Gently mix in the almond milk/vinegar mixture Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the peach chunks.
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Goat Milk Buttercream

1/2 lb goat butter
4 cups powdered sugar

Beat goat butter until fluffy. Slowly beat in powdered sugar a few tablespoons at a time. You may add some vanilla extract but you will lose the pure color coloring and honestly, this buttercream doesn't need it. It tastes like goat cheese!

Cantaloupe Sorbet

2011-09-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't you know, I'm not the biggest fan of cantaloupe in its purest form. Cantaloupe margarita? Sure! Pass the pitcher! Blended into a grocery store fruit salad? Sure! I can handle that. On it's own in a bowl right in front of me? No thanks. I don't know what it is, but even when my mom tried to get me to eat it as a little kid, it was the one food I picked at and refused to eat. I think it's a texture thing. Maybe?

Regardless, I got a big ol' cantaloupe in my CSA box a few weeks back and had a boy from coming over for dinner. I had two issues at hand. One, I had to use said cantaloupe. Two, I had to make a dessert to impress said boy. After flipping though a cookbook or two, I landed on Sir Lebovitz's cantaloupe sorbet.

You know what? I loved it. And I loved it just as much when I finished it off a few days ago. My friend Matt loved it when he came over to drink wine. Moral of the story, even people who who don't like cantaloupe will love this sorbet.

What I love most if that the sorbet still retains all of the cantaloupe flavor, isn't overly sweet and the lime perfectly sets off the flavor. So if you get a CSA full of melons, look no further!

Cantaloupe Sorbet
Adapted from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop, p. 111.

Ingredients:

1 cantaloupe
1/2 cup sugar (more or less to taste, I went with less)
1/2 lime juiced
Splash of gin

Directions:

Carefully remove the skin from the cantaloupe, cutting where the green skin just meets the light orange fruit. Halve the cantaloupe and remove and discard the seeds. Dice into large 1 inch chunks. Place fruit into the bowl of a food processor along with sugar, lime juice and gin.
Puree until smooth. Cool in the fridge.
Pour mixture into prepared ice cream maker for 25-35 minutes. At first, it looks like nothing is happening, but in the 20th minute or so, the sorbet will begin to thicken and come together. When the sorbet is thick, remove from the machine and place into a storage freezer-proof container. Freeze for at least one hour before serving.

DIY Iced Coffee

2011-09-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty picky about my coffee, but I think that comes with the territory of living both in Seattle and a part of the country where, in the winter, the sun doesn't rise until 9am and it starts setting at 2:00. Oh geeze, I didn't mean to get off to such a negative start there… oops. Hey! We have the most gorgeous summers in the whole United States! Positivity! As I type this I'm sitting on my couch staring out at clear blue skies, Mt Baker and float planes taking off & landing in Lake Union. How many of you can say you did THAT today? Well, minus the 3 million-ish inhabitants of the Seattle Metro area.

Right, back to the coffee. As you can probably tell, I may have had a bit too much of it this morning. It's pretty easy to overdo. Not only is iced coffee much more concentrated, when it's mixed with some almond milk and a little bit of stevia extra… it's incredibly hard to stop myself. It also doesn't help that I refuse to drink it in anything other than my treasured possibly-stolen-from-The-Cabin mason jar!

FOCUS. I had seen "recipes" (I use that term incredibly loosely) floating around the internet for a while now. As I usually order iced coffee from Cafe Ladro as much as possible in the summer, I figured making it at home would save me a small fortune. It's pretty simple: stir together some coffee grounds with water, let it steep while you sleep, strain, & BAM. MAGIC. As the name suggests, iced coffee is served over ice so all that magic you just made lasts forever. For me at least 1 billion dollars at the coffee shop worth.

Sadly, as summer and kinda coming to a close, I'll have to start making the switch back over to Americano's. Who wants to be my sugar daddy and either serve me Americano's in bed every morning or buy me an espresso machine? I'm really not too picky.


Standing on high counters + living alone = bad idea. Crisis = averted. Sorry, Mom.

DIY Iced Coffee

Ingredients:

For the coffee base:
14 oz. ground dark roast coffee (one small Trader Joe's canister!)
7 quarts cold water

Directions:

Combine the ground coffee and cold water in one very large container or split equally between two bowls. Stir well so that all of the coffee grounds are moistened.
Cover and let the mixture sit at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight.
Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth. Pour the coffee-water mixture through the sieve into storage containers to remove the grounds. Store the coffee base in the refrigerator to keep chilled.
Pour over ice, stir in your favorite milk or milk alternative and sweetener of choice. Sip & saver.

Shaved Fennel Salad

2011-08-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Being an adult can be pretty awesome. You can buy fancy beer, even though I sometimes still blush when they card me. I really should stop doing that, I've been "of age" for a while now.

You can eat pints of blueberries and bunches of carrots from farmers markets and call it lunch. No one is judging.

You can fly your best friend (since the age of 11!) up from Texas just to make her go on a hike with you. No, we did other stuff but really, who are we kidding…

A few days later you can hike up the side of a mountain and stay up late. Did I mention I did this all in the past few days? No? Yeah, sometimes being an adult is cool. These are some of the major pros.

Other times, I eat popcorn sans pants and call it dinner when I don't have much time on my hands. Don't judge me. When you're an adult you'll see all things are possible. This salad? One of the awesome parts of being an adult. One week I got a surplus of vegetables I don't usually cook with in my CSA box. I had eaten fennel before but had yet to cook with it. Adult arugula? POUNDS of zucchini? Good thing a few days before I finally purchased Heidi Swanson's "Super Natural Everyday."

While anyone who is even slightly acquainted with me knows that I have a slight addiction to cookbooks. Some I rarely use and others that every page is splattered in stains. Already this one belongs in the latter category. As the name of the book implies, all of the recipes are as natural as possible and relatively free of "additives" (sugars, refined grains, etc).

Moral of the blog post: this salad is easy to put together, you can make it ahead and everyone will think you're a super fancy adult.

Shaved Fennel Salad
Adapted from Super Natural Everyday

Ingredients:

1 medium-large zucchini, sliced into paper thin coins
 2 small fennel bulbs, trimmed and shaved paper-thin 
2/3 cup loosely chopped fresh dill 
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, plus more if needed 
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
 fine grain sea salt
 4 or 5 generous handfuls arugula 
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
 1/3 cup goat milk feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

Combine the zucchini, fennel and dill in a bowl and toss with the lemon juice, olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside and marinate for 20 minutes, or up to an hour.
When you are ready to serve the salad, put the arugula in a large bowl. Scoop all of the zucchini and fennel onto the arugula, and pour most of the lemon juice dressing on top of that.
Toss thoroughly. Taste and adjust with more of the dressing, olive oil, lemon juice, or salt if needed. Serve topped with sunflower seeds and feta.

Lavender Cupcakes with Lemon Goat Milk Buttercream

2011-08-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

So, these cupcakes were supposed to be a little fancier than they are. Now, I’m not discrediting my skills. No no, these cupcakes just as good, if not better, than I expected. It's just that I was looking forward to decorating them in a certain way. I had been watching and reading tutorials on how to make flowers with buttercream. I even spent a whole two dollars on a new tip. Moral of the story: don’t use zest in buttercream when you intend to use a tip with a tiny opening. It gets all sorts or clogged and the user (read: me) get's all sorts of frustrated.

As luck would have it, I have about 20 other frosting tips littering a drawer in my kitchen. I pretty much closed my eyes, reached in and felt for one that was not too big and not too small. The Goldilocks of piping tips.

Other than the slight issue with the buttercream, I actually had a blast making these. While I had dabbled in baking with goat butter/milk before, this is the first time all aspects of the cake were goatified. Is that a word? No? Moving on…

Regardless, even though goat butter is about double the price ($5 for 1 cup) and so far I’ve only been able to track it down at Whole Foods, it really makes a difference. PEER PRESSURE. Not really, you’re more than welcome to use some unsalted butter but don’t say I didn’t warn you… The combination of the soft lavender with the tang of goat makes a full bouquet of flavors. And the buttercream? Oh jeeze, if that much sugar didn’t put me into a coma nor make me the size of a blue whale, I would eat it every day. No one wants to see a passed out Katherine the size or a blue whale with a mane of red hair. SCARY.

Lavender Cupcakes

Adapted from Yummy Mummy

Ingredients:

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
1/2 cup goat butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons goat milk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F; line a 12 count muffin pan with paper liners.
Put the sugar and lavender flowers in a food processor. Process briefly to combine.
Tip the lavender sugar into a bowl with the butter and beat together until pale and fluffy.
Beat the eggs into the butter mixture, one at a time, then sift in the flour and fold gently. Stir in the milk, then spoon the mixture into the muffin cups.
Bake for about 18 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Lemon Buttercream

Ingredients:

1 cup goat butter, softened
4+ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of one lemon
Yellow food coloring (optional)

Directions:

In a clean bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until fluffy. Beat in lemon juice and zest then slowly add in sugar a few tablespoons at a time. Add more or less sugar depending on desired consistency.

Papaya Chipotle Pineapple Chicken with Almond Soy Soba Noodles

2011-08-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't you know, I cooked chicken last night and didn't set off the fire alarm. Now, for most people, this would be a no brainer. You see, I am not like most people... I was a vegetarian (and a strict one at that) for the majority of my life and never learned how to cook meat. It has to be cooked to a certain temp so you don't die or some brain disease? What? Moral of the story, I am slightly challenged when it comes to meat. Either I try to pan fry it and the fire alarm goes off. Or I try to cook it solely in the oven and the fire alarm goes off. Tough times.

But ah ha! I can pan sear it and then put it in the oven. Result? Juicy, delicious and full of marinade. Saying I did a little dance to some Justin Timberlake in my kitchen would be an understatement. If I had room in my studio apartment, I would have done cartwheels.

While the chicken would go great on a bed of anything (well, not everything), I decided to use my new julienne mandoline, a fresh pack of soba noodles and went wild. As I don't like eating too many noodles, the julienned zucchini added to the dish without weighing it down.

Papaya Chipotle Pineapple Chicken with Almond Soy Soba Noodles

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
Marinade of choice (I used a Papaya Chipotle Pineapple, recipe to come later)
Splash of olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
2 oz soba noodles
1/2 medium zucchini, julienned
1/2 Medium carrot, julienned
1/8 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/8 cup almond butter
Few splashes of soy sauce
Sweet chili sauce (garnish, optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil and set side.
Heat a cast iron skillet (or another large skillet) over medium heat. Add oil. When oil easily moves around the pan, add the chicken skin-side down. Allow the chicken breasts to cook undisturbed for about two minutes. When the skin is golden brown, turn the breasts over and cook for another minute or two. Carefully pour in the wine. Cook one minute.
Move the chicken to the baking sheet and pour the wine over the top. Place chicken in the oven and roast until 160 degrees is reached. Remove the chicken and allow to rest for a few minutes.
Cook soba noodles according to package directions.
While noodles are cooking, prepare your vegetables and set aside. In a small bowl, mash the almond butter and soy sauce together with a fork.
Drain the noodles, return to the pot and thoroughly mix in vegetables and almond soy sauce.
Plate, serve and enjoy. Can be served either hot or cold.

Lentil, Roasted Turnip and Chard Soup

2011-08-04T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm baaacccckkk. Wait, what... you didn't know I was gone? Oh, this is awkward... well, I was gone. I even left the state of Washington and headed on down to California for the first time ever. You read that right, I had never never been to California before this vacation. I can finally call myself an American. I did what you'd expect me to do while on vacation. I took silly pictures with my little sister:

Smile, Caroline, you're on TGC!

Hung out in touristy parks doing touristy things like taking ironic pictures with my iPhone:

See that yellow house in the middle? Yeah, the Tanner family lived there!

And essentially took a sight-seeing flight back home to a (gratefully) sunny Seattle:

Sup Shasta?

I know you though, you're here for the food.

A soup recipe in the middle of August? I know, it’s cruel and highly unusual considering 99.9% of the country in melting away in 100+ degree heat waves. But you see, I live in the .1% of the country whose summer only just started. Yes, you read me right, most days we don’t crack 80 degrees. Just two or three weeks ago, it was in the 60’s, raining and I was eating my body weight in Pho just to stay warm. My family was out visiting and I found myself saying over and over again “I swear it’s nicer in Seattle in the summer, I swear.” Then I left for San Francisco and when I came back, it has been continual high-70’s sunny days. With low humidly.

I probably shouldn’t have told you that. Now you’re all going to move here and my rent will go up. Please ignore the last paragraph and read all my other posts about the rain here. And STAY AWAY.

So this soup – it’s healthy, full of fresh veggies and relies on (hopefully) some of your pantry staples. If you don’t have lentils continually on hand, please, head over to your nearest Whole Foods/Food Co-Op/bulk grocery store, grab the biggest bag you can find, fill it up, don’t break your back carrying it home and enter lentil land.

You’ll thank me.

I’m also happy to say this recipe is 95.6% my own. Researching the contents of my CSA box, I had never cooked with turnips before, and looking at what's in my pantry, this soup just kind of came to be. It’s pretty adaptable for any ingredients you have on hand. Just replace the turnips with another root vegetable (taters, carrots... bigger turnips), the chard with another cooking green and you could even substitute the lentils with white beans, or something of the like.

Lentil, Roasted Turnip and Chard Soup

Ingredients:

Bunch of baby turnips (I used about 7 or 8)
Splash of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 large onion, diced finely
4 gloves garlic, minced
5-6 cups vegetable broth
1 t. cumin
1/2 t. coriander
1 ½ cup green lentils
Bunch of chard, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1-2+ teaspoons of hot sauce(I'm very liberal with my hot sauce)

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel and dice the baby turnips into approximately ½" cubes. Spread the turnips events on a jelly roll pan, toss with olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Roast for 20-25 minute or until the edges are brown, taking care to stir halfway through cooking.
Saute the onion and garlic in a enameled cast iron pot (or any other heavy-bottomed pot) until the onions are translucent and starting to brown. Add the vegetable broth, lentils, some more salt & pepper and spices. Bring up to a strong simmer.
Partially cover the pot and cook for about 40 minutes. If you notice that the soup seems to be drying out, add more vegetable broth or water.
Stir in the chard and turnips until the chard begins to wilt, about 10 minutes. Add in some hot sauce, but don't feel obligated.
Can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week and a half (it gets a lithely sketchy after that)

Cranberry Lemon Granola

2011-07-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

People in the Pacific Northwest are supposed to be all “crunchy and granola,” right? So, technically speaking, I am fulfilling my stereotypical duties by making granola…? Obviously the logic is there. I own flannel, bought into a CSA, own an embarrassing amount of Chaco shoes and more outdoor gear than I know what to do with. But still no crunchy granola…

I had wanted to make my own granola for a long time. Heck, the first recipe ever posted on my blog was for homemade granola bars! But as time went on, I still found myself without a jar full of some Ginger Cook Granola (I would totally market that by the way, it has a nice ring to it). A few weeks ago, when I wasn’t feeling that well but still wanted to be in the kitchen, I decided to up and make it. I had oats on hand, natural sweeteners, dried fruit, nuts and all things delicious. I even had some citrus on hand to zest!

Now that I’ve made it, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to buying granola from the store. Not only was making it from scratch SO CHEAP (how DO they get off charging us $6 for a tiny bag in the stores?), but I had SO much and it didn’t take much time at all! Throw together some ingredients, bake, cool down and watch yourself devour every last bit in a few days. I mean, that’s what happened with me but I somehow came down with the death flu and it was the only thing I could manage to eat. And eat it I did!

I think the next batch I made I want to have a little bit of a topical feel – toasted coconut, dried mango, dried pineapple and some macadamia nuts. Maybe?

Cranberry Lemon Almond Granola

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp salt
5 cups rolled oats
Zest from 2 lemons
1/2 cup honey
6 TBSP canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
A little bit of lemon juice
Almonds, roughly chopped (at your discretion, about 1 ½ cups)
Dried cranberries (again, at your discretion, about 1 ½ cups)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a large bowl, toss together all dry ingredients except cranberries.
In a small bowl, combine honey, canola oil, a bit of lemon juice and vanilla extract. Whisk to fully combine. Pour over dry ingredients and toss until thoroughly coated. Divide mixture between cookie sheets, spreading into a thin layer.
Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Stir around granola, and rotate pans. Bake an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until deep golden brown. Watch carefully, it can burn!
Remove from oven and cool completely. Add dried cranberries. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Quinoa Tabbouleh

2011-07-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter is coming out next week. So. Freaking. Excited. I mean, I am reading, errrm listening to on tape, all the Harry Potter books in preparation. I'd like to say I'm going to watch the movies too but seriously, I have a life people. As I blog I'm on The Chamber of Secrets, somewhere around 11 minutes into chapter 15. So if I randomly type an "alohamora!" or "but 'Arry!!!", please, don't be alarmed.

Even though I've been listening to HP non-stop, I've still been eating. Can you think of anything better than listening to Stephen Fry while eating some tabbouleh? I didn't think so. I made this a week or so back soon after I received my first CSA box. I had a bunch of new & fancy ingredients as well as a well stocked pantry. Pouring through my surplus of cookbooks, I came about this recipe.

If you've ever gone to a hot bar with me at Metropolitan Market, Whole Foods, PCC…etc, you know I ALWAYS get tabbouleh. ALWAYS. However, I had never made it at home before. Nor have I ever bought Bulgar. You'd think I would but no. I don't always think ahead. But when I saw that I had all the ingredients for a this recipe, I'm pretty sure I squealed with joy.

The ingredients are fairly adaptable, but I'd try and stick to the more traditional ingredients as much as possible. I also increased the amount of parsley and lemon juice so if you aren't a fan of these, feel free to reduce the amount.

Quinoa Tabbouleh

Adapted from The Moosewood Restaurant Cooking for Health

1 cup of quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups water (or you can use 1 cup of veggie broth with one cup of water)
1/4 tsp salt
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
4 scallions, minced
1 large garlic clove, very finely chopped
1 cup parsley, chopped
1 bunch mint, washed, leaves removed
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice from one lemon
2 tbsp olive oil plus a couple glugs extra
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Rinse and drain the quinoa in a fish mesh strainer. In a medium sized sauce pan, bring the quinoa, water and salt to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer until the water has been completely absorbed (however, you don’t want to it be dry) and the quinoa is tender. This should take about 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork, transfer to a bowl and set aside.
While the quinoa is cooking, finely chop the bell pepper, tomato, parsley and mint and mince both the scallions and garlic. Add them to the serving bowl with the cooked quinoa. Pour on the lemon juice and olive oil, mix well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Can be served both warm or at room temperature.

Chicken Curry Pita

2011-06-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

I rarely cook chicken. I think it’s kinda icky to prepare and I’m really bad about washing my hands. No, not in that way. You don’t have to worry about the food that I’m cooking for you. I don’t lick my fingers THAT much and I always wash my hands before stepping into the kitchen to cook. Super convincing I know, but what I mean is I don’t like that I need to wash my hands so often when I’m cooking meat. If I want to turn on the sink to wash my hands after cutting chicken I need to contort my body into some funky yoga pose. All that work to flip a faucet with my elbow. Tisk tisk. How do I avoid this problem? I stay pretty much vegetarian in the home.

But as I am posting this recipe, I obviously cook chicken every once and a while. When I do, I’m always rewarded with protein filled goodness. Anyways, cooking meat is a pretty challenging for me and I always need a challenge in the kitchen. I can’t always be cooking cupcakes and casseroles.

I’m really not doing a good job at telling you that you should cook this recipe right away. The dish reminded of me of swimming rama, but without peanut butter. Even though it’s dairy free, the sauce has a very creamy taste and texture and gave me a much needed creamy fix. The best part is that the meal comes together quite quickly. As the chicken is chopped into small pieces, it doesn’t take long to cook.

However, I found that if you stop cooking as soon as the chicken is done, your sauce will be a little thin. If you like it like this, I would recommend serving it with some rice and treating as a curry dish. Keep in mind that I’m difficult and wanted to eat my chicken in a pita dangit! This meant that I needed to both reduce the sauce (read: cook longer) and add a cornstarch slurry. Even though the recipe didn’t originally didn’t call for a sauce thickener, I found it to be too thin “on its own.”

Did I forget to mention, I am officially 100% cow’s milk free but I CAN eat gluten (praise the kitchen overlords!). I had a very bad reaction when I tried reintegrating dairy but no such problems eating goat cheese. This is a prognosis I can live with, I mean, goat cheese/milk/butter is classier anyways. Keep your eyes peeled for some goats milk ice cream and cookies!

Chicken Curry with Warm Pita Bread
Adapted from Healthy Dairy-Free Eating

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of ready-made Thai red curry paste
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon coconut milk
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon almond milk
7 oz boneless skinless chicken, thinly sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
Salt & pepper to taste
3 tablespoons cornstarch slurry (optional)
Handful of snow peas
2 pita breads, warmed
1/8 cup, loosely packed, basil, cut chiffonade

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over low heat. Add the curry paste and warm for 15 seconds making sure not to burn the mixture
Slowly pour in the coconut cream and almond milk, stir to combine. Add the chicken and increase the heat to medium and continue cooking until the chicken is done. If needed, add the cornstarch slurry & stir to combine.
Season with the soy sauce, sugar, salt & pepper. Add the snow peas and cook for a few more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in basil.
Serve the chicken curry in warmed pita bread or over rice.

The Ginger Cook

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