kitchenmage

Wordless Wednesday: Nutella Swirl Ice Cream

2009-07-08T02:25:48-07:00

Look what we can do! Cupcake kebabs.

2009-06-21T19:22:22-07:00

inspiration from Nibbles by Nora, seen on Cupcakes Take the Cake and Serious Eats.

Inspired by those cupcake kebabs that have been making the rounds, theKid and I put together our own version for a Solstice party yesterday. theKid did the heavy lifting, baking about 250 mini-cupcakes from five different recipes, each with its own frosting. More amazing, she got just the right amount of frosting for each type of cupcake.This impressed me at least as much as doing all the baking.

The cupcakes were:

Matcha cupcakes with matcha frosting
Chai chocolate chip cupcakes with chai frosting
Key lime cupcakes with lime coconut frosting
Chocolate cupcakes with dark, dark chocolate frosting
Vanilla bean cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting

I contributed mango ginger marshmallows, which we dipped in chocolate and huge strawberries to make these adorable cupkebabs, or as someone last dubbed them, the sweet sticks of doom.

btw, theKid has promised me recipes soon, I'll definitely get them linked in as soon as she posts them.

Food that squicks out other people

2009-05-13T15:31:29-07:00

When theKid was a young'un, she had a signature omelet: hot dog, grape jelly, and sharp cheddar.The precise genesis of this creation is lost to time, but it was surely her own concoction - the specific combination has remained unappealing for nigh on a quarter-century now. More than that, perhaps, is the ongoing joke of my horror at the mere idea of the thing. (But if I liked it where would the fun be in that?)

I was reminded of theKid's omelet today when I was at Shakesville, a feminist site with a side of food, where they asked people:

What's a food you love that horrifies most other people?

The thread is a hoot, although I found at least a couple of things I love on the list. Those rolls of pastrami/cream cheese/pickle, my grandmother used to make those for me when I visited. (Is it a Jewish thing?) Other choices, say, turkey skin that is "nice and soft and fatty and moist" just make me cringe. Which is, I suppose the point of the list.

The entire list is here.

For balance, What is your idea of the perfect meal? Oddly, this has less than a hundred comments while the other is creeping towards 200.

Even odder, I can't come up with food that I eat that horrifies other people. This probably says more about the people I hang out with than me, but still...

How about you? What do you love that squicks other folks out?

Pomegranate Limoncello Sorbet Recipe

2009-04-28T11:45:21-07:00

Some recipes deserve a long and lovely introduction, drawing you into a warm and inviting kitchen to join with the happy people there. This is not one of those recipes.

This recipe was concocted as I stood in the kitchen on an unseasonably hot April day, staring at a case of Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice. (Thanks, Pom people!) While some juices taste like overly sweetened shadows of their source fruit, pomegranate juice is tangy, with the pure and unmistakable taste of...well, pomegranates. All I needed to do was sweeten the juice a tiny bit and add a smidge of lemon to brighten the flavor. Poof! Like magic, Pomegranate Limoncello Sorbet was created.

Simple Syrup
Simple syrup is a pantry standby for many cooks, offering a way to add sweetness to uncooked dishes or drinks without graininess of undissolved sugar. To make simple syrup, combine equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Cool and store, pretty much eternally, in the refrigerator. I keep a bottle handy, replenishing it when I run out.
Bonus for bird lovers: Refill hummingbird feeders with a mix of one part simple syrup to three parts water. You can add a drop of red food coloring if you like, although hummers quickly learn where to come for their food without added color.

This is barely even a recipe, more of a general formula (some might call it a ratio) with instructions to trust your tastebuds. If you keep simple syrup on hand, and you should, it takes less than five minutes to make the sorbet base. Another minute or so to start the freezing process and you've got almost instant sorbet. (Maybe I should call this something trendy like No-cook Artisan Sorbet in Five Minutes.)

Pomegranate Limoncello Sorbet

Pour 3 cups of pomegranate juice into a pitcher. Add about 1/4 cup simple syrup, stir and taste.
Add more juice and/or simple syrup until the mixture is not quite as sweet as you want it.
Chill for at least 3-4 hours, but preferably overnight.
Just before freezing, stir in 1-2 tablespoons of limoncello. (No more or it won't freeze correctly.) Stir, taste and make final adjustments.
Pour mixture into ice cream machine and freeze. When it is done, serve immediately or scrape into a container and freeze.

You can use this formula for just about any juice-based sorbet, adjusting the amount of simple syrup to taste and maybe swapping around the booze. As for me, I am sticking with pomegranate for the moment. At least until the blueberries in my freezer start calling my name a wee bit louder.

Best use of flatbread in a musical number

2009-04-22T17:06:52-07:00

The music selection is awesome and if you can't tell from the still shot above, the video is NOT safe for work.(direct link in case the embed does not work for you)

2009 Puget Sound Farm Guide available

2009-04-21T16:21:49-07:00

One of the surest signs of spring is the emergence of the farmers markets. In western Washington, this special season is marked by the annual Puget Sound Farm Guide, published by Cascade Harvest Coalition.

The 36-page guide has resources and tools to help consumers shop smart, fresh and local at more than 160 farms and farmers markets, plus farm stands, farms, u-picks, and CSAs. The guide covers the 12 counties that touch Puget Sound: Clallam, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Island, Mason, Pierce, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, and Whatcom.

Download a copy of the 2009 Puget Sound Farm Guide at Puget Sound Fresh or pick one up at Seattle area YMCAs, most libraries (including King County, Seattle and other regional libraries), county conservation districts, farmers markets, farm stands, farms and community celebrations throughout the Puget Sound region.

Lemon mousse recipe

2009-04-08T08:00:20-07:00

To my peculiar form of synesthesia, spring is yellow. The world around me seems to agree, covering itself in daffodils of hues from palest cream to cartoon-sun yellow to bright tangerine, with clumps of golden forsythia and swaths of chartreuse spring grass. Purple will be along soon, in a week or so when the chives start to bloom, but for now the garden tends toward the golden.

While the world turns to yellow outside, the fruit selection here on the 46th parallel tends toward the remnants of winter, somewhat yellowish in its own right: the ubiquitous banana, an apple or two (Note to the folks selling Red Delicious apples in April - they don't store well. Really.), and lots of citrus.

Sadly, the strawberries trucked 1000 miles look good from a distance but a closer inspection of their plastic cage reveals half-ripened berries with a distinct lack of aroma. And mold. My editor calls it zombie fruit because it looks like fruit, but has no soul.

So it's back to the citrus. Lemons, in fact. Because lemons are yellow and taste like spring. Only sunnier.

This recipe comes from Ray's Boathouse, one of Seattle's longtime beloved waterfront seafood restaurants. Ray's is the kind of place you take your parents when they come to town. The view is lovely, the seafood is fresh and well-prepared, and the service is excellent. When I lived in the area, it was one of my indulgences.

Once, on a unseasonably warm spring day, I had this lemon mousse at Ray's. It was light and tart and not too sweet. Spring in a dessert bowl. Much later, the recipe turned up in Northwest Best Places Cookbook (vol 2) - it is also in Ray's Boathouse Cookbook These two events are separated by what seems like an unreasonably long time for them to be using the same recipe, so maybe I am misremembering that day at Ray's. All I know is when I open the book to this recipe, I feel the first warm spring breeze and see a field of yellow flowers. Who am I to argue with spring?

Lemon Mousse

serves about 6, well maybe 4...

1/4 cup melted butter, cooled
3 eggs
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

1 cup cream
2 tbsp lemon zest (and extra for garnish)

Double boilers
A double-boiler is essentially a saucepan with a bowl that fits partially into it. This allows you to cook foods over, but not in, boiling water, which is particularly useful with foods like eggs that become scrambled eggs, not custard, when cooked too quickly.

If you don't have a double boiler, find a metal bowl or smaller pan, that fits about halfway into a tall saucepan. To use, fill the bottom of the double boiler with water, but not so much that the bowl touches it. (You can test this by putting the bowl it into the filled saucepan. If the bowl bottom is wet when you remove it, there is too much water in the pan.)

Melt butter and set aside to cool.
Place the bowl of a double boiler on a folded towel on the counter so it doesn't slip. Whisk the lemon juice and sugar together in the top of the double boiler.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating briefly to incorporate each egg before adding the next.
Drizzle in the butter while continuing to whisk.
Cook over (not in) simmering water, 8-10 min until pudding-like. Your finger will leave a clear trail in the curd that coats a wooden spoon. Pour into a bowl through a sieve. Cover tightly and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate if not using immediately. Lemon curd will keep for 4-6 weeks in the refrigerator. (Unless you know it's there, then I give it 3-4 days max.)
Once the curd is cooled, whipthe cream to firm peaks. Gently fold the cream and zest into the curd, one third at a time, until no streaks remain. Spoon into individual dishes and chill for at least an hour.
Just before serving, garnish with curls of lemon zest.

Thin ginger cookies are a perfect accompaniment and allow you to make Lemon Ginger Sandwich Cookies.