Caramelized pear cake
This one came from Epicurious--I'm definitely making it again!!! It is SO good. Though, I thought I'd cheat and use a springform pan. Evidently, my springform pan leaks so I created quite the smoke sensation... but it still tastes good. If you go to the epicurious link, I agree with the reviewer who says it's possible to make in a regular cake pan if it's high enough. I had to make a few changes due to what I had on hand (e.g., I used 1.5 teaspoons ground ginger since I didn't have the crystallized stuff and lemon zest in lieu of orange zest). However, I'd stick with the original recipe if possible...or add way more than 1.5t ground ginger. And that darn old small oven of ours keeps cooking things in way under the time suggested. I probably only had it in the oven for 20 minutes... Most reviewers didn't seem to complain about the timing so I have a sense it has to do with our dinky oven given other recent baking mishaps...
Caramelized pear cake Bon Appétit | September 2000
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream is perfect with this upside-down cake from the Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco.
Makes 8 servings.
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 1/4 pounds Bosc pears, peeled, quartered, cored
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
1 cup grated peeled Bosc pears (about 2 medium)
preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F. Melt butter in heavy 10-inch-diameter ovenproof skillet over low heat. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Arrange quartered pears in flower design atop sugar, cutting some pieces to fit center if necessary.
Whisk flour, 2/3 cup sugar, crystallized ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, ground ginger and salt in medium bowl to blend. Whisk eggs, oil, vanilla and orange peel in large bowl to blend. Mix in grated pears. Mix dry ingredients into egg mixture.
Carefully pour batter over pears in skillet. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cake in skillet on rack 20 minutes. Run knife around skillet sides to loosen. Place plate on skillet over cake. Invert cake onto plate. Serve warm.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Millet Yam Cakes, Quinoa Cakes, and Chicago
I was looking for a healthy snack at Whole Foods the other day and ended up getting these yummy little gems. Like any good snoop, I took note of the ingredients list and will be trying to replicate the gems in the home kitchen some time soon. If anyone has real recipes for making these treats, please pass along :)
Ingredients:
millet yam cakes:
millet, sweet potatoes, onions, leeks, tamari, oil
quinoia cakes:
quinoa, spinach, carrots, zucchini, "vegetable base--onions tomatoes potatoes carrots celery) salt yeast extract corn starch, onion powder, sugar,lemon juice, garlic, oil pepper
In other news, Chicago was very very cold, but enjoyable. The concept of snow in March now eludes me and you'd never know I was from Boston. We had a lot of good food in Chicago and a lot of it was quite reasonably priced. It's amazing what you get used to paying in Miami!
Heaven on 7 for lunch/brunch--R got the oyster po boy [sandwich with fried oysters and lettuce and other stuff in it] and I got cheese grits and cajun shrimp. It was a fun place with bottles of hot sauce lining the walls. I'm not quite accustomed to the way things are packed in Chicago and therefore, how common it is for things to happen above the ground floor. The restaurant was on the seventh floor. Passing by the building, you'd never really suspect that there'd be a full blown restaurant upstairs. It felt like I constantly had to look upwards in the streets to see what other stores and businesses I was missing--shoe repair places, clothing stores, hair salons all on upper levels. It reminded me a bit of Shanghai in the way you could find restaurants on the 35th floor of some otherwise normal tall building.
Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza--I'm realizing that I might not like real deep dish pizza, having been trained on Uno's and Pizza Hut... I'm so accustomed to equating deep dish with grease fest that it was a bit disappointing that the pizza here wasn't greasy. Everyone else liked it and I assume I just have very unsophisticated tastes in deep dish... I guess it's the quivalent of people liking crab rangoons at Americanized Chinese restaurants.
Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba for tapas--we went here a few years ago for ABCT but I loved it so much, I wanted to come again. We sat at the bar since the place was packed... We got shrimp in garlic sauce, manchego and spinach stuffed mushrooms, a cheese plate, and seared scallops with couscous. After 10, tapas were $3 and we ordered a grilled calamari and potatos bravas... After reading some NYTimes article, I've started ordering potato bravas at every tapas restaurant I go to... True to the article, everyone does seem to make it differently. The Ba Ba Reeba version was delicious. It was such a super yummy restaurant. There's no question that I'd go...again.
Corner Bakery Cafe--The desserts are quite yummy. There really aren't enough bakeries in Miami!
Vong's Thai Kitchen--this place was delicious in that fushiony Thai kind of way. They operated as a fancier restaurant in terms of service and deco etc. but they were normally priced. Well, at least normally priced compared to Miami Thai food :). They didn't have space for us until 9pm but it was well worth the wait. Instead of bread, they started us off with a shredded daikon salad which tastes a lot like the ones my grandmother makes. Then we had the tuna sashimi roll--it was alright. I'd be curious to try a different appetizer in the future. I had the penang curry shrimp noodles--a dish with slightly fried and crispy fat rice noodles. The combination of flavors was amazing. R got the red curry pad thai--the flavor was wonderful as well. In both dishes, the ingredients came together perfectly. Each bite was a trip to happy town. Unfortunately, I was so full, that I missed out on the dessert that I had been looking forward to...next trip, I start with dessert! :p
Bistro 110--brunch. This was near the Waterworks and I'd definitely go back in a heartbeat. They start you off with a plate with a huge roasted garlic and fresh bread. I'm a sucker for roasted garlic on bread so I was smitten before I even ordered. I had the Louisiana Eggs which were very good. R's cousin-in-law had the croissant French Toast which also looked heavenly. I'd debated heavily between the two choices. Next trip, I'll try to toast! :) Unless it's fall, in which case his cousin in law says they serve pumpkin soup served in mini pumpkins. Now who wouldn't go for that?
duds:
Billy Goat Tavern. Granted, we first tried going to one under a street bridge late at night so it was completely empty. And then we walked to Timbuktu, well, technically, just another one which turned out to be closed.
Hancock Tower. We went to the 96th Floor to get a drink. After twenty minutes of waiting in line, getting shoved around by the hostess and host, treated rudely by then, and having others seated before us, and dealing with their general bitchiness and sneering, we decided to leave the damn line. Which was probably their goal but honestly, I can pay $12 for a drink in Miami with better service.
Ingredients:
millet yam cakes:
millet, sweet potatoes, onions, leeks, tamari, oil
quinoia cakes:
quinoa, spinach, carrots, zucchini, "vegetable base--onions tomatoes potatoes carrots celery) salt yeast extract corn starch, onion powder, sugar,lemon juice, garlic, oil pepper
In other news, Chicago was very very cold, but enjoyable. The concept of snow in March now eludes me and you'd never know I was from Boston. We had a lot of good food in Chicago and a lot of it was quite reasonably priced. It's amazing what you get used to paying in Miami!
Heaven on 7 for lunch/brunch--R got the oyster po boy [sandwich with fried oysters and lettuce and other stuff in it] and I got cheese grits and cajun shrimp. It was a fun place with bottles of hot sauce lining the walls. I'm not quite accustomed to the way things are packed in Chicago and therefore, how common it is for things to happen above the ground floor. The restaurant was on the seventh floor. Passing by the building, you'd never really suspect that there'd be a full blown restaurant upstairs. It felt like I constantly had to look upwards in the streets to see what other stores and businesses I was missing--shoe repair places, clothing stores, hair salons all on upper levels. It reminded me a bit of Shanghai in the way you could find restaurants on the 35th floor of some otherwise normal tall building.
Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza--I'm realizing that I might not like real deep dish pizza, having been trained on Uno's and Pizza Hut... I'm so accustomed to equating deep dish with grease fest that it was a bit disappointing that the pizza here wasn't greasy. Everyone else liked it and I assume I just have very unsophisticated tastes in deep dish... I guess it's the quivalent of people liking crab rangoons at Americanized Chinese restaurants.
Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba for tapas--we went here a few years ago for ABCT but I loved it so much, I wanted to come again. We sat at the bar since the place was packed... We got shrimp in garlic sauce, manchego and spinach stuffed mushrooms, a cheese plate, and seared scallops with couscous. After 10, tapas were $3 and we ordered a grilled calamari and potatos bravas... After reading some NYTimes article, I've started ordering potato bravas at every tapas restaurant I go to... True to the article, everyone does seem to make it differently. The Ba Ba Reeba version was delicious. It was such a super yummy restaurant. There's no question that I'd go...again.
Corner Bakery Cafe--The desserts are quite yummy. There really aren't enough bakeries in Miami!
Vong's Thai Kitchen--this place was delicious in that fushiony Thai kind of way. They operated as a fancier restaurant in terms of service and deco etc. but they were normally priced. Well, at least normally priced compared to Miami Thai food :). They didn't have space for us until 9pm but it was well worth the wait. Instead of bread, they started us off with a shredded daikon salad which tastes a lot like the ones my grandmother makes. Then we had the tuna sashimi roll--it was alright. I'd be curious to try a different appetizer in the future. I had the penang curry shrimp noodles--a dish with slightly fried and crispy fat rice noodles. The combination of flavors was amazing. R got the red curry pad thai--the flavor was wonderful as well. In both dishes, the ingredients came together perfectly. Each bite was a trip to happy town. Unfortunately, I was so full, that I missed out on the dessert that I had been looking forward to...next trip, I start with dessert! :p
Bistro 110--brunch. This was near the Waterworks and I'd definitely go back in a heartbeat. They start you off with a plate with a huge roasted garlic and fresh bread. I'm a sucker for roasted garlic on bread so I was smitten before I even ordered. I had the Louisiana Eggs which were very good. R's cousin-in-law had the croissant French Toast which also looked heavenly. I'd debated heavily between the two choices. Next trip, I'll try to toast! :) Unless it's fall, in which case his cousin in law says they serve pumpkin soup served in mini pumpkins. Now who wouldn't go for that?
duds:
Billy Goat Tavern. Granted, we first tried going to one under a street bridge late at night so it was completely empty. And then we walked to Timbuktu, well, technically, just another one which turned out to be closed.
Hancock Tower. We went to the 96th Floor to get a drink. After twenty minutes of waiting in line, getting shoved around by the hostess and host, treated rudely by then, and having others seated before us, and dealing with their general bitchiness and sneering, we decided to leave the damn line. Which was probably their goal but honestly, I can pay $12 for a drink in Miami with better service.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Ha...and every good cooking or baking spell must be broken.
I made carrot cake the other night. Well, I started to and midway through, after the eggs had been added and carrots shredded, I realized that I was out of brown sugar and a cup short of flour and half a cup short on shredded coconut. Normally, this would not pose a problem--quick run to the store, a zip and a zap and voila, right? Well, right, except that I was going to book club...so I covered the pyrex bowls, stuck 'em in the frige, and by the time book club ended, my stomach was full, my brain on white wine, I forgot just what I'd been missing for my cake, minus that they were crucial ingredients. Well, I managed to pick up another bag of king arthur flour and coconut and proceeded with my cake... except, couldn't quite remember where in that lovely recipe I'd left off. I added the flour and coconut and proceeded to stir the wet and dry, and bake the cake.
It smelled good. I was getting excited. And then I ill-fatedly ate a slice and realized that I'd forgotten the sugar.
Let me just say that carrot cake, without sugar, just isn't as good. I tried making a coconut milk syrup, poking holes, and infusing the cake with syrup but... brown sugar that's been baked in is NOT equal to white sugar added after baking, even if mixed with coconut milk.
Lesson learned: I have no executive functioning and would desperately fail any tower of london task.
I'm going to Chicago tomorrow. I'm excited about the eating...
I made carrot cake the other night. Well, I started to and midway through, after the eggs had been added and carrots shredded, I realized that I was out of brown sugar and a cup short of flour and half a cup short on shredded coconut. Normally, this would not pose a problem--quick run to the store, a zip and a zap and voila, right? Well, right, except that I was going to book club...so I covered the pyrex bowls, stuck 'em in the frige, and by the time book club ended, my stomach was full, my brain on white wine, I forgot just what I'd been missing for my cake, minus that they were crucial ingredients. Well, I managed to pick up another bag of king arthur flour and coconut and proceeded with my cake... except, couldn't quite remember where in that lovely recipe I'd left off. I added the flour and coconut and proceeded to stir the wet and dry, and bake the cake.
It smelled good. I was getting excited. And then I ill-fatedly ate a slice and realized that I'd forgotten the sugar.
Let me just say that carrot cake, without sugar, just isn't as good. I tried making a coconut milk syrup, poking holes, and infusing the cake with syrup but... brown sugar that's been baked in is NOT equal to white sugar added after baking, even if mixed with coconut milk.
Lesson learned: I have no executive functioning and would desperately fail any tower of london task.
I'm going to Chicago tomorrow. I'm excited about the eating...
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