Desserts for Breakfast

TGIF: summer memories, in film

2012-05-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

When I went to Yosemite last year, I took along a disposable waterproof camera in addition to the dSLR. Since my dSLR isn't weatherproofed, I didn't want to ruin it when we climbed too close to the intense waterfall that was thundering about us last year due to heavy rains/snows. But, when we got home, I promptly forgot all about the disposable and didn't get the pictures developed until now--a year later!

I used to shoot a bit of film when I was a kid with an old half-frame camera that my dad gave me, but I'm very much a photographer who came of age in the digital medium, so it's been slow-going getting myself back into the analog formats. Of course, a disposable camera won't give you the best quality photos, but it is kind of fun to shoot willy-nilly, trusting only your instincts and not knowing how things will turn out until you retrieve the prints from the developer. The above photo of the trees is my favorite, but I couldn't resist also sharing some pictures of rainbows and misty waterfalls. :)

Back to recipes next week. This week was all about catching my breath after we finally sent the first issue of sated to the printer! Happy Weekend, all!

Almond and Blackberry Cake, with a hint of chocolate

2012-05-15T00:54:00.001-07:00

To all of the women out there: Happy belated Mothers' Day! Not just to my mom but to every one of you who has taken care of me, nurtured me, supported me, given me secret family apple pie recipes and jars of unparalleled delicious spaghetti sauce, taught me patience and diligence and the power of hard work, believed in me even when I do not, pushed me (even in kindergarten) to dream big, given me bear hugs when I have fevers, answered my incessant and possibly idiotic questions, tolerated my extreme and annoying tenacity, provided hope when everything seemed to be falling apart, defended me against unfair injustices in the world (despite the fact that the world is unfair), shared adventures and moments that become my favorite memories, and the million other things that make me, me: to you all, a huge and resounding and all-too-well-deserved thank you.

[my mom's customary mothers' day orchids]

Here's the Mothers' Day dessert that my family shared this past weekend. Since it's a holiday, a cake was of course in order, but I wanted to make it simple, not-overly-rich or sweet--just the way my mom prefers it (she's constantly trying to bake cookies without sugar or butter or eggs, sometimes resulting hilariously but endearingly in, er..., crackers with chocolate chips), but I still wanted to make it special. So I turned to David Lebovitz/Chez Panisse's almond cake. It's a cake recipe that I've played with almost every which way you can imagine--as cupcakes with raspberries inside, as pound cakes with chocolate ganache (which I made for my dissertation proposal defense to butter up (ha!) my committee), as plain bundt cakes. While this recipe is so, so versatile and delicious no matter how you slice it, I could never exactly settle on a particular recipe use that I really truly loved enough to post.... until now. Enter in the perfectly dramatic yet all so simple almond and blackberry cake with a hint of chocolate.

[click on photo below for a larger image]

The almond cake, made of almond paste, is so fluffy and moist--the texture is just the right mix of dense and yielding, with a wonderful golden-brown crust. On top, the berries are macerated in sugar and meyer lemon juice, with a bit of orange blossom water, but are still tart enough against the intense almond flavor of the cake. Tying it all together--and my favorite touch to this recipe--is the generous sprinkle of bittersweet chocolate curls on top. This hint of chocolate, in the ultra-airy form of small curls, lends just the right amount of depth and interest to the whole cake--berries, almonds, and all. I actually think that chocolate isn't used enough as an accent flavor. Too often we just see wholly chocolate recipes where chocolate is the main component, but it has so much potential as a complement to other flavors! (an episode of the Japanese anime Yakitate!!Japan comes to mind whenever I think about chocolate this way, where one of the main characters makes a pastry studded with fresh fruit. As a final, knock-out, seal-the-victory touch, he outlines the fresh fruit with chocolate to add depth and to make the fruit shine even more. For whatever reason, that scene sticks with me so profoundly. btw, I'm not a big anime watcher, but this was a series about bread and pastry arts, which is why it's one of the very few anime series I've ever seen!)

Speaking of chocolate, I am incredibly pleased to announce that pre-orders for sated are now live, so click here to pre-order your copy today! For this first release, we're using a print-on-demand printer, so I encourage you to pre-order a copy in order to get it right when it's released rather than having to wait for the second printing. I cannot believe that it's actually happening, that the magazine, after all these months of planning and work, is actually coming out! Also, stay tuned to the sated website, because previews of the magazine will be up very shortly, so you'll get a first glimpse of what's inside issue number one: the dark chocolate issue. Yipee! (for those who have asked: yes, there is an international shipping option.)

Read on for recipe....

Almond and Blackberry Cake
cake recipe roughly adapted from David Lebovitz
makes one 8x3-inch cake

for cake:
3/4 (105 g) + 1/4 (35 g) all-purpose flour
2 tspn baking powder
3/4 tspn salt
1 1/4 (250 g) sugar
8 oz (225 g) almond paste
1 cup (8 oz/225 g) butter, at room temperature
1 tspn orange blossom water
1 1/2 tspn almond extract
6 large eggs, at room temperature

for topping:
12 oz. blackberries
1 Tbspn sugar
juice of half a meyer lemon
1/4 tspn orange blossom water, opt.
bittersweet (72%) chocolate curls (see note)

1. for cake. Preheat oven to 325° F. Butter and flour the insides of an 8 x 3-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a parchment round. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk to combine ¾ cup (105 g) flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the remaining ¼ cup (35 g) of flour, sugar, almond paste, and butter. Process until the almond paste is finely ground and well-combined with the butter.
4. Add in the orange blossom water and the almond extract and pulse briefly to combine.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, processing well between each addition. Continue to process until the mixture is smooth and light.
6. Add the flour mixture to the batter in two additions, pulsing briefly after each addition just until combined, but do not overmix.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the oven for 60 – 65 minutes, until the top is brown and the sides are just beginning to pull away from the pan. Remove from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.
8. Run a thin knife around the edge of the pan and turn the cake out. Place upright on a wire rack and let cool completely.
9. for topping. In a bowl, gently toss to combine the blackberries with the sugar, meyer lemon juice, and orange blossom water, if using. Let sit for 10 minutes. Top the cake with the blackberries and sprinkle liberally with chocolate curls before serving.

Note: To make chocolate curls, heat a block of chocolate on high in the microwave for 5 - 10 seconds. The key is just to warm it very slightly but not to melt the chocolate. Run a vegetable peeler along the flat edges of the chocolate block to create the curls. Keep curls cool before use.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Passionfruit Tart

2012-05-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend was packed with so many birthdays and trying to squeeze in developing, baking, and eating two birthday desserts between birthday dinners and work and friends visiting from afar and gearing up for the imminent sated launch! -- Clearly everyone and their mothers are born in May, so if you're a May baby: Happy Birthday!

Anyways, though I didn't manage to get very many photos of this dessert, I have to say that this strawberry passionfruit tart is one of my favorite developments recently. Richard, the spoiled bf who knows to request tarts and not cupcakes for his birthdays, is a mad-lover of strawberries, so for years now, I've tried my hand at various ways to incorporate strawberries into his birthday desserts: strawberry cheesecake ice cream, strawberry rosemary tarts, actual strawberry cheesecake, strawberry cream puffs. But then I realized that he really wants just one thing: the strawberries--cut the whole 'dessert' crap. So this year, I attempted to make the most unadulterated strawberry dessert I could, with straight-up strawberries (and just strawberries!) filling a meyer lemon-scented crust and brushed with tart passionfruit jelly, since passionfruit is one of Richard's other fruit obsessions. And success! basically, a dessert vehicle for delivering strawberries to the mouth. :)

For this tart, make sure to look for small, ultra-sweet strawberries. Since the strawberries are the main focus of this dessert, it's paramount that they are delicious specimens. The bigger ones this time of year don't pack nearly as much flavor. Small strawberries are also easier to fit into the tart shell, and if they're small enough, you can (if, like me, you're short on time) skip the step of hulling the inner white of the strawberries out.

Don't forget to enter for a chance to win a copy of sated magazine when it comes out, if you haven't already! Pre-orders should be starting sometime in the next week or so, so stay tuned!

Read on for recipe....

Strawberry Passionfruit Tart
makes one 9x9-inch square tart

for tart shell
1 1/2 cups (210 g) flour
1 1/2 Tbspn dark brown sugar
1/4 tspn salt
2 tspn freshly grated meyer lemon zest
10 Tbspn butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1 Tbspn fresh meyer lemon juice
1/2 tspn vanilla
1 - 2 Tbspn cold water

1. Combine the flour, dark brown sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a bowl. Mix.
2. Using a pastry cutter or a fork, cut the butter into the flour mixture until butter is the size of small peas.
3. Mix in the lemon juice and vanilla into the flour mixture. Gradually add the water just until a dough forms when pressed between your fingers. Do not overmix.
4. Form the dough into a flat disc, wrap with parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until about 1/8-inch thickness and place in the tart pan, pressing the dough gently into the sides. Trim and discard any excess dough. Prick the bottom of the dough all over with a fork. Return to the refrigerator and chill for at least 10 - 15 minutes.
7. Place a piece of parchment paper over the dough and weigh down with pie weights or dry beans. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until the edges begin to turn golden. Remove the weights and parchment paper and continue to bake for 3 - 5 minutes more, until the entire tart crust is golden.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

for filling
2 - 3 punnets strawberries
1 Tbspn water
1/4 + 1/8 tspn gelatin powder
1/4 cup passionfruit pulp or puree
1 1/2 Tbspn sugar
whipped cream, optional

1. Trim the green end off the strawberries and arrange in the cooled tart shell.
2. Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin powder over the water and let sit briefly.
3. In a small saucepan, stir to combine the passionfruit and sugar. Add the gelatin and warm over low heat until, stirring until the gelatin has completely dissolved. Do not let boil.
4. Once dissolved, remove from heat and let cool briefly. Spoon or brush a thin layer of the passionfruit onto the strawberries--do not use all of the passionfruit. Place the tart in the refrigerator to let the first layer of jelly set. Keep the passionfruit at room temperature. After about 20 - 30 minutes, brush another layer of passionfruit jelly onto the tart and return to chill. Repeat once more, using the remainder of the passionfruit. Tart is ready to serve when the jelly has set completely. Serve with whipped cream, if desired.

Enjoy!

TGIF: Italy memories to hold in my hand

2012-05-04T00:12:00.000-07:00

Too often I find myself completely forgetting about moments and travels and memories because the photos are all buried away in some nondescript folder in some other nondescript folder on my external back-up hard drive. I often wish for the days where we still printed out our photos all the time--it's so much easier to just pull down a photo album from my bookshelf while I'm randomly walking by and flip through old times than to plug in my hard drive and go searching through folders to find photos and their respective catalogs to browse. After my recent Italy trip, I decided that I didn't want to have everything hidden away, encrypted onto some spinning disc anymore. Instead, I wanted to be able to hold the memories of our trip in my hands whenever I wanted to and slowly browse, flipping the pages over one by one, to relive the sights we saw and the experiences we had. So I made a book from the photographs that I and my travel companions made (with everything from my big camera to our phones). And I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have this printed travelogue (beautifully printed by Blurb) in my hands. The whole aesthetic experience of pages, paper, hardbound covers, ink on a page, matte gloss over the photos--I wish we had more of this in our all-too-digital lives these days, which is why sated magazine is going to be a print publication.

But, since I can't have all of you over for a cup of tea and an Italy book-viewing experience, here are some of my favorite spreads in the book, for digital viewing. In addition to part of the photography (there are also photographs in here from my friends who were in Italy with me), I also designed the whole thing from scratch, which was quite the undertaking for a non-designer like myself, but I'm quite excited by and proud of the results!

[click on photo below to enter a full-screen view]

much, much more after the jump....

[Edit: For the curious who have asked, I used Adobe InDesign with the Blurb plug-in to design the book, and it's the Standard Portrait option on Blurb.]

Announcing sated magazine! and Earl Grey Dark Chocolate Cupcakes and a giveaway!

2012-05-01T00:37:00.001-07:00

Grab a cupcake, have it ready, because today is a celebration of a BIG announcement. Okay, are you ready? Because here we go......!

May I proudly announce a project that has been nearly a year in the making....

drum roll please.......

sated magazine!

I am so, so excited to announce, jointly with the wonderful Anita Chu of Dessert First, a new gastronomy publication, sated magazine.

This is the project that I have been hinting at and alluding to all over the place for the past few months on the blog and via twitter/instagram. It's what has taken up all of my life and energy between dissertation-work spurts. There is so much to tell you all about sated that I don't even know where to start, even though I've been dying to reveal the secret for months and months now!

What is sated?
Sated is a quarterly print publication that is dedicated to exploring and appreciating a single food subject at a time in great depth, through a combination of recipes, art, photography, stories, and articles. For me, it is the ultimate culmination of our love, fascination, geeky-ness, and complete obsession with food: where it comes from, its beauty, its stories, the people and places involved.

Where did sated come from?
Many, many months ago now, Anita and I were discussing--over dessert, naturally!--our inspirations and aspirations and frustrations, and in a combination of all these things, we discovered that we had shared dreams and visions about what we want and hope to do in the food world. That's when the concept for sated was born: it was to be our collective dreams about food poured into magazine form. Since then, we've worked so many hours bringing together this first issue (and planning the next ones!), though it wasn't until very, very recently when I could finally believe that this was all happening, that sated was actually going to launch for all to see. :D!

The first, inaugural issue of sated is coming in May and is dedicated to all things dark chocolate. We'll be releasing teasers and revealing more details of the issue in the coming weeks leading up to its launch, but suffice it to say that we've got it all--dark chocolate recipes of your dreams, a behind-the-scenes look into chocolate-making, articles and how-tos about chocolate, and lots and lots and lots of chocolate imagery. Though largely produced by Anita and myself, we have also had a great starting team of contributors working with us, including but not limited to the talented Kamran of the sophisticated gourmet and the ever-fascinating Dan Jurafsky of language of food. Anyways, I can't reveal too much now, but to stay up-to-date on all of the news leading up to the big launch in May, you can follow the sated magazine blog, the official satedmag twitter feed, and sign up for our mailing list!

Also, to celebrate the big reveal of sated, Anita and I are giving away to two copies of the premier issue of the magazine to readers of our blogs, since without all y'alls continued and enthusiastic support, none of this could ever be happening! There are many chances for you to enter the giveaway:

1. Leave a comment on this post for one entry.
2. Leave a comment on Anita's post for one entry.
3. Follow sated on Twitter and tweet about it (mention @satedmag) for one entry (you do not need to post a comment here; we'll track it through Twitter).
4. Like sated on Facebook and leave a comment on the page for one entry (you do not need to post a separate comment here).
5. Sign up to be on sated's mailing list for one entry (you do not need to post a separate comment here).

That's five chances to win! This giveaway will run on our blogs until 11:59 PM PST on May 18, at which point we'll choose two lucky winners at random to receive a copy of the very first issue of sated magazine! :D! (<- can you tell that I am very, very excited?)

[click on photo for a larger image]

To celebrate, here is my latest dark chocolate obsession: earl grey + dark chocolate. Something about the strong fragrance of the bergamot-scented black tea makes it a robust pairing against the deep, dark roast of dark chocolate. In these earl grey dark chocolate cupcakes, I infused a combination of cream and condensed milk (for some extra sweetness) with earl grey and used it for a whipped ganache frosting that's a bit firm but melts into your mouth as you eat it, just as chocolate should. Topped with a dash of seasalt to enhance the flavors within, these cupcakes are a richly indulgent shot of chocolate. You know, to tie you over until sated is released!

Read on for recipe....

Earl Grey Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
makes 12 - 14 cupcakes

for cake
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (46 g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup hot coffee

for frosting
6 teabags of Earl Grey
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup + 2 Tbspn heavy cream
5 oz (142 g) unsweetened chocolate
8 Tbspn butter
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
flaked finishing salt

1. for cake. Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare 12 - 14 cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Set aside.
2. In a mixer bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Mix to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the beaten egg, vegetable oil, and milk. Stir to mix.
4. With the mixer on low, pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix on low until evenly distributed.
5. Pour the hot coffee into the batter gradually and mix on medium low until smooth.
6. Fill the cupcake liners about three-quarters full. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes. When a toothpick inserted at the center of the cupcake comes out cleanly, the cakes are done. Remove from oven, remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.
7. for frosting. Place the Earl Grey teabags, condensed milk, and heavy cream in a small saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Bring to a simmer, remove from heat, cover tightly, and let steep for at least one hour.
8. Meanwhile, finely chop the chocolate and cut the butter into pieces. Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set aside. 9. Remove the teabags from the milk mixture, making sure to squeeze as much liquid from the teabags as possible before discarding.
10. Add the sugar to the milk mixture, return to the stove, and bring to a simmer.
11. Pour the hot milk mixture over the chocolate and butter. Let sit for two minutes, then whisk until smooth. Let cool completely to room temperature.
12. Once cool, transfer the ganache to the bowl of a stand mixture fitted with the paddle attachment. Whip on medium until light-colored and fluffy. Use immediately to spread or pipe onto the cooled cupcakes. The whipped ganache will firm up more once spread or piped.
13. Top with a sprinkle of finishing salt.

TGIF: Taiwan Market Scenes

2012-04-27T00:29:00.000-07:00

I've got quite the little backlog of photos building up on my hard drive that I had forgotten until now about this set, from my Taiwan trip back in January. I was there in time for the big Chinese New Years' celebration, so the first few days of my visit were filled with numerous trips to the market to stock up on a Thanksgiving-like meal for the whole family. The lighting was horrific for photographs--overhead florescents galore--and the place was so jam-packed with people at times that I couldn't move my arms from my sides, but I find new marketplaces far too interesting not to share at least a few small glimpses.

I hope everyone has a great coming weekend. If you're around San Francisco on Saturday, make sure to drop by the Bay Area Food Bloggers' Bake Sale, benefiting the cause of ending childhood hunger.

Lemon Verbena and Olallieberry Crumble Muffins

2012-04-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

Muffins! It's a wee tad unbelievable and insane that I actually have never made muffins (from scratch--plenty of box stuff as a kid) before!

Over the weekend, the talented Julie of always with butter came down from the North-ish East Bay to spend a day doing bloggy and photography-obsessive things, like paint new backgrounds, coo over the most beautiful eggs at the local farmers' market, jump up and down excitedly over the 99-cent organic flavored butters we stumbled upon at the store, and teach me endless things that I didn't know about goats' milk and goats' cheese. (Seriously, this girl makes her own chevre. That's how bad-ass cool she is! Previously, I just thought the coolest thing I could make with goats' milk was cajeta.) Painting new photography backgrounds took up most of our time during the day since we had to wait for paint to dry, so towards the last wee bit hours of sunlight, we decided we still had time for a quick baking session--after all, it would be a shame for two bakers to get together without actually pulling something out of the oven!

Since we were running a tad short on time, we had to (unfortunately) nix our original idea of making cinnamon rolls and were trying to decide on what to make instead when Julie unearthed the shocking truth that I had never before made muffins. It's just one of those things that was always on my list of things to do but never really percolated to the top amidst all of the other things I wanted to bake. As for flavors, I had a few insistences (cause I'm particular like that. :P). First, if I made muffins, they would have to have a crumble topping, cause why wouldn't they! Then, we had to find a way to incorporate my crazy over-producing lemon verbena plant that I just purchased a few weeks ago and is already growing like nobody's business. Finally, I remembered that I still had a bag of frozen olallieberries from last season in my freezer--because I hoard flats of it every year for enjoying year round--that needed to be cleaned out before the next olallieberry season begins. Hence, lemon verbena and olallieberry crumble muffins! :)

The lemon verbena flavor in these are subtle but lend a hint of brightness and lemony scent to the whole muffin, which goes so well with the sweet darkness of the olallieberries. The berries turned out to be a great alternative to the more muffin-classic blueberries, because they're just as sweet as the blueberries (i.e., sweeter than blackberries) and they sort of melt into the muffin batter during baking, creating these amazing pockets of jammy goodness. Julie shared the trick that frozen berries are less likely to sink into the batter, which worked like a dream and produced muffins where the purples and blues of the olallieberries are immediately visible on the top. And the crumble is possibly my favorite part, with the combination of butter, brown sugar, and flour creating rich golden nuggets to top off the entire muffin. Breakfast magic! :)

[click on photo below for a larger image]

In the news sector, the third annual Bay Area Food Bloggers' Bakesale to help end childhood hunger is happening THIS COMING SATURDAY, April 28, from 11 - 4pm at Omnivore Books' in San Francisco! I'll be there with dark chocolate tarts (caramel might be involved! as might passion fruit! *hint hint*) for the bakesale, and there will be excellent treats from bakers all over the Bay Area there--all for a good cause. If that doesn't whet your interest, baker/chocolatier/cookbook author-extraordinaire Alice Medrich will be there from 3 - 4pm signing copies of her latest book.

Also, also! Stay tuned because next week will come the announcement and unveiling and all the gory details about a biiiiig project that I've been working on for almost the entire past year with Anita Chu of dessert first. If you want a sneak preview, you'll just have to come to the Bakesale this weekend! Hope to see many of you there!

P.S. If you're not in the Bay Area, this bakesale is actually part of a national campaign, with bakesales happening all over the States! Check for your city here.

Read on for recipe....

Lemon Verbena and Olallieberry Crumble Muffins
developed jointly with always with butter
makes 16 muffins

for muffin batter
2 cups (280 g) + 1 Tbspn (9 g) all-purpose flour
2½ tspn baking powder
½ tspn salt
1½ cups (150 g) sugar
10 – 12 lemon verbena leaves
1 stick (113 g) butter
2 eggs
1 cup (230 g) whole milk
160 g olallieberries, frozen

for topping
½ cup (70 g) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (50 g) dark brown sugar
¼ tspn baking powder
¼ tspn salt
½ stick (57 g) butter, cold

1. for muffin batter. Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare non-stick muffin pans with 16 muffin liners. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk to combine 2 cups (280 g) flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Place the sugar in another small bowl. Tear the lemon verbena leaves, and use your fingers to rub the leaves into the sugar.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium until light and fluffy, about 2 – 3 minutes.
5. Gradually add the lemon verbena sugar to the butter and continue beating until smooth.
6. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well between each addition.
7. Beat in the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk. Mix until just combined.
8. Divide the batter amongst the prepared muffin tins.
9. Coat the olallieberries with one tablespoon of flour. Divide the olallieberries and place on top of the batter.
10. for topping. In a bowl, combine the flour, dark brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry or fork until the butter is the size of small peas. Spoon on top of the muffin batter.
11. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out cleanly and the edges turn golden.
12. Remove from oven, let cool briefly, and remove the muffins from the pans. Let the muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

Note: I've only tried this recipe with olallieberries, but I could imagine it working quite nicely with blueberries or blackberries, too.

Enjoy!

Sugared Coconut Raspberries and Rhubarb Polenta Cake

2012-04-18T14:18:00.004-07:00

The single most important thing in this post: sugared coconut raspberries are like crack. It's sort of a long and rambling story to get to the sugared coconut raspberries, though.... (You might want to make a quick plate of them and eat it while you read.)

Anita taking a romp through the muddy raspberry tunnels.

Last weekend, the wonderful folks at Driscoll's Berries hosted a ROAD TRIP! for a bunch of us blogger types to visit one of their berry farms near Monterey and then to attend the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival. I'm usually a bit wary about these things, but I just can't say "no" to a berry farm--it's been too many months since the last time I was in one. And, it actually turned out to be a super fun day, talking to one of the scientists who heads up strawberry breeding (yay, science! I asked statistics questions--cause I'm a geek like that), hearing from one of the Driscoll's growers, and spending the day with some of my favorite Bay Area people: Anita, Shauna, Sabrina, and Irvin. As a huge, huge bonus, Kamran flew in from New York for the event and was an honorary Bay Area blogger for the weekend, making me wish for the millionth time that New York and San Francisco weren't so many miles apart.

I discovered this weekend also that when Kamran visits, he comes bearing awesome gifts, like a copy of the brand new, hot off the presses Ripe by Nigel Slater. The morning after I received the book (thanks, Kamran!), I cracked it open and within seconds wanted to do nothing but devour the entire book from cover to cover (which is a wee tad impossible in one sitting, given how monstrous it is!). It is such an utterly beautiful book in every way--the photographs, the typography, the recipes, and the writing. The recipes are incredibly simple and appealed immediately to my Berkeley/Chez Panisse-grown sensibilities of doing as little to good ingredients as possible. And they aren't dry recipes to read, either: studded inside the instructions are small colloquial comments from Slater--like how mixing the dough by hand instead of via a food processor is a rewarding and relaxing experience if you have the time. It's personable and human in a way that gives you a warm fuzzy feeling as you read while most recipe writing these days focuses solely on the mechanical and reads like technical manuals (my own included!).

Anyways, so there I am, entranced by Ripe when I come across a rhubarb chapter and this rhubarb polenta cake. First off, I'm a sucker for any cake that has crunchy turbinado sugar sprinkled on top. I'm also a sucker for any corn-related cake/bread (I sometimes swear I should have grown up in the South). Then, I got really excited because I still had rhubarb leftover from last week to use up, so heck yes I can make this cake! :D Then, thinking about rhubarb got me to thinking about a rhubarb dessert that Chef Johnny Iuzzini had served at Pebble Beach that had adorable tiny coconut meringues on top that went really well with the acidity of the rhubarb, and then thinking about Pebble Beach made me remember how much I craved raspberries after spending time in the Driscoll's berry fields that day.... which finally gets us to the origin of sugared coconut raspberries! (I told you it was sort of a roundabout story, but that's kind of how my brain bizarrely works.)

[click on photo for a larger image]

So these raspberries: between the natural raspberry sweetness and a little extra from a bit of sugar and then the pop of flavor from the coconut, they are pretty hands-down addictive. I started snacking on a few of them and then suddenly, the whole plate was gone! and I had to make more to serve with the cake--oops! I also threw in some toasted coconut chips for a bit of crunch against the raspberries. The cake itself had a bit of crunch, too, mostly from the coarse polenta, which is perfect against the soft center of the baked rhubarb inside. It's a cake that's really nice and moist on its own, too, and didn't need any of the extra rhubarb poaching juices that Slater suggested as a serving accompaniment. Plus--sugared coconut raspberries trump rhubarb poaching juices any day (sorry, rhubarb). :)

Read on for recipe....

Rhubarb Polenta Cake with Sugared Coconut Raspberries
makes one 6-inch round cake
heavily adapted from Nigel Slater's Ripe

for rhubarb:
½ lb (227 g) rhubarb stalks
2 Tbspn (25 g) dark brown sugar
2 Tbspn water
zest of 1 small orange

for cake:
¼ cup + 2 Tbspn (63 g) coarse polenta
¾ cup (100 g) all-purpose flour
½ tspn baking powder
a pinch of ground cinnamon
¼ cup + 2 Tbspn (75 g) dark brown sugar
5 Tbspn (72 g) butter, cold
1 large egg
1 Tbspn whole milk
turbinado sugar

for raspberries:
¼ cup (13 g) dried coconut chips
1 punnet (170 g) raspberries
1 Tbspn sugar
½ tspn coconut extract
½ tspn water

1. for rhubarb. Preheat oven to 350° F. Preheat a baking tray in the oven for the cake.

2. Chop the rhubarb stalks into roughly 1-inch pieces. Place in a baking pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar, water, and orange zest on top of the rhubarb. Bake for 20 – 30 minutes, until the rhubarb is fork-tender but not too soft. Do not overbake; the rhubarb should still hold shape. Remove from oven and drain the rhubarb.

3. for cake. Grease and flour the bottom and sides of a 6-inch round cake pan. Set aside.

4. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the polenta, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and brown sugar. 5. Cut the butter into the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk. Add to the food processor. Pulse just until a soft and slightly sticky dough forms—do not overmix.

7. Press about two-thirds of the batter into the bottom and up a bit of the sides of the prepared cake pan. Make sure there are no gaps or cracks.

8. Top batter with the drained rhubarb stalks, leaving a small border around the edge of the pan.

9. Place chunks of the remaining batter on top of the rhubarb. The rhubarb does not need to be completely covered.
10. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

11. Place the cake pan on the preheated baking tray and bake for 40 – 45 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Wait to unmold the cake only when the cake pan is slightly warm to the touch.

12. for raspberries. Meanwhile, spread the coconut chips onto a baking tray. Bake for 3 – 5 minutes, watching closely so the chips do not burn. When they turn golden, remove from the oven and let cool.

13. In a bowl, gently stir together the raspberries, sugar, coconut extract, and water. Let sit for 15 – 30 minutes, until the raspberries are glossy and the sugar has dissolved.

14. Mix the dried coconut chips into the raspberries just before serving with the cake.

Shauna and Anita caught me lurking behind a raspberry plant trying to take photos.

Enjoy!

Rhubarb tarts with orange-honey fromage blanc

2012-04-11T20:12:00.001-07:00

It's been insanely busy here in the studio working non-stop on a big upcoming project that I promise I'll divulge more about soooooooon, so personal desserts that I've been whipping up just for me have taken a turn for the ultra-simple and fast. But of course that doesn't mean they aren't still finger-lickingly good!

I've been waiting so, so patiently for rhubarb to finally hit the markets in my area, so when I at long last saw them at the grocer a few days ago, I pounced. (My apologies to the poor innocent bystanders that I must have trampled in my race to the rhubarb!) Given the mad success of rhubarb in pie form last season, I really wanted to make a rhubarb tart of some sort this year and settled on something super simple and yet surprisingly good: rhubarb puff pastry tarts with orange honey fromage blanc. I love how in the oven, the rhubarb stalks create this bubbling tart filling all on their own, melting into the puff pastry below. There isn't anything else in the tart itself except a dash of vanilla bean and some turbinado and brown sugars to add a bit of rustic sweetness. I served these with dollops of orange and honey-scented fromage blanc on top and a few more drizzles of honey--the tart sourness in the fromage blanc is a really fun alternative to plain old whipped cream, and the orange and honey softens the kick from the cheese. I love simple desserts like this that demonstrate how mixing just a few really good ingredients can make something absolutely divine.

Speaking of news, in all of the Italy excitement, I forgot to say that I'll be at BlogHer Food again this year (in Seattle! Yay!) talking (again) about food photography with Anita Chu of Dessert First. I hope I'll be seeing at least some of you there!

Read on for recipe....

Rhubarb tarts with orange honey fromage blanc
makes six individually-sized tarts

2 Tbspn flour
1 Tbspn brown sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 sheet of puff pastry
3 rhubarb stalks
1 Tbspn turbinado sugar
½ cup fromage blanc
2½ tspn honey,
and more for drizzling
zest of 1 small orange
1 tspn fresh orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 425° F. Prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. Combine the flour and brown sugar in a bowl. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the flour mixture. Mix.
3. Roll out the puff pastry to about ⅛-inch thickness. Cut into 6 squares. Divide and sprinkle the prepared flour mixture onto the centers of each puff pastry square. Split each rhubarb stalk in half lengthwise and chop down to size, about an inch shorter than each puff pastry square. Place the rhubarb on the flour, leaving an edge of pastry exposed. Roll the edges of the puff pastry up to form a crust around the rhubarb.Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
4. Transfer the pastries to the prepared baking sheet. Bake at 425° F for 10 minutes; then, reduce the heat to 350° F and continue to bake for 10 – 12 minutes more, until the edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool.
5. Meanwhile, combine the fromage blanc, honey, orange zest, and orange juice in a bowl and mix well. Drizzle extra honey on the rhubarb tarts and top with small dollops of fromage blanc mixture before serving.

Note: these tarts are best enjoyed the day they're made, as they will get a bit soggy if left overnight.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Jam Sandwich Cookies, and more Rome

2012-04-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

I really hope you all aren't Italy-out-ed yet--I promise that I'm coming to the end of my Italy trip photos! It just seemed that breaking them up into individual 'stories' made for the best approach so as not to overload a single blog post. And I really like the process of coming up with cohesive visual stories/essays and accompanying recipes to present. It's the academic in me. :)

Here was the first portrait of Rome from a few weeks ago, a story of alleyways and the reds, pinks, and oranges of the external face of the city. Today, this portrait of Rome is about its internal treasures, the blues and golds and the history that seeps from the corners and shadows.

[inside Ancient Rome]

Literally outside our door in Travestere, we discovered an ah-mazing pastry shop -- Biscottificio Innocenti -- that we became obsessed with. And by "obsessed," I seriously mean obsessed. All of the pastries are sold by weight there, and over the course of the week between the three of us traveling together, we polished off a neat 4.5 POUNDS (that's 2 kilos!) of cookies. Yes, we were obsessed. (Thank goodness for all the walking we did in Rome--we needed it between the cookies and the constant gelato!) Note also that this does not include the crostata slices that we kept getting, too!

There were so, so many different types of cookies at Biscottificio Innocenti. Many were based around a basic shortbread and then either slathered in jam, studded with cherries, sprinkled with sugars, or dipped in a soft, yielding chocolate ganache. My favorite one, I quickly discovered, were these small sandwich cookies that had it all: apricot-apple marmalade in between the buttery shortbread cookies, half-dipped into chocolate. Marmalade! Cookie! Chocolate! All in one satisfying bite--what more really do you want?

(Also! The proprietress's name is Stefania! What are the odds of that?! Because she loaded us up with so many buttery and sugary treats, she quickly became one of our favorite people in all of Rome.)

[inside Il Vaticano. Top to bottom: the Egyptian exhibit; a room based on the Pantheon; the ridiculously gaudy ceiling of the map room; the Sistine Chapel; the famous Vatican staircase. Last two photos: inside Santa Maria church in Trastevere; the Tiber]

After the insane number of cookies we ended up consuming, we all felt a bit of withdrawal suddenly getting cut off from our source when we came home from Italy, so I set out trying to concoct my own version of chocolate-dipped jam sandwich cookies. The Italian kind from Innocenti were good because the cookies themselves weren't too sweet, which allowed for a sweeter but very thin layer of jam inside. For my version, I used a sweet apricot-orange jam from my favorite local jam company (yay, Blue Chair!), and dipped the shortbread into a dark chocolate ganache. The ganache firms up just enough after an hour or two so that you can safely eat the cookies without dripping chocolate everywhere, but because it's a ganache, the chocolate gives as soon as you bite into it, almost like it's melting into the buttery shortbread inside. Mmmmmm... a piece of Italy in my own kitchen. :)

[click on photo for a larger image]

If you missed any of my previous Italy trip posts, I encourage you to go back and catch up:

Rome, part I

the Amalfi Coast

P.S. If anyone happens to know what these cookies are called in Italian, I would love to know! I managed to learn the names of a few types of cookies, but the name of these still eludes me.

Read on for recipe....

Chocolate-covered Jam Sandwich Cookies
makes 20 - 24 cookies

1 tspn baking powder
¼ tspn salt
2 cups (280 g) all purpose flour
12 + 1 Tbspn butter, softened
¼ cup (50 g) sugar
¼ cup (28 gr) powdered sugar
1 egg
jam or marmalade
89 g (3 oz) dark chocolate
89 g (3 oz) heavy cream

1. Combine the baking powder, salt, and flour in a bowl. Set aside.
2. In a mixer bowl, cream 12 Tbspn of butter for 2 – 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
3. Gradually add the sugar and powdered sugar and continue to beat for a few minutes more.
4. Add the egg and beat well.
5. Add the flour mixture in three stages, mixing just until combined.
6. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and form into a ball. Wrap in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Prepare baking sheets lined with parchment paper or silpats.
8. Roll out the cold dough on a lightly floured surface to a ½-inch thickness. Using a 1¾-inch cookie cutter, cut out small rounds. Reroll the leftover dough and continue to cut out cookies. Place cookies on a prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes if the dough is no longer cold.
9. Bake each sheet for 15 minutes, rotating once half-way through the baking time. Cookies are done when the edges begin to turn golden. Remove from oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
10. To assemble, spread a small amount of jam on a cookie and sandwich with another one.
11. Finely chop the dark chocolate and place in a bowl.
12. Combine the heavy cream and remaining 1 Tbspn of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, remove from heat, and pour on top of the chocolate. Let sit for a minute, and then whisk until smooth.
13. Dip the cookies in the chocolate ganache, shaking gently to remove the excess, and let dry on a sheet of parchment paper or silpat for at least 2 hours until the ganache has firmed up and is no longer liquid.

Enjoy!

TGIF

2012-03-29T23:40:00.000-07:00

Today I climbed a tree on a whim! It's been years since I've actually been in a tree, and it's remarkably fun, acting like a kid again. Even better when said tree has a bunch of fresh oranges for the picking. :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. It's been raining and dreary almost non-stop for weeks here already, so I'm thankful for even the few minutes of sun and respite from the clouds that we get these days.

Spicy tomato and egg pizza, with lemony broccoli rabe

2012-03-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

Lots of desserts have been coming out of my kitchen in the past few days, but they're all for an upcoming project that I'm working on (you've seen a few if you follow me on Instagram). So for a bit of variety, I thought I'd change it up a bit with a savory recipe on the blog, one inspired by breakfast for dinner (or lunch): spicy tomato and egg pizza. --and with a broccoli rabe side, for a bit of well-rounded green.

The tomato sauce on this pizza has a punch of heat contributed by one of my favorite sources of spiciness: whole dried peperoncino chilies from Italy. I first encountered these peppers at a BBQ of a friend of a friend years ago. The hostess had made incredible mushroom risotto (yes, it was quite the gourmet BBQ, with risotto and fancy Portuguese sausage--and 8 layer bean dip) and then handed me a bowl of rough-crushed dark red peppers to sprinkle on top. "Be careful," she warned me, "those peppers have quite the kick." And indeed they did, but I loved them at first taste. They're smokier and more flavorful than the bland pre-crushed red pepper variety that I've seen here in the States, and when I gushed over them (more so than the risotto, which must have made me seem quite odd), the hostess kindly packed me a small ziploc bag of them to take home.

The problem was that neither she nor I knew their origins. The hostess's explanation with the peppers was that a friend had given a bag to her on a recent European trip, but she wasn't sure whether they were from Spain or Italy or Portugal. So I spent years after that BBQ hoarding my tiny little ziploc bag of dried peppers like they were nuggets of gold, not wanting to use them all up because I wouldn't ever be able to replace them (thankfully, they're spicy enough where a little goes a long way).

Then, on my recent Italy trip, as I was wandering around the supermarket--something I particularly like to do in foreign countries, yesIknowI'mweird--, it occurred to me that I should double check the spice aisle, just in case these peppers were of Italian origin. Lo and behold, EUREKA! GOLD MINE! Peperoncino PAY DIRT! (Later in Sorrento, we saw tons of these peppers hanging in gorgeous clumps from shop doorways, too.) These peppers turned out to be pretty much the only souvenirs I brought home with me in my suitcase from Italy since I was traveling light, but I made sure to bring back at least two bags for me, a bag for a friend, and my traveling companions also bought a bag. Yay, Italy. :D

Anyways, these peperoncino chilies are fantastic, and I've been all excited about using them in everything I can now that I have a good supply. They are so perfect for this pizza because they add flavor and spice to a fragrant but simple garlic and tomato paste sauce that seriously takes less than a few minutes to whip up. The eggs on top of the pizza flood the crevices between the cheese with an extra layer of creaminess when baked, which melts into the heat from the tomato sauce underneath. The sprinkle of pecorino romano adds just a bit of salty sharpness to the whole thing to make it pop some more. I made this two days in a row because it was so easy and good, having it for lunch and breakfast the next day and then making it again for my parents when they came over for dinner.

P.S. This is also my first time making pizza dough on my own at home (I usually shy away from yeast recipes), and I am thrilled to discover how easy it is! The pizza dough recipe here is from the Cheeseboard Collective Works, the cookbook of one of my favorite bakeries and pizzerias in Berkeley.

Read on for recipes.....

Spicy tomato and egg pizza
pizza dough from The Cheese Board Collective Works
makes one 10-inch pizza

for dough
1/2 cup warm water
1 tspn active dry yeast
2 tspn olive oil
1/2 tspn salt
146 - 167 gr (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups) bread flour

for toppings
5 cloves garlic
3 Tbspn olive oil, and more for cooking
cornmeal or flour, for dough
2 whole Italian dried peperoncino (see note)
6 oz. tomato paste
fresh mozzarella
pecorino romano, shredded
2 - 3 large eggs

1. For dough. Put the warm water in a bowl and sprinkle the yeast into the water. Whisk to dissolve the yeast. Cover and place in a warm place for 5 minutes.
2. Add 2 tspn olive oil, salt, and 83 grams of bread flour to the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes to form a wet dough.
3. Place the remaining 63 grams of flour on a flat worksurface and add the wet dough. Knead for 8 minutes to form a slightly sticky dough. If the dough is impossibly sticky at the end of the kneading, add the remaining bread flour one tablespoon at a time as necessary.
4. Coat the insides of a large bowl with olive oil. Form the dough into a ball and place in the oiled bowl, rolling the dough around to coat the dough in oil. Cover with a damp towel and place in a warm, draft-free place to rise for 1 hour.
5. For baking and toppings. Preheat oven to 450° F with a rack in the lower-third of the oven. Peel and mash the garlic cloves. Combine 3 of the garlic cloves with 3 Tbspn olive oil in a bowl and set aside.
6. Spread cornmeal on the back of a baking pan or a pizza peel. Take the dough and press it into a small round. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a saucepan, heat a small amount of olive oil. Crush the peperoncino. Add the peperoncino and the remaining garlic cloves to the oil and saute briefly. Add the tomato paste and 1 - 2 tablespoons of water to loosen the paste, if necessary. Stir briefly to combine the tomato paste, water, garlic, and peperoncino. Remove from heat and set aside.
8. Uncover the dough and press it into its final shape. Cover with sauce, mozzarella, pecorino romano, and two cracked eggs. Place the pizza on a baking sheet in the lower third of the oven. Bake for 12 minutes. If using a pizza stone, transfer the pizza from the baking sheet to the stone after 8 minutes of baking.
9. Once the crust is golden, remove from the oven and immediately brush the exposed crust with the prepared garlic oil.

Note: if you don't have peperoncino, substitute with a 1/2 tspn of chili pepper flakes.

Lemon and red wine vinegar broccoli rabe

broccoli rabe
olive oil
freshly squeezed lemon juice
red wine vinegar
salt
pecorino romano, shredded (optional)

1. In a pot of boiling water, blanch the broccoli rabe for a few minutes, until it turns vibrant green. Remove, drain, and rinse with cold water to halt the cooking.
2. In a saucepan, heat a small amount of olive oil to coat. Saute the broccoli rabe for short few minutes with lemon juice, a small amount of red wine vinegar, and salt. Adjust amounts to taste.
3. Serve with shredded pecorino romano cheese, if desired.

Enjoy!

TGIF: Managing shadows

2012-03-23T01:44:00.000-07:00

[click on photo for a larger image]

While looking through my shots for the lemon baba cake, I noticed that I had some good examples of images with and without a scrim, so I thought I'd demonstrate shadowing in photographs with a side-by-side comparison. Above are two photos of lemons: the difference between them is that the photo on the left was made with a bare window and the photo on the right was made with the window covered in very thin, white fabric. The effect of scrim versus no scrim is strikingly apparent. On the left, we have stark shadows, with a drastic range between the brightest and darkest parts of the image. On the right, the shadows are much, much softer, and the light is quite even throughout the whole photograph. While you'll notice that I do like my dark shadowing, I ended up going with the scrim (image on right) for the post about lemon baba cake because I wanted to achieve a sunnier, vacation-y look and feel to accompany my Amalfi Coast photographs (many of which were taken in full midday sun--yikes, but that's another story). ... just a quick example of how managing light (and shadows!) really makes the mood.

(...and you don't necessarily need a white bounce, either!)

Happy weekending, everyone! (How is it Friday already???)

Triple lemon baba cake and the Amalfi Coast

2012-03-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

This is a color story. ...which is basically how I experienced the Amalfi Coast. It's a land of blues and greens, providing the perfect backdrop for the citrus groves that dot its hillsides.

Baba cake is a yeasted cake that's typically soaked to the core in rum (aka: rum baba), but being the heart of limoncello production, the stores in Sorrento all soak their baba cakes in the bright yellow lemon liqueur instead. As an homage to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, I tried to pack as much lemon as I possibly could into my baba cake for a triple lemon baba: a dash of lemon zest in the cake batter, a piling of sweet candied lemons on top, and all of it drizzled with a limoncello and lemon syrupy glaze. I also swapped in semolina flour for regular flour in the recipe because I wanted to have a bit more texture and bite to the finished cake--since it's soaked in a good drenching of syrup, I was concerned with having an overly moist cake with soppy texture on my hands (in Sorrento, you see stores selling jars of baba cakes floating in limoncello, but for me, soggy cake is just a no). The result was a dense yet spongy cake, very yeasty, and very lemony. Despite all of the sugar syrup you pour on this ~~baby~~ baba, the tartness and sharpness of the lemons (don't use meyers) help to make it not too sweet at all. Serve with a dollop of (lemon-scented) whipped cream (makes lemon x 4!).

Places pictured (top to bottom): Sorrento, Capri, Positano

Read on for recipe....

Triple Lemon Baba Cake
cake recipe loosely adapted from the New York Times
makes one 8-inch ring mold*

for cake:
1/3 cup whole milk, warmed
2 1/2 tspn active dry yeast
35 gr all-purpose flour
6 Tbspn butter, at room temperature
2 Tbspn (25 gr) sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
210 gr semolina flour
zest of 1 large lemon

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast into the warmed milk.
2. Add the all-purpose flour and mix gently.
3. Cover the bowl and set aside in a warm place. Let rise for 20 minutes until spongy.
4. Grease and flour an 8-inch ring mold.
5. In a mixer bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 – 3 minutes.
6. Add the sugar and beat well.
7. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
8. Whisk in the yeast sponge.
9. Add the semolina flour and lemon zest and beat until well-combined and thick.
10. Pour the doughlike batter into the prepared ring mold. Cover and let rise for 40 minutes to 1 hour.
11. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
12. Bake the cake for 30 – 40 minutes, until the sides begin to pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly. Remove from oven and set on a wire rack. Cool briefly before unmolding.
13. Prick the top of the cake several times with a fork or skewer.
14. Glaze the entire cake with syrup and top with candied lemons (recipes below). Let sit overnight before serving as the cake will continue to soak up the glaze.

for candied lemon slices:
6-8 small to medium-sized lemons
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups (150 gr) sugar

1. Combine the water and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, slice the lemons into 1/8-inch thick pieces, removing as many seeds as possible.
3. Add the lemons to the boiling sugar water, reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the lemon rinds are translucent and fork-tender. Do not overcook.
4. Strain the lemon slices and reserve the cooking liquid for glaze.

for glaze:
1/2 cup candied lemon liquid
1/2 cup limoncello
1 cup (200 gr) sugar

1. Combine the reserved cooking liquid from the candied lemons, limoncello, and sugar in a small saucepan.
2. Heat and stir until the sugar has completely dissolved. Use while warm to glaze the cake.

*Note: Don't go and buy a ring mold if you don't have one--I managed to fashion my own that worked, in my opinion, even better than the real thing by using an 8-inch cake ring and a 3-inch cake ring, with a lined, non-stick baking sheet underneath. Plus, cake rings are multi-purpose and make for easy removal of the cake!

Enjoy!

TGIF

2012-03-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

Shots from a recent Food & Wine job: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], + an outtake above.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Orange-Olive Oil and Chocolate Cake

2012-03-13T01:24:00.000-07:00

Arriving in Naples, shuffling off the train from Rome to catch the local train to the Amalfi Coast was a highly anticlimactic moment for me. You climb off of this very cosmopolitan, decked-out Trenitalia direct from Rome in Naples, and what you get in front of you is possibly the ugliest train system that I have ever laid eyes on, waiting to whisk you off to the supposed beautiful vacation spots along the coast: it's graffiti-upon-graffiti-covered, dull grey, with scratched windows for ventilation, thick metal luggage racks and yellowing lights overhead, and hard plastic seats--and it rattled enough to make me deaf within a minute of stepping on. My friend described it as reminiscent of old Eastern European transit, and I thought that that was an overly generous comparison. In other words, the Circumvesuviana train (that runs from Naples to Sorrento) did not inspire any confidence in me that the Amalfi Coast was all the vacation wonderland that I had heard it to be. Had I been completely duped?

But then-- after an hour or so of rattling about on the train, worrying that my teeth were going to rattle out of their sockets --the citrus groves appeared. Dense and so laden with bright orange and yellow fruits, dotting the lush green landscape that suddenly surrounded and enveloped both sides of the train tracks, the branches of the trees seemed so close that I wanted to reach out and grab a lemon as we sped by. The state of the Circumvesuviana train in no way prepared me for the amazing citrus Eden that is Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast, and all the lemon and orange trees that grow everywhere in the region were more than enough to make up for any doubts I thought I had. Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen so many oranges and lemons in one place ever, and it was like heaven for a citrus-fiend like me.

So it's sort of no surprise that I've had oranges (and lemons, but that's for another post) on my mind since getting back from Italy. Even on the plane back, I was already scheming to make an orange cake. It took a few tries in the kitchen of different combinations before I settled on this one: orange-olive oil cake with chocolate frosting and flaked salt.

[click on photo above for a larger image]

The cake, though it takes a bit of time to make, is actually a very simple affair: dense and orange-scented, in one extra-tall layer for all the drama of a tall cake and none of the fuss of stacking layers. The dark chocolate frosting is fudge-y and delightfully smooth--it's one of my favorite chocolate frosting recipes, originally from this cake--and the combination of orange and chocolate is so classic, for very good reason. Finally, I sprinkled on some flaky, pink finishing salt that a good friend of mine got for me in Portland, and the occasional crunch and hint of salt on top just makes the chocolate even fudgier and the cake even more orange-y. It's a simple and perfect "every day is special" slice. ... you know, since we can't all be amongst the citrus groves in Sorrento all the time (sadly!).

Read on for recipe....

Orange-Olive Oil and Chocolate Cake, with flaked salt
makes one 8 x 3-inch round cake
cake adapted from Saveur, frosting from The Essence of Chocolate

for cake:
2 medium-sized oranges
2 1/3 cups (467 gr) sugar
2 1/2 cups (350 gr) flour
2 tspn baking powder
1 tspn baking soda
1 tspn salt
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 tspn orange blossom water
4 eggs, at room temperature
6 Tbspn extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbspn fresh orange juice

for frosting:
5 oz (142 gr) unsweetened chocolate
8 Tbspn butter
1 cup + 1 Tbspn (215 gr) sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tspn vanilla extract
flaked finishing salt

1. Make the cake. In a pot, bring 6 cups of water to a boil.
2. Trim 1/2-inch from the tops and bottoms of each orange. Once the water is at a boil, submerge the oranges and cook briefly, about 1 minute. Drain the oranges, discard the water, and repeat the boiling, cooking, and draining two more times.
3. Combine the blanched oranges, 1 cup (200 gr) sugar, and 4 cups water over medium heat. Cook for about 30 minutes while stirring frequently until the sugar dissolves and the orange rinds are fork-tender. Let cool until room temperature.
4. Drain the oranges and remove the seeds. Reserving the cooking liquid for glaze.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 8 x 3-inch cake pan and set aside.
6. In a bowl, mix to combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
7. In a food processor, blend the cooked oranges (including rind) until a chunky puree.
8. Add the remaining sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, 1 tspn orange blossom water, and flour mixture. Process for 2 minutes until well-incorporated.
9. Gradually drizzle in the olive oil and process until incorporated.
10. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out cleanly. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.
11. Meanwhile, mix to combine 2 Tbspn of cooking liquid, 1 tspn orange blossom water, and orange juice. Remove the cake from the pan. Poke the top of the cake all over with a skewer or fork and brush the liquid on the cake. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
12. Make the frosting. Chop the chocolate and butter and set aside.
13. In a saucepan, bring the sugar and heavy cream to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 6 minutes. Do not let the saucepan overflow.
15. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate and butter until melted.
16. Stir in the vanilla extract. Let the frosting cool completely, whisking occasionally during cooling. Once completely cool at room temperature, the frosting will be spreadable.
17. Sprinkle the frosted cake with finishing salt.

Enjoy!

Spinach, Tomato, and Tortellini Soup -- and Rome.

2012-03-08T08:52:00.003-08:00

When I'm traveling, not many desserts get made, since desserts usually require ingredients and tools beyond the scope of the rental flats that I've been living out of for the past few weeks. --Plus, given how much gelato I've been eating, I really don't feel the need to add more sugar and cream to my diet! On the other hand, though, I do get the opportunity to do a fair amount of normal cooking. Since the pace of life is so much more leisurely, I actually find myself not rushing to scrape a meal together (or worse yet, heating up something from the Trader Joe's freezer section while feeling sheepishly guilty that I'm taking the time to eat and not work, as I normally do while at home), and I have the time to spend in the kitchen, stirring together an easy but delicious and piping hot pot of soup from fresh market ingredients, like this spinach, tomato, and tortellini soup I made while in Rome.

[click on photo for a larger image]

The soup was perfectly tomato-y and brothy for the sunny but cold, wool-scarf-needed, wintery days when I was there, and I slurped it happily while sitting by a third-story window overlooking the winding, narrow Trastevere alleyways below and reading a good book (this and this were amongst my favorites that I read on this trip). Ah, the slow life.

Thank you so, so much to those of you who wrote in with wonderful suggestions for my Italy trip! I just got back a few nights ago, so I'm still in the post-trip whirlwind of sorting through photos and catching up with all of the life and work that I've missed for the past few months of traveling. Much more to come in the next few weeks on the blog, as well as getting back to regular dessert posts!

Read on for recipe....

Spinach, Tomato, and Tortellini Soup
makes enough for 4

4 small cioppino onions, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, smashed
6 ripe medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
10 - 12 cups chicken stock
1 package of ricotta and spinach tortellini
6 cups fresh spinach leaves
olive oil
salt
crusty bread

1. In a pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add the chopped onions and a very small sprinkling of salt. Saute the onions. When they begin to turn translucent, add the garlic and cook until the onions are very soft, almost caramelizing.
3. Add the tomatoes and cook for a minute or two, until the tomatoes are soft and release their juices.
4. Add the chicken stock. If the broth is too thick, adjust with hot water. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. Season with salt, if necessary.
5. Increase the heat and return the soup to a boil. Add the tortellini and cook for as long as directed on the package, until the tortellini are al dente.
6. Turn off the heat and add the spinach, stirring until the spinach is cooked but still vibrant green. Serve hot immediately, with crusty bread.

Note: ingredient amounts for savory recipes like this one on this blog are approximate. Please use your judgement and tastes regarding salt and flavoring amounts.

Enjoy!

Postcards: Scenes from a Garden

2012-02-27T00:48:00.000-08:00

2012 so far has been quite the Year of Travel. I've spent more time logged in airplanes that I probably have in my own kitchen at home--hence, if you'll excuse me, the shortage of recipes as of late. This doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking elsewhere, though! Like, making fried green tomatoes and stir-fried vegetables from fresh-picked produce in a foggy, dewy garden tucked away on the winding hillsides of Southern Taiwan. The amazing thing about this little island on the Tropic of Cancer is how bountiful its land is there, producing the largest variety of fruits and vegetables of every kind that you can imagine. Their carrots are triple the size of the carrots we get in the U.S. and are softer, more tender, and juicier the minute you slice into one. Passionfruit hangs off vines lining garden walls. Cabbage heads grow larger than my head (and I have a huge head). Farms come with lotus ponds (which come with slippery bricks, camera-holders beware). Harvest season is literally year-round.

My aunt and her friends have acquired a small farm up on the hillside of Kaohsiung, which I got to visit for the first time this past January. Here are some of the scenes from that morning. (P.S. the last photo is of squash tendrils that my aunt picked to saute. In Chinese, they're called "dragon-whisker vegetables." I love that name.)

P.P.S. Thank you to all of you who've written in with wonderful, wonderful advice on places to go and things to eat in Italy! I'm very much looking forward to it! :)

TGIF: Italy recommendations, anyone?

2012-02-23T22:01:00.000-08:00

Things are a bit crazy and topsy turvy here at the DfB headquarters lately, but in the meantime, the blog is featured over on Harvard Common Press's food blog blog (oh my, how meta!), BlogEats, this week! Click on over to check out the incredibly flattering feature here.

In other exciting news, I'm going to Italy soon! I'll be traveling in Rome and the Amalfi Coast area, so I would love, love, love any recommendations you might have in terms of must-see or must-eat places there! Oh yeah, gelato for breakfast: here. I. come.

Happy weekending, everyone!

TGIF

2012-02-16T23:16:00.000-08:00

The cloudy, overcast afternoons we had at the beginning of this week were filled with beautiful low light, perfect for Mendelssohn and sweet milk tea. More rain and Mendelssohn to come this weekend--have a great one, everyone!

Passionfruit Tapioca and Lemon Cream Tarts

2012-02-14T18:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Or otherwise known as, Happy stuff-your-face-with-desserts day! Now, I realize that I'm a little bit late to the Valentine's Day party, but this being a journal and all, I wanted to share what the dessert I'm actually having for Valentine's Day rather than making something weeks ahead of time that I wouldn't actually make again. ... and, I'm just running behind, so please forgive me! :)

It seems that, whenever I think about Valentine's Day desserts, I always come back to passionfruit. It's not your typically romantic fruit, like red strawberries dipped in chocolate--and frankly, it looks like dinosaur eggs, with its bumpy skin and bizarre, seedy insides. But, I think it's the name that gets to me, with passion, and I like that it's a little bit tart and sweet, like love.

This year for Valentine's Day, I decided to mix passionfruit with another thing that my bf and I are obsessed with: tapioca. I've always joked that you can't date me unless you like tapioca (with tea, that is), and one of the first things that happened years ago in our relationship was that Richard learned to like tapioca milk tea, just to hang with me. That's the sign of a keeper! Then, a few days ago, he showed up with a bag of lemons from his backyard (<3), which I also wanted to incorporate into the dessert.

Hence, passionfruit tapioca and lemon cream tarts! with passionfruit curd filling, which is super luscious and studded with small rounds of soft tapioca pearls, and mascarpone whipped cream, which is flavored with fresh-squeezed lemon juice and zest for an overall brightness to the dessert. It's one of those desserts that make you feel like you're eating pure rays sunshine, even if the weather outside and stormy and cold (as it finally is here in the Bay, after a winter of no rain!).

Even though it's a bit late, here's wishing you all a Valentine's Day filled with sugar and candy and delicious desserts (forget love and romance, all we need is sugar anyways)!

Read on for recipe....

Passionfruit tapioca and lemon cream tarts
adapted in part from Tartine bakery
makes six 4.5-inch tarts

for tart shells:
9 Tbspn (4.5 oz/127 gr) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup (100 gr) sugar
1/8 tspn salt
1 egg
1 3/4 cups (250 gr) AP flour

1. In a mixer bowl, combine butter, sugar, and salt. Beat on medium until smooth.
2. Mix in egg and beat until smooth.
3. Add flour to the bowl, mix on low just until incorporated.
4. Wrap the dough in parchment paper or cling wrap and chill for at least two hours or overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
6. Working quickly, roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thick. Press down into six 4.5-inch tart pans and prick the bottoms all over with a fork. Keep the dough cold, and if necessary, place in freezer for a few minutes before baking.
7. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, rotating once half-way through for even baking, until the crusts are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

for passionfruit tapioca filling:
1/2 cup + 2 Tbspn (5 oz.) passionfruit puree
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup (170 gr) sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup tapioca pearls (not instant tapioca)

1. Prepare a double boiler, with water simmering in the bottom half.
2. In the bowl of the double boiler, whisk to combine the passionfruit puree, eggs, egg yolk, sugar, and salt. Whisking constantly, cook in the double boiler over simmering water until the mixture becomes very thick and reaches 180 degrees F.
3. Remove from the stove and whisk to cool, until 140 degrees F. Place the mixture in a blender or a food processor. While the blender/food processor is running, add the butter one tablespoon at a time, allowing each addition to fully incorporate into the curd before adding the next tablespoon.
4. Meanwhile, fill a small pot with two inches of water. Bring to a simmer and add the tapioca pearls. The pearls should be well-covered with water. Simmer and stir for about 12-15 minutes, until the tapioca pearls are al dente, with a mostly translucent outside. Drain in a mesh strainer.
5. Stir the drained tapioca pearls into the finished passionfruit curd. Pour into the cooled tart shells and refrigerate for at least one hour, until the filling is set.

for lemon cream:
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbspn powdered sugar
2 tspn fresh lemon juice
fresh zest from 2 lemons

1. In a bowl, combine the mascarpone cheese and whipping cream. Beat until very soft peaks.
2. Whisk in the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat just until stiff peaks but do not overwhip.
3. Spoon or pipe the cream onto the prepared tarts.

Enjoy!

TGIF

2012-02-10T00:42:00.000-08:00

Lots of recipe research and development goes on behind the scenes here at the desserts for breakfast kitchen that doesn't make it onto the blog. There are recipes that just aren't good enough, recipes that need a bit more tweaking and finessing, and recipes that were great in concept but horrible in practice, like this one for an apple-cranberry tart creation that flooded and leaked all over my oven floor when baking. Evidence that I suffer my lion's share of baking #FAILs!

More recipe R&D and experimentation is on the agenda for this weekend, so I'm hoping that it goes smoothly without too many major disasters. In the meantime, for your weekend perusal, desserts for breakfast is featured on Saveur's website this week for their "Sites We Love" column! Check out the interview here.

Happy Friday!

Lemon Speculoos Layer Cake with Chocolate Sprinkles

2012-02-07T00:30:00.000-08:00

The first time I ever encountered speculoos cookies, at a random potluck years ago, I thought that they were disgusting. I had heard so much about how awesome these cookies were from my in-the-know Dutch friends, but, disappointingly, the homemade versions that someone had left on the table were horribly over seasoned and tasted like a shovelful of dry curry powder and ground ginger being forced down my throat. Blech!

Thankfully, my friends later assured me that speculoos were by no means meant to taste that way and that they were indeed very good, so when Trader Joe's started selling speculoos spread this past Christmastime, I very hesitantly put a jar into my shopping basket to take home to try. Plus, how could I resist something labeled and marketed as "cookie butter"?!

To my delight, my second experience with speculoos unfolded much differently from the first: speculoos spread aka cookie butter, it turns out, is delicious. It's like eating cookies in the form of ultra-smooth peanut butter. Joe Black would undoubtedly have appreciated a spoonful of speculoos over a spoonful of peanut butter if he'd known about it, omgdoyourememberthatmovie. Of course, leave it to the Dutch to come up with something like cookie butter, you know, to accompany the chocolate sprinkles they eat on their toast in the morning. Forget fruit loops, this is how you do desserts for breakfast!

[click on photo for a larger image]

Now, as much as I appreciate spreadable cookies, I decided it wasn't a very good idea for me to have an entire jar of it lying around in my cupboards (you know, dessert bloggers have to try to eat healthily every now and then, too!), so I thought I'd try using it up in a lemon speculoos layer cake, with dark chocolate sprinkles that my friend now studying abroad in the Netherlands brought back for me. The result of the combination of lemon and speculoos is bright and sweet, extra creamy with the addition of cream cheese in the frosting, a bit dense from the whole wheat flour in the cake, and punctuated by tiny nuggets of dark chocolate. It's a simple, no frills cake, perfect for an unassuming afternoon of tea-sipping-- or for breakfast, in what I suppose is befitting of the Dutch spirit (I won't tell, promise!).

For those of you in the US hoping to find speculoos spread at Trader Joe's, my local branch informs me that they are currently out of stock until the end of February. But, the good news is that (so the manager told me) the cookie butter isn't a seasonal item, so you won't have to wait until next Christmas to get your hands on some.

Read on for recipe....

Lemon Speculoos Layer Cake with Chocolate Sprinkles
makes one 6-inch, 3 layer cake

for lemon cake:
1 1/4 cups + 2 Tbspn (192.5 gr) whole wheat pastry flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/8 tspn salt
1 stick (8 Tbspn) butter, at room temperature
1 cup (200 gr) sugar
1 tspn fresh lemon zest
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup + 2 Tbspn whole milk
2 Tbspn freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 6 x 2 inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment rounds and grease again. If desired, line the cake pans with bake-even strips. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and lemon zest together until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes on medium.
4. Add the eggs to the creamed butter one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add the flour in three additions, alternating each with milk and lemon juice.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake for 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes come out cleanly. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before turning out of the pans and cooling completely.

for speculoos frosting:
1 1/2 sticks (12 Tbpsn) butter, at room temperature
1 cup speculoos spread
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
6 oz. cream cheese, cold
dark chocolate sprinkles

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the speculoos spread and beat until well-combined.
3. Gradually beat in the sifted powdered sugar.
4. Gradually add small chunks of the cold cream cheese, beating well after each addition.
5. Frost cake, adding chocolate sprinkles between each layer and on top.

Note: I've been told that the Trader Joe's version of speculoos spread is less sweet that the versions available in Europe, so this frosting was just the right sweetness for me. If you happen to try out this recipe with non-TJ's speculoos, I'd be very curious to know what you think. To kick up the sophistication a bit more, you could also sprinkle the frosting with a small pinch of flaked sea salt.

Cake recipe is loosely adapted from Magnolia Bakery.

Enjoy!

TGIF

2012-02-02T22:55:00.000-08:00

[afternoon pastries at Saint Honore Boulangerie in Portland, Oregon]

Happy Weekending and Superbowl-ad-watching, everyone! As for me, I'll be attempting to sleep off my jet lag from recent travels and to catch up on long put-off emails--and maybe with some baking thrown in here and there. :)

Beet Tart with Blue Goat Cheese and Frisee, and a visit to Portlandia

2012-01-30T00:03:00.000-08:00

Portland, you are awesome--and a food-lover's dream. I spent five days in your misty city-straddling-the-river at the beginning of January, and not once in those days did I eat a single un-delicious bite. Every mouthful was beautiful and fresh and thoughtful, and made me wish that we could have our national linguistics conference in your city every year (no offense to Pittsburgh or Baltimore, where the last two conferences were held in previous years). Of course, I have to include the customary mention of the mammoth Powell's Bookstore, but by the time I made it there at the end of the conference, the impressively-large linguistics section had already been pretty picked over, and there are only so many hours (and, more restrictively, dollars!) one can spend in the cooking section, so instead, we ate our way through the city once all of our official business was through. (Also, thank you all for your suggestions via Twitter and blog comments and email on where to visit and eat in Portland! :D)

[pictured top to bottom: Thai Peacock's tofu tom yum soup, Stumptown coffee, Salt&Straw's ice cream tasting]

My favorite, favorite, favorite thing we had in Portland was the tofu and vegetable tom yum soup at Thai Peacock, a few blocks away from Powell's. Seriously, you guys, this version of the soup was the best I've ever tasted: rich, spicy, delightfully sour, a bit sweet from the stewed tomatoes and vegetables, and all around, incredibly soul-warming. It was so good that I went twice in two days, and seriously considered trying to take a thermos of it home with me (darn TSA security restrictions!). Other stand-out favorites that we tried were the fabulous Salt & Straw ice cream (recommended by many of you, so thank you!), with their inventive and perfectly creamy flavors (particularly, the sea salt ice cream with caramel--yes, the ice cream base is sea salt flavored!--and the lemon-basil sorbet); freshly-made and fantastic Japanese curry from Kalé (not heavy like you normally think of Japanese curry, but light and oh-so-spicy and flavorful!); and the adorable Little Bird Bistro, on the recommendation of Language of Food writer, where we ordered a plethora of small French plates to share, including butternut squash+parsnip+apple soup and beet tart. We even managed to spend one night at the cozy Living Room Theater, watching Melancholia, and feeling oh-so-hipster amongst the cool, twenty-something crowd that populated the place.

Here's a list of where we ate--all wonderful.

Kalé - so good I'd like to beg the owner to open a branch in the Bay Area.

Little Bird - the bread served here comes with local butter, salted with crunchy Maldon salt. 'Nuff said!

Rogue Brewery - they have homemade root beer! (which I'll take over beer any day. :))

Salt & Straw - dare I say it's better than some of the gourmet ice cream places I've had in the Bay!

St. Honore Boulangerie - the Normandy apple tart. Try it.

Stumptown Coffee - though I maintain allegiance to Philz here in SF

Thai Peacock - the tom yum soup: you won't regret it.

Voodoo Donuts - to my surprise, I particularly liked the Butterfingers doughnut/donut

Wildwood - wonderful, wonderful food. The garlicky butter of the mussels is perfect with the crusty toast it comes with, the caesar salad is inventive and novel, and the lobster risotto was exactly what a risotto should be.

One of the marks of a fantastic food experience is that it should inspire you, and my visit to Portland most definitely did. Over the following few days, my friends and I recreated at home some of our favorite dishes that we had had in Oregon: butternut squash, parnsip, and apple soup; crunchy, Maldon salt-flecked butter; and this beet tart with blue cheese and goat cheese and frisee salad.

Before having a version of this tart at Little Bird Bistro, I seriously never thought I would like a beet tart. Beets have just never been a vegetable I voluntarily run to, even though I've had very good beets before in my life (also very bad ones, like the canned beets my parents would insist on putting in our salads when I was growing up, which probably contributed to my aversion). But, for whatever reason, the beet tart looked really good on the bistro's menu, and when I had my first bite of it, it was even better than the menu's description. I think what really did it for me with this tart was how the saltiness of the blue and goat cheeses balanced out the sweet juiciness of the al dente roasted beets, with the buttery, flakey crust and the slightly bitter and acidic frisee on top. It's something I would never dream up on my own, but once I did have it, I had to have more!

One last thing, though not food related: right around my Portland visit, I managed to watch all of Portlandia. I had a few Portlandia moments while I was there (e.g., waiters volunteering detailed information on the origins of the food; little birds everywhere), so watching the show made for was a very hilarious representation of my own experience. I would highly suggest it, in addition to this beet tart. :)

Read on for recipes....

Beet Tart
inspired by Little Bird Bistro
makes one 9x9 tart

6 large beets, peeled
olive oil
8 - 10 sprigs of fresh thyme
salt
pepper
1 sheet of puff pastry (enough to make a 10x10-inch square)
30 - 40 gr goat cheese
10 gr blue cheese
frisee
freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare two baking sheets: line one with foil and the other with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. Slice the peeled beets into thick slices, about 1/2-inch thick. Lightly coat the sliced beets with olive oil, and toss with fresh thyme leaves and a bit of salt and pepper.
3. Lay the beet slices out on the foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.
4. Meanwhile, roll out the puff pastry into a 10 x 10-inch square, or a comparably sized rectangle. Transfer to the baking sheet lined with parchment (or silpat).
5. Arrange the beet slices on the puff pastry, leaving about an inch or two along each side. Roll the puff pastry edges up to create a free-form crust, pinching the corners.
6. Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for 25-30 more minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the beets are fork tender. Remove from oven and let cool briefly.
7. Mix the goat cheese and blue cheese together with a fork, and crumble over the beet tart.
8. Toss the frisee with lemon juice, olive oil, and a pinch of salt to coat, and serve over the tart.

Enjoy!